SOUTH Belfast and Mid Down MP Claire Hanna has raised the deepening crisis of violence against women and girls in the House of Commons.
Over the past eight years, 42 females have been killed across the North of Ireland.
The victims were aged between 23 months and 83 years old and in all but one of the cases the perpetrator or the chief suspect was male.
Earlier this month 22-year-old Mary Ward was found dead in her South Belfast home.
LATEST VICTIM: Mary Ward was murdered in South Belfast earlier this month
She was the fourth woman to be murdered in the North over a six-week period.
Ms Hanna told the House: “Violence against women and girls demands an immediate and deep response.
We need to think deeply about the society and culture we have created which sees a NI femicide rate twice that of Britain.
— Claire Hanna (@ClaireHanna) October 23, 2024
Preventable deaths of women who had valuable lives & who deserved safety. Raised with NIO in support of cross governmental action on violence against women pic.twitter.com/NkH7ZtGYpy
"Recent murders of women have contributed to a femicide rate twice as high as Britain.
"We need to think very deeply about the society and culture that is manifesting in this way.
"Those damning statistics should give us all pause, but behind them are 42 people who had their own hopes and dreams, before their lives were so cruelly taken from them.
“The Executive strategy was overdue and very welcome and clarity is needed about its funding.
"This is an issue that demands a cross governmental response, with discussion and behavioural change and in all parts of society, urgently."
