Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-02-01-Speech-3-171"
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"en.20060201.17.3-171"2
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"Mr President, I wish to take this opportunity to thank the rapporteur for the fact that we have been able to debate this incredibly important issue in the EU this evening. As well as being a criminal act and a violation of human rights, men’s violence against women is a serious socio-political problem throughout the world. We in the Socialist Group in the European Parliament believe that men’s violence against women is linked to the unequal power relations between men and women, and the problem will increase if the Member States do not use legislation in order strongly and clearly to oppose such violence.
Men’s violence against women naturally has considerable social and human consequences. I always maintain that, behind every woman who is beaten, there are, more often than not, a number of children who, in addition to undergoing considerable physical and psychological suffering, believe that this is the way things have to be, a view that, in the long term, may lead to their adopting the same behaviour themselves when they grow up. We have to break this vicious circle. We often also forget the children in these contexts. It is important that children who see their mothers beaten should also be regarded as victims and be entitled to have their cases heard in court.
It has also been demonstrated that violence against women is an important factor in the lives of women and girls who fall victim to human trafficking and prostitution. I would also take this opportunity to point out that we should combat the attitude that prostitution is comparable with the exercise of a profession. This form of violence and serious violation of human beings is absolutely unacceptable. Prostitution and human trafficking and all forms of violence towards women, including genital mutilation and violence related to notions of honour, fall into the same category. The EU must set a good example and take a stand on combating these expressions of discrimination between the sexes and of the unequal distribution of power between them. It is also important to do some preventative work in the form of research, information provision and the exchange of knowledge between the Member States. More often than not, the focus is, quite naturally, on the victims, but there is also a need for active preventative strategies aimed at the perpetrators of violence and at those in danger of becoming perpetrators.
Finally, I just want briefly to mention one of my own amendments dealing with the relationship between alcohol and violence. Alcohol is often a factor in acts of violence, and it is important that pleas relating to intoxication as an extenuating circumstance not be accepted by the courts where men’s violence towards women is concerned. When strategies for reducing alcohol-related harm in society are reviewed, account must definitely be taken, however, of the effect that alcohol has in triggering men’s violence against women."@en1
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