Statement by President Connolly on International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
Date: Tue 25th Nov, 2025 | 15:00
“Today, the 25th of November, is an important date as we mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. It is a day that calls on each of us, individually and collectively, to confront the ongoing and painful reality of gender-based violence in our society and across the world.
UN Women has reported that globally 83,000 women and girls were intentionally killed in 2024 worldwide. Every day 137 women and girls are killed by an intimate partner or other members of their family. In Ireland, data from Women’s Aid report that 277 women have died violently between 1996 and the present day, while more than one-in-three women in Ireland have experienced psychological, physical and/or sexual abuse from an intimate partner.
These are all deeply shocking statistics that demonstrate the distance still to travel with regard to the elimination of gender--based violence.
We must continue to use every means at our disposal, our laws, our education systems, our community structures, our voices, to prevent gender-based violence, to expose it wherever it occurs, to challenge the attitudes and behaviours that enable it, and to redress the profound harm that it inflicts on far too many women and children.
Today, as we mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, let us reaffirm the principles that must guide us, those of equality, dignity, and solidarity, as we all strive to construct a world where every woman and girl can live their lives safely, freely, and without fear.”