In a message on the occasion of International Women’s Day 2014, which is celebrated on Saturday, the 9th of March, Minister for Social Dialogue, Consumer Affairs and Civil Liberties, Dr Helena Dalli, said that the Government is committed to continue building the necessary structures so that the country can make use of women’s full potential.

She said that the Government is strengthening family-friendly measures for employees in the public sector. Dr Dalli said that working parents, as well as those in full-time education, will benefit from free childcare services. “The Government will also be providing educational programmes before school starts and will continue to strengthen the existing after-school programmes.”

Dr Dalli said that as a society we still have to address major challenges that exist, among them, violence against women. She said that violence against women is present in all levels of society and in some cases is directly linked to poverty especially where women are not economically independent.

The Minister said that this week she took part in the launching of the results of an EU-wide survey on violence against women, organised by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA). The qualitative study was carried out among 42,000 women across the EU. The results show that gender-based violence disproportionately affects women in all member states.

1,500 Maltese women were interviewed and almost one in every four said they experienced some form of violence in their adulthood.

Minister Dalli said that equality cannot be fully achieved unless we acknowledge the fact that violence intersects with other sources of inequality.

She said that this is also in line with the official theme of the United Nations for International Women’s Day 2014: Equality for Women is Progress for All.

The Minister said that action on violence against women continues every day. Violence is about power and control and thus policies to combat this scourge of society need to focus primarily on the constant effort to reduce the levels of inequality in our society.

Dr Dalli said that last Wednesday, the Government presented the first reading of the Bill to ratify the Istanbul Convention, to which Malta is already a signatory. The Convention classifies violence against women as a violation of human rights and a form of discrimination.

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