Feb 09 - Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians Conference “A Resounding Success”
This weekend, women Parliamentarians from across the Commonwealth gathered in Gibraltar to share knowledge and experience on the role of Parliamentarians in ending violence against women and girls at a conference hosted by the Gibraltar Parliament.
Samantha Sacramento, Minister for Tourism, Equality, Social Services and Housing, and member of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians Steering Committee, formally opened the conference on Saturday morning, kicking off a full day of detailed panel discussions.
Baroness Scotland of Asthal QC, former Attorney General of England and Wales, spoke of her experience of reducing rates of gender based violence in the UK during the session on the economics of violence against women, chaired by Minister Sacramento.
Other sessions included the sharing of police prevention strategies and how governments can work together with the relevant authorities and non-governmental organisations to prevent and protect against violence towards women and girls, including on social media. Local speakers Natalie Tavares, Head of Children’s Services at Social Services, and Claire Borrell MBE, founder of Women in Need and manager of the Halfway House facilities, gave their own insights from their work in Gibraltar and how their experiences may be applied to other legislatures.
The lunchtime Rock Tour organised by the Ministry for Tourism provided delegates with an overview of Gibraltar and enabled Parliamentarians from across the Commonwealth who have demonstrated support for Gibraltar in the past to better understand the ongoing situation with Spain.
Delegates are now considering how they can best work together to take what they have learned forward and implement an action plan for the future.
Minister Sacramento has described the conference as “a resounding success.”
She added: “Meeting with fellow women Parliamentarians was an invaluable opportunity to learn from best-practice and take away some important insights on how we can most effectively work to eradicate violence against women and girls. The lessons learned will be applied to the domestic abuse strategy we are currently in the process of developing.”
