Donatella Porzi, Renew Europe CoR’s rapporteur on the upcoming report “Stopping gender-based violence – Cities and regions leading the way”, argues local and regional authorities need the right tools to be a part of the solution to end gender-based violence. 

Porzi identified the core components of a successful strategy as prevention, education for long-term societal change and, in case these fail, immediate protection for victims. 

“Local and regional authorities can be a part of the solution in stopping gender-based violence. But they need the right tools: clear data, as the collection is not homogeneous in all countries and often even within the same territory; concrete measures to create safe offline and online public spaces; and long term, educational measures that create social change,” said Porzi. 

“I want the European Committee of the Regions to raise cities and regions’ voices, because when it comes to ending gender-based violence, we can really make a meaningful difference and change.” 

Gender-based violence is still widespread in Europe. One woman out of three has experienced physical or sexual violence at least once during their adult life, one out of five has been sexually harassed online, one out of five has been stalked, one in twenty has been raped and more than one in ten has suffered sexual violence without consent and/or with force. 

Débat autour du rapport de ma collègue @donatellaporzi sur la lutte contre les violences de genre.

Les collectivités une responsabilité majeure dans cette politique publique alors que, derrière le terme genre, ce sont bien souvent des femmes et leurs enfants qui en sont victimes pic.twitter.com/03VijJbjvd

— Anne Rudisuhli (@AnneRudisuhli) October 2, 2023