The Impact of Paramilitary-related Gendered Coercive Control, NI Human Rights Festival

As part of the NI Human Rights Festival 2024, , the John and Pat Hume Foundation, with the support of Ulster University, hosted an event to discuss The Impact of Paramilitary-related Gendered Coercive Control on Tuesday 3 December 2024 6:30PM – 8:00PM in Ulster University Belfast, York Street, Belfast, BT15 1ED

Speakers included: Máiria Cahill, writer, Aisling Swaine, Professor of Peace, Security and International Law at Sutherland School of Law, University College Dublin, and Marie Brown, CEO of Foyle Women’s Aid and Foyle Family Justice Centre.

Dawn Purvis, Vice Chair of the John and Pat Hume Foundation said: “26 years after the Good Friday Agreement, it is outrageous that there is still criminal paramilitary organisations which threaten, instil fear and continue to exert control over women in many communities across NI. As John Hume said, ‘The basis of peace and stability, in any society, has to be the fullest respect for the human rights of all its people.’”

Marie Brown, from Foyle’s Women Aid and Foyle Family Justice Centre said: “This report highlights the experiences of violence many women suffer within their relationships and is intensified by the layers of paramilitary coercive control that occurs at community level.  It is vitally important to take away an understanding of what is really happening to women in these communities and the level of threat they are under, from everywhere.”

The Foyle’s Women Aid and Foyle Family Justice Centre commissioned research to explore women’s experiences of today’s paramilitarism. See the full report here.