On April 28 2016, a delegation from Men’s Voices Ireland met with Cosc, the national office for the prevention of domestic violence.
Subjects discussed at the meeting included:
- Domestic violence against men
- The Second National Strategy 2016-2021, launched by the government in January, 2016
- The planned new bill on Domestic Violence, and
- The Istanbul Convention.
The Second National Strategy and the new proposed domestic violence legislation are very far from the interests of men and have been overly influenced by other groups with no input from men. They are stepping stones on the way to implement the Istanbul Convention, which is the main aim of these groups.
We were also told that the National Steering Committee for the prevention of violence against men has been wound up. This was a joke anyway since it consisted of just two members, Cosc and Amen, and was simply window dressing. On the other hand, the parallel committee for violence against women has more than 20 members including at least five state agencies.