Naomi Long: Executive 'must act on violence against women'

Naomi Long said she believed the Executive Office should be involved in introducing a specific plan to tackle violence against women and girls

Justice Minister Naomi Long has said she hopes to put a paper to next week's executive meeting on a strategy to protect women and girls in Northern Ireland from violence.

She said: "There isn't an overarching strategy in terms of violence against women and girls."

Earlier in March, the charity Women's Aid began its campaign for such a strategy to be introduced.

Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK without a specific strategy.

"What we need to do at executive... is to have a strategy that encompasses education, health communities, and others," Mrs Long told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme.

"These are serious issues - I think that we need to take it seriously."

She said the Executive Office should take the lead as it could ensure the strategy is properly funded, resourced and directed.

Legislation

Mrs Long said that during her time as justice minister her party - the Alliance Party - had put forward a number of related pieces of legislation.

She added that legislation would be brought forward to deal with upskirting, which is a specific offence elsewhere the UK but not in Northern Ireland, although that would not happen until May.

Upskirting is the act of taking photographs underneath a victim's clothing without their permission.

Mrs Long said the bill was "much more complex than simply upskirting or down-blousing" and that it "is to cover a whole range of serious sexual offences and a few other justice issues".

The Domestic Abuse and Family Proceedings Bill was given royal assent this month.

The long-awaited piece of legislation means domestic abuse offences in Northern Ireland will no longer be limited to physically-violent behaviour.

'Consultation is needed'

Women's Aid said it was "happy" with Mrs Long's comments but added that an "open, transparent conversation and discussion about what needs to be in the strategy" was needed.

"There needs to be consultation and Women's Aid need to be around that table and they need to listen to the voices of women and girls to provide direction and meet their needs within a strategy," the charity said.

Tegan Nesbitt began campaigning on the issue of upskirting after she was a victim of it last year

'Law change is taking too long'

Londonderry teenager Tegan Nesbitt says proposals to make upskirting a criminal offence in Northern Ireland are not moving forward fast enough.

The 18-year-old, who was targeted in a bar in the city last year, says Stormont's Department of Justice "needs to listen and needs to listen now".

Tegan had been on a night out with friends when she "felt that somebody had pulled my skirt up".

"I didn't know at the time until I turned around but whenever I turned around there were about six fellas all with their phones out recording it happening - and there was a fella who had his phone between my legs, under my skirt," she said.

Staff suggested she go home "because I was dampening the mood of everyone else's night".

"Me and my friend went home, back to her house, I stayed there for days.

"I felt completely helpless because I didn't know what to do in a situation where nobody else around me did anything to help."

She says felt humiliated, disgusted and ashamed.

"I didn't go to the police, I didn't go to anybody.

"I'm not really too sure why I didn't and I am still, to this day, a bit confused.

"But I think that because I have seen so many sexual assault cases play out, watched them happen, watched girls go through years and years of torment to never get any justice for what happened to them."

It gave her a determination to help speed up the legislative process - she shared her experience on social media and began a petition calling for a change to the law.

Speaking on Thursday morning, Louse Haigh, the shadow Northern Ireland secretary, said it was "concerning to hear the first minister almost underplay the level of the issue in Northern Ireland".

The Labour MP was responding to earlier comments given in an interview by First Minister Arlene Foster, in which she said: "We all know that there are those in society - and Northern Ireland has a very low record of this sort of activity but it happens.

"Those of us who are in public life are fully aware of the threats of violence that we receive."

During a Stormont assembly debate on Monday, the first minister said she supported a specific strategy for women and girls against violence.

Arlene Foster said there is an "atmosphere at present which needs to be tackled"

Ms Haigh said Northern Ireland had a "a specific issue with violence against women and girls".

"Because it is a post-conflict society and there is a significant amount of research to suggest that after the Troubles ended and after the violence ended on the streets that a lot of that violence was brought into the home and turned on intimate partners," she said.