Mr. Colm Kelly Ryan:

I thank the committee for the invitation to appear here today. I am the head of programmes and advocacy with the Men's Development Network and White Ribbon Ireland campaign. As an international human rights lawyer, it is a privilege to be here as a witness and I want to thank the committee for its work and wish members well over the next eight months of their journey.

I also wish to express our thanks for the work of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality. It members showed diligence, leadership and public service in the good work they have done. I would also like to note that it is an honour to be here today with our friends from AkiDwA and Safe Ireland. They are wonderful allies for human rights, gender equality and an all-around better society for all. It is an honour to share this day with all of them.

In the remaining time available, I will briefly outline the Men's Development Network position on recommendations 37 to 41, inclusive, of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality report, focused on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. I would like to start by saying that we welcome the recommendations provided by the assembly. We have a submission on this that I hope has been circulated to all members of the committee. I encourage members to read it in conjunction with our recent submission to the Department of Justice on the draft national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence.

In March 2022, Men's Development Network submitted a paper to the Department on the third draft national strategy. In a sense, these recommendations align with recommendations 37 to 41, inclusive. We outlined some recommendations I would advise regarding making Ireland a more gender equal society and addressing the issue of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. These include providing a clear outline of the available resources to implement the national strategy and action plans and ensuring prevention and awareness raising efforts target the public rather than specific sectors of society, in accordance with Articles 13 (1) and (2) of the Istanbul Convention and Article 35B of CEDAW general recommendation 35.

We also wanted to ensure that awareness raising programmes address the root causes of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, in accordance with international law. As part of that, we wished to ensure that engagements with men and boys are based on international and national best practices in the most appropriate ways from a strength-based, non-judgmental and non-adversarial approach, and that there is a positive call to action for men and boys that instills support to build capacity and safety in the prevention of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. It should be the case that men and boys can be allies for gender equality and ending gender-based violence.

The development and funding of campaigns and similar initiatives such as the White Ribbon Ireland campaign to engage with men and boys as allies for gender equality in ending gender-based violence is vital. This is a key piece in the Istanbul prevention pillar. We also recommend the expansion of the proposed content of awareness raising activities and training programmes beyond the aspect of consent, but also to include themes mentioned in Article 41 of the Istanbul Convention, such as gender equality, respect, non-violent conflict resolution, interpersonal relationships, gender-based violence and integrity. It needs to be quite holistic.