Education and gender budgeting are strong tools we need to use more to tackle gender-based violence. Donatella Porzi, regional councillor for the region of Umbria, Italy, continues her progress on how cities and regions are leading the way to stop gender based violence.
As a regional councillor, Porzi has a proven track record in advancing women’s rights. Earlier this year she advocated for a Regional Commission of Inquiry on Feminicide and all forms of gender-based violence in her own region, which was established on 8 March based on her own proposal.
As rapporteur on the upcoming European Committee of the Regions report “Stopping gender-based violence – Cities and regions leading the way”, she recently lead a stakeholder consultation with Young Elected Politicians sharing their views from across Europe. For Porzi, the key points of the report are a timely intervention to prevent and deal with aggressions; training of professionals to strengthen prevention and interrelation between territories to share best practices.
Matteo Brizzi, one of the participating Young elected liberal representatives, a municipal councillor in Massa e Cozzile, Italy, said: “fighting gender based violence is a horizontal fight, uniting all political groups; we therefore have the duty to raise this issue at the European level. As one concrete step, in our municipality, we created a phone line where victims can call and book appointment with psychologist and security forces to be protected”.
Throughout the consultation it became clear that education and gender budgeting came out as clear mechanisms for change. The role of education and educational establishments was identified as a key area where training for teachers could support them in identifying and speaking about gender based violence with students. The need for targeted campaigns with tools and methodologies for children and teachers was also highlighted, as was the need for better trained police forces. There is also a need for gender budgeting – a strong financial backbone to really push towards stopping gender-based violence in our schools, at work, in public spaces and online – we need it throughout all layers of our society.
Donatella Porzi was particularly grateful to hear from a wider variety of local experiences and how young elected officials around the EU address the topic, and has noted that she would be glad to share the draft opinion with the YEPs to keep this fruitful cooperation open.
