On behalf of Director Carlien Scheele, Dennis van der Veur, Head of Outreach and Engagement, delivered a keynote speech at the Women7 Summit (W7) in Rome on 9 May 2024 on the cost of gender-based violence and the power of data.
Dear colleagues,
It’s wonderful to be here at the W7 summit, surrounded by change makers for gender equality.
I want to start by thanking you for inviting me to speak on behalf of the European Institute for Gender Equality. Our work on gender-based violence is central to the agency’s mandate and the European Commission’s priorities.
Gender equality is a human right. Gender-based violence is a violation of this human right.
And that is why for as long as gender-based violence exists, so will our robust efforts to collect data and monitor the progress towards ending this pervasive phenomenon once and for all.
The next time you are waiting at a bus stop, really pay attention to those around you.
Do you see at least three women? Chances are, one of them could be a victim of violence. Because in the EU, 1 in 3 women have experienced physical or sexual violence.
GBV costs the EU a total of EUR366 billion each year. It’s not millions. It’s billions of Euros.
What makes a moment at a bus stop so unnerving is that you wouldn’t know any better.
A victim of violence can be hidden behind shame, social stigma and fear – preventing her from coming forward and seeking support.
Even though gender-based violence is recognised as a violation of human rights it is often still perceived as a private matter -– and yet it has very public consequences and costs.
But, we are one step closer to ending gender-based violence!
A few weeks ago the European Parliament adopted the Directive on Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence. And on 7 May, only 2 days ago, governments, represented in the EPSCO committee did so as well.
For the first time ever we have a robust EU-wide framework of prevention, protection and prosecution.
Another significant feat was back in June 2023, when the EU’s accession to the Istanbul Convention marked a groundbreaking moment in establishing a comprehensive and consistent legal and policy framework to tackle violence against women across the EU.
No country can afford GBV. Not if we want our societies and economies to flourish and prosper.
EIGE is ready to support the full implementation of the Convention across prevention, prosecution protection and integrated policies in the form of data collection, monitoring, and the collection of good practices.
Now for today, I am going to walk you through the catastrophic costs of gender-based violence. But here is where I’m always quick to give a clarifying caveat.
The pain and suffering caused by GBV does not have a price.
But it imposes a significant cost on the state, our communities and individuals – and is still underestimated.
We need to know where different costs of violence exist for Member States and the EU to better understand where we should earmark funds to prevent violence from ever happening in the first place – and costing future generations from the long-term emotional damages GBV inflicts.
So, starting with the headline figure:
GBV costs the EU a total of EUR366 billion each year.
I’ll let you process that for a second. It’s not millions. It’s billions of Euros.
And yet, right now the money poured into victims shelters, is less than 1% of that overall cost. Quite frankly, this is a disservice to victims at a time that is likely to be the worst in their life. And their chances for rehabilitation and regeneration is severely undersupported.
Alright, back to that headline figure.
Broken down, these costs come from, but are not limited to:
The physical and emotional impact. Not being able to work, which comes as a cost to the labour market.
The high toll on healthcare services, social welfare, support services for victims, personal costs and the criminal justice system.
The costs are direct, indirect, tangible and intangible. They sweep far and wide across our societies and economies.
Before the cost creeps up further, we need develop clear action plans and strategies for what is quite frankly as much a public health problem as cancer is in this world.
And for that, we need data.
Data is a truly powerful tool to combat all forms of gender-based violence because it helps us capture in explicit and exacting detail the scope and scale of the problem in each Member State and the EU at large.
Anyone familiar with gender-based violence will know that data is woefully limited and challenging to collect.
While on some level we all have or know anecdotal evidence, we need high quality and comparable data to match.
Data is a truly powerful tool to combat all forms of gender-based violence because it helps us capture in explicit and exacting detail the scope and scale of the problem in each Member State and the EU at large.
And from there we can strengthen our response efforts to the specific needs of the victims – especially for the most vulnerable who tend to fall through the cracks and remain outside data systems which ultimately costs them their lives.
That’s why for over a decade my agency’s portfolio has been dedicated to expanding data and research. And we have one significant activity coming up.
Later this year we will be releasing data from a joint survey with FRA and Eurostat.
Between FRA and EIGE, we interviewed over 15,000 on their experiences of harassment in public spaces, physical, psychological and sexual violence in addition to cyber violence – whether perpetetrated by partners or non-partner across all areas.
After a long-awaited 10 years, we will have new EU-wide comparable data on Violence Against Women.
Indeed, this is something our stakeholders in Member States seek support on. Our expertise among many areas principally lies in strengthening data systems.
We are observing good developments and promising practices in several Member States. In Ireland and in Spain, we see the establishment of coordinating bodies as well as strong data collection and analysis efforts.
After a long-awaited 10 years, we will have new EU-wide comparable data on Violence Against Women.
We are also observing better developments of national data collection systems for more disaggregated data, for example, in Portugal and Cyprus with a centralised database that will allow them to follow a case through to the criminal system.
Coming back to an important refrain:
Investing in prevention, prosecution, protection and policies ensures the dignity and safety of women and girls and of our citizens.
Collecting detailed data on different forms of gender-based violence is an obligation under the Istanbul Convention. And with comprehensive data, we stand a chance at not only ending GBV but accelerating progress towards gender equality.
EUR366 billion in costs due to GBV is an urgent and overdue call for stronger infrastructure and services by effectively mobilising resources where they are needed the most.
No country can afford GBV. Not if we want our societies and economies to flourish and prosper – for which women play an equal part alongside men in shaping a brighter future for us all.
In short, everyone deserves to live a life free of violence. And it’s our moral imperative to deliver solutions and invest in those solutions to see the changes we need to see.
Thank you.