Queen Consort calls for end to ‘global pandemic’ of violence against women
Camilla, the Queen Consort, has warned of a “global pandemic of violence against women” and called for an end to these “heinous crimes”.
She spoke at a Buckingham Palace event highlighting the threat of domestic abuse and violence against women.
Survivors of domestic abuse need to be “listened to and believed”, said the Queen Consort.
Campaigners at the event warned that the cost-of-living crisis would increase the numbers needing help.
This was the Queen Consort’s highest-profile effort to raise awareness about one her most personal causes, with palace sources saying she feels “passionately” about this issue.
It was against the background of the United Nations’ “16 days of activism against gender-based violence” – and during those 16 days, the Queen Consort said, police figures suggested that 3,000 women would be raped in England and Wales.
“Worldwide, more than 2,000 women will be killed by a partner or a member of their own family,” the Queen Consort told more than 300 guests at the Violence Against Women and Girls reception.
Across their lifetime, she said one in three women would face domestic violence.
The Queen Consort spoke of the importance of remembering women who had been murdered – but also said she had met women who showed how “victims have become victors”.
She recalled a woman with a violent ex-partner who had been sent to prison – and how she was now working to support others who had been living in “permanent fear”.
Credit: BBC
