On March 8th, HPE Galway hosted an in-person event for International Women’s Day.

Claire Kearney from Safe Ireland (Irelands National Domestic Violence Services) in conjunction with The National Cyber Security Awareness Taskforce Members discussed the topic of domestic abuse, coercive control and technology facilitated abuse in Ireland & the accelerated weaponization of technology by perpetrators over the last number of years. The taskforce was founded after they identified a gap in the supports being offered to NGO's around education on cyber security awareness, privacy & security in particular for charities trying to protect women and children escaping domestic abuse situations.

The event highlighted the work of the taskforce over the last 12 months and the impact the work has had at a national level. The taskforce shared their strategy on how they cultivated this group of expertise from across Irish industry, academia and government and forged a working relationship with the Australian government and the eSafety Commission to order to accelerate the work accomplished in 12 months. The taskforce benchmarked their approach against the eSafety Women's arm of the Australian commissioners organisation - who are trailblazers in this area creating the world’s first government regulatory agency committed to keeping its citizens safer online.

The taskforce developed a booklet for frontline workers on how to respond to technology facilitated abuse, using the Australian material as a framework. The eSafety commission in Australia then shared the booklet with the UNFPA (United National Population Fund) as an example of consuming open resources and contextualising culturally & legally for a specific country need.

Conor McEnroy spoke about the role men play in the conversation around violence against women and the attitudes we all need to accept play a role. That this is not in fact a women's issue, it's a men issue also.  97 people attended the talk, 50 from HPE and remaining from external companies in the west of Ireland region.

Annie presented Claire from Safe Ireland with a bouquet of flowers for all her amazing work with Safe Ireland over the last 16 years and an acknowledgement of the work of their organization and the role they play daily in protecting women in Ireland.  

Ireland trails other countries in terms of legal progression in relation to frameworks and structures to report online abuse and lacks individual reporting mechanisms. With the recent appointment of an online safety commissioner Ireland are moving forward in their journey to digitally protect their citizens - but while the government is moving in, the taskforce is proud to hold the space and work with organisations in need, while Ireland begins its own journey to a more secure & safe digital society.

Slides can be viewed here

Irish Times article on the partnership