The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland's (BCI) ban on a Trócaire advertisement opposed to violence against women was "surprising" and "in an ideal world" should be lifted, Minister of State for Development Conor Lenihan has said.
Speaking during a conference in the RHA Gallery in Dublin yesterday to mark International Women's Day, Mr Lenihan told The Irish Times that the advertisement was a "positive campaign".
The advertisement features numerous baby girls, and says the fact that they are female may lead to their being discriminated against, denied an education, tortured, raped and even murdered.
The BCI last week instructed commercial stations to cease broadcasting the advertisement, deeming it "directed to a political end".
"It was a very surprising decision," said Mr Lenihan.
"But the BCI is an independent body paid to implement the rules in a proper fashion."
He said he hoped there may be some "leeway" found that would allow the advertisement to be amended and broadcast.
He added that it had " certainly raised awareness about the issue".
At the conference, Prof Charlotte Watts of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and an expert on the links between gender-based violence and HIV, said Ireland was "really leading the way" in addressing the issue of gender-based violence.
Referring to the role the Government is taking in Europe on the issue, as well as the coming together of 10 NGOs, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Irish Defence Forces in a consortium against gender-based violence in developing countries, Prof Watts described the work here as "very impressive" and "cutting edge".
The consortium's 2005 report, Gender-Based Violence: A Failure to Protect, A Challenge to Action, committed agencies to addressing the issue as a condition of their funding from Government.
Trócaire's Lenten campaign is part of this commitment.
Prof Watts said the rate of HIV infection among young women in sub-Saharan Africa was up to five times that of young men. In South Africa, for example, 15 per cent of young women are HIV-positive compared with 3 per cent of young men.
"Increasingly, women's risk of infection is shaped by gender inequality, poverty and violence."
She said those seeking to tackle HIV in the developing world were only recently looking seriously at the links between discrimination against women and their higher infection rates. "Donor agencies and governments . . . have been slow to increase funding and resources to address gender-based violence," she added.
Mr Lenihan said he would next week press his EU ministerial colleagues to follow the Republic's lead on the issue. "I will be pushing, and even hopefully gently bullying, on this at EU level."
