Ireland has the worst record in Europe for bringing rapists to justice, an EU conference on violence against women will be told today.
Ms Kate Mulkerrins, legal expert with the Rape Crisis Network of Ireland, will tell the conference that even as the Government "showcases" its commitment to combating violence against women, "we are at the unenviable position of topping a league table of 20 European countries in failing to prosecute rape cases".
"In Ireland only 5 per cent of rape cases reported to gardaí result in a conviction," she will say. This compares with 25 per cent of cases in Germany.
"There are many reasons for this. Some of it is to do with Garda practices and attitudes.
"Yet more is down to the adversarial legal system which we have in Ireland, one of the effects of which, we can only presume, is that the DPP, in four out of 10 cases, decides not to take a case to court."
Though the rape crisis centres have for the past 25 years been lobbying and achieving some incremental institutional reform, "we still manage to end up bottom of the league in Europe. We must ask ourself how this happens," she will say.
"The answer I would suggest is that we as a society have still not faced up to the prevalence, nature and underlying causes of violence against women.
"Until we do, and until we can offer women who have been raped a climate of belief within our communities and within State structures, we will continue to fail women in general and marginalised women in particular," she will say.
Opening the conference in Dublin Castle yesterday, the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, said violence against women, in whatever form, was a crime, and one which "affects our society as a whole".
He added: "And for our part, the State must do all it can to vindicate women's rights."
Also yesterday, the president of the Irish Human Rights Commission, Dr Maurice Manning, said the case for an EU directive on violence against women was "unanswerable".
He said that without a sound legal basis - as would be provided by a directive - the integration of services and powers to address the issue was not possible.
"In addition, a legal basis would give Eurostat a mandate to provide annual statistics, and give an arrival base for future policy making.
"It is a matter of some regret that, so far at least, the new constitution is silent on the subject," said Dr Manning.
