Madam, - I agree with Seán Love of Amnesty (Opinion & Analysis, July 12th) that it is time to focus on the victims of domestic violence rather than having a polarising gender debate. However, let us first admit that many commentators in the past have put forward a skewed picture of domestic violence to suit their own position in some notional gender war rather than looking at the reality of the situation.
Only the most blinkered would imagine that domestic violence affects men to the same extent as women, as John Waters constantly attempts to prove; but it is also wrong to present human rights abuses as being the preserve of one gender alone. Mr Love suggests that Amnesty's research into suicide may benefit men in particular, especially young men, but it is not directed solely at male victims of suicide and therefore cannot be directly compared to the Amnesty campaign on violence against women, in an attempt to prove some sort of gender balance.
It should be clear to all that domestic violence cuts across gender lines as well as class, age and ethnicity. It should also be clear that particular groups of people are more vulnerable than others, including children, many of whom suffer domestic violence and emotional abuse in the home at the hands of adults, both male and female.
Any future debate should recognise domestic violence for the human rights abuse that it is and should not attempt to belittle the suffering of any particular victim by reference to statistics. It must also acknowledge the structural inequalities in our society that render some people more vulnerable than others. - Yours, etc,
SÉ D'ALTON, Palmerston Road, Dublin 6.