Date: 25 November 2015
Time: 9am – 1.30pm
Venue: Wood Quay, Dublin City Council Civic Offices, Dublin 8
This Women’s Aid conference aims to identify and address the issue of digital abuse and domestic violence in Ireland by:
Expert Speakers addressing the conference include:
Chair: Dearbhail McDonald is Associate Editor and Legal Editor of The Irish Independent. She is an author, Eisenhower Fellow and columnist with the Sunday Independent.
Margaret Martin is Director of Women’s Aid. Women’s Aid is the national organisation supporting women experiencing domestic violence in Ireland since 1974. We work to make women and children safe, offer support, provide hope and act for justice and social change. The Women’s Aid National Freephone Helpline 1800 341 900 operates from 10am to 10pm, 7 days a week. This will extend to a 24/7 service from January 2016. We offer a one to one support service, court accompaniment and run the Dolphin House Domestic Violence Support & Referral Service.
Pauline Walley SC, LLM. Comm. Law, Dip.Arb. Law, ACIS, is a practising barrister with a general practice in civil, criminal and internet litigation. She was a founder member of the Copyright Association of Ireland, the Irish Women Lawyers Association and the Irish Criminal Bar Association, of which she is a former Chair. She is a co-author of the forthcoming book Cyber Law and Employment, to be published by Roundhall in January 2016. She has also written and lectured extensively in the Republic of Ireland on the emerging phenomenon of “revenge porn” harassment.
Ann Moulds founded Action Scotland Against Stalking in 2009 and waved her anonymity to speak out about her experience of being the victim of a long and horrendous stalking campaign when her stalker escaped jail with a lenient sentence. The campaign was determinded to have stalking recognised as a criminal offence within Scottish Law and to give victims a voice and a place within the criminal justice process. Ann is an accredited trainer and qualified in the Stalking Risk Profile. With her professional background in Psychology & Clinical Behavioural Psychotherapy, she is able to deliver training on stalking pyschopathology and the psychological impact of stalking on its victims. Ann won the ‘Public Campaigner of the Year’ at the Scottish Politicians of the Year Awards. She was the first Scotswoman to win the Emma Humphries Memorial Award and in February 2014, she was voted Scotswoman of the Year. She has spoken of her own experience of stalking which was the subject of a high profile legal case in Scotland.
Dr. Mary Anne Franks is a law professor and activist. She is a Professor of Law at the University of Miami School of Law, where she teaches criminal law, criminal procedure, First Amendment law, and family law. She is the Legislative & Tech Policy Director and Vice-President of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI), a non-profit organisation dedicated to challenging online harassment and abuse. In that capacity, she has worked with legislators in more than two dozen states to draft legislation against the non-consensual distribution of sexually explicit images.
Who should attend?
This conference will be of interest to legal professionals including court personnel, solicitors, barristers, those involved in law reform and legal students, An Garda Síochána including senior members and those involved in the Garda Victims Services Officers, politicians and policy makers, Violence against Women Support Services, the community and family resource, sector social care personnel including social workers, probation staff and social care students, other NGOs addressing digital abuse, digital technology and social media companies and the media.
Click here to download the full conference programme and you can register online at www.womensaid.ie/registration or fill in the form in the conference programme and return by email to Deirdre at deirdre.madden@womensaid.ie or post to Women's Aid, 5 Wilton Place, Dublin 2.