Parliamentary Committees to meet to discuss protection of women following Ghirxi’s murder
The request the Nationalist Party submitted for the Parliamentary Committees on Social and Family Affairs to meet to discuss State operations with regards to the protection of women has been accepted, the party said in a statement on Friday.
PN Whip, Robert Cutajar, the signatory of the statement, said that the committees will meet in order to ensure that State operations are improved and strengthened, with the aim of preventing homicides and further crimes against women.
He said that the joint Committees will now be meeting next Wednesday, 21 August.
The Nationalist Party had submitted its request for the meetings on Wednesday. The request was made after the news that 48year-old Nicolette Ghirxi was found murdered in her Birkirkara apartment. It was reported that Ghirxi had previously been in a relationship with her alleged aggressor, Irishman Edward William Johnston and that in April, she had filed a report to the police that she was receiving harassment emails from Johnston from abroad. Johnston was killed by police on Monday, following a confrontation in St Julian’s.
"The Nationalist Party remains committed to working and contributing to ensure that every necessary step is taken to avoid homicides and crimes against women", Cutajar said on Friday.
When making the request for the committee meetings, Opposition Leader, Bernard Grech, had said that he met with Members of Parliament from the Nationalist Party who serve on those committees to “discuss what actions we need to take to strengthen the State’s operations, with the aim of working to prevent further killings of women.”
“We agreed that a lot of work needs to be done by both sides of Parliament to ensure that these necessary changes are made as quickly as possible so that the system no longer fails one person after another”, Grech had said.