Over the past years the country has seen woman after woman murdered by former and current spouses and partners. This, sadly, is nothing new and what lies beneath these tragic homicides is the ever-present spectre of domestic violence and violence against women. And where there is domestic violence, one can safely bet there is also the propensity for murder lying there below that surface as well.

A murderer is not usually created in one fell swoop. Most times, a man does not wake up one morning and decide to kill his partner. It is, in most cases, a steady progression from verbal to increasingly physical abuse and the culmination of that, if the individual in question is capable of it, is murder.

It goes without saying that murder is the most base of actions, the lowest point to which a person can sink. But when murders take place in the dark underworlds of drug trafficking and other criminal activity, it is one thing. Generally speaking, people involved in such activities are, or at least ought to be, aware of the risks associated with their actions and the company they keep. They weigh those risks against the prospect of personal gain and, right or wrong, they make a choice and they live, and sometimes die, with that choice.

But when it comes to the femicide of a wife, a lover or a girlfriend, we are dealing with an entirely different beast. Without going into the merits of each recent case, there was one common denominator, one shared mistake committed by those women who have so tragically been taken from us: they loved the wrong man.

Just this week the country bore witness to a horrific murder-suicide that the police are still unravelling. While the details of this particular case are still sketchy, what is clear at this point is that, yet again, a woman has had her life brutally stripped from her by a man she was at least at some point romantically involved with.

Reports of domestic abuse appear to have been coming more to the fore lately. And the reason for this is simple: women are becoming more empowered - more empowered to no longer tolerate that kind of treatment from their spouses or partners, and more empowered to stand up to their abusers.

Now they must become more empowered still, to nip the problem in the bud; to call it quits when verbal abuse begins or when it turns physical. Men in these situations must also learn that it takes a man to admit they have a problem and to seek help. And spotting that problem is equally simple: if you abuse anyone on any level, you have a problem - plain and simple.

This September the Council of Europe’s Convention on Violence against Women comes into force after it was passed in a landmark vote back in April. The Convention is legally binding in the Council of Europe’s member states, Malta included, and creates an all-inclusive legal framework to prevent domestic violence and violence against women, to protect victims and to put an end to perpetrators’ impunity.

It defines and criminalises a number of forms of violence against women and provides for the setting up of an international group of independent experts to monitor its implementation at the national level. Malta’s Commission for Domestic Violence is at present studying the process that will need to be brought underway for Malta to be in a position to ratify it.

In the meantime, the Commission’s appeal to anyone involved in any such situation bears repeating over and over again. Take matters into your own hands, start your way out of an abusive situation that no one should be made to endure and call the special 179 support line. There is always someone there to help, 24/7.