One in every four women in Malta experienced some form of abuse by their partner, figures released by Eurostat this week showed.

The survey was conducted between 2020 and 2024, and for the first time presented selected key results of EU gender-based violence in the 17 member states.

More than 114,000 women were interviewed during this period of time, 3,000 of them in Malta. The date showed that one-third of the respondents said they had experienced violence in the home, at work or in public. But only one in four reported the matter to the authorities.

With regard to Malta, 24.4% of the women interviewed said they went through physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. In the whole of the EU, 30.7% of the women gave a similar answer. Of the Maltese women who reported violence, 13% of them said they had been on the receiving end of physical violence, while 11% said they had experience sexual abuse.

Last Wednesday, the annual Victim Support Agency held its annual conference, during which once again the importance of speaking up was highlighted.

In his address at the conference, Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri said the more awareness there is about the support that is available, the more individuals will seek assistance. We use the word individuals because both men and women are victims of domestic violence although, it must be said, women by far make up the biggest portion of the list of victims.

Silence is the greatest challenge that needs to be overcome, Camilleri said. Thankfully, the more time passes, the more people speak up about being victims of violence at the hands of their partner. This is mostly as a result of the support that is offered to these people.

Over the years, successive governments have worked hard to increase support for victims of domestic violence. Added to this, there are various voluntary organisations that have widened their services to offer assistance to victims.

We are now moving to the next stage and, as the minister pointed out, this is something that transcends politics. It must be remembered that although, very often, we speak of numbers, there is an individual behind each and every number and, added to this, children are also exposed to it.

It is good to note that a deeper effort is in the pipeline, as panic alarms and electronic monitoring will soon be available, while the introduction of electronic tagging to protect victims of domestic violence is soon to be debated in Parliament, once the budget estimates debate is over. These initiatives, he said, are set to protect high-risk individuals while enabling rapid responses.

The government is also developing a National Victim Support Strategy to align itself with Europe-wide initiatives to strengthen victim support services.

They are all important steps in the right direction. It is imperative that campaigns are continuously on the go to inform the public where help could be obtained if such incidents occur.

Any one victim is a victim too many.