This archive report was first published on 24 November 2019.
On a somber note, thousands of protesters gathered in the Belgian capital to pay tribute to women killed by their partners or ex-partners, before marching to the Palace of Justice to symbolically represent the victims of femicide.
According to Celine Caudron, one of the protest organisers, 'Belgium is a very complex country with many levels of power; federal, regional and communal and all these levels of powers do little things to tackle violence against women. But the main thing we are demanding is a national plan.'
The protesters held up placards with messages such as 'That's enough' and 'Not one more life', and prominently displayed the names of the 22 women killed by men in Belgium this year.
Outside the law courts building, the demonstrators set off alarms and made noise as a 'protest against the silence' surrounding the deaths of battered women.
As reported by Mirabal, a Belgium umbrella group of organisations opposing violence against women, there have been 98 femicides in the country since 2017, a figure 'which, in proportion to the population, is well above the average for European nations.'
Similar protests took place in France and Italy on Saturday, with tens of thousands marching to call for an end to violence against women, ahead of the UN-recognised International day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on Monday.
