Violence against women must be treated as a “national priority”, the Government was told at the weekend.

The Progressive Labour Party administration was urged to provide more funding and support for victims at a Women in Politics forum, which attracted about 70 people. Laurie Shiell-Smith, executive director of the Centre Against Abuse, told the forum that the Department of Health found in 2010 that one third of women in Bermuda will be affected by domestic violence.

She said: “Centre Against Abuse is the only organisation on the island that provides a full complement of services for victims affected by domestic violence. Over the last ten years, Centre Against Abuse has assisted over 1,500 women, and while these numbers are astronomical, we also recognise that this is only a small segment of our community that actually comes forward that are affected by domestic abuse.”

She was speaking at an event last Saturday organised by the PLP’s women’s caucus. The forum, held at the PLP’s Alaska Hall headquarters in Hamilton, included speeches by Dame Jennifer Smith, a former premier, and Lovitta Foggo, the Minister of Government Reform. Ms Shiell-Smith highlighted the 1878 murder of Anna Skeeters, whose husband, Edward, had to be protected from angry women after they discovered he had killed her.

She said: “While I’m not advocating for violence upon violence, I am advocating that, collectively, we as women can end violence against women because I am my sister.”

Ms Shiell-Smith pointed out that Bermuda signed the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women last year.

She said the island was now “legally obligated” to work towards the implementation of the convention, which included a commitment to end violence against women.

She added violence against women had repercussions that involved health, labour, housing, finance and education, as well as the immediate impact on victims.

Ms Shiell-Smith said: “Violence against women is a multi-generational scourge on those who are afflicted by it and it also leaves scars and behaviours that then can lead to the continued cycle of violence.”

She added: “As a collective, I charge that we ensure that services such as Centre Against Abuse are fully funded by Government so that these vital services do not have to depend on donor funds to determine if they will continue or not.

“Bermuda is the only island in the Caribbean where this is not handled by a government.”

Ms Shiell-Smith told The Royal Gazette yesterday that October 1 marked the start of an international domestic violence awareness month.

She said: “That’s the very sad part about this, that Government has decided that this isn’t important enough for them to make it a focus, and this is actually a major issue in Bermuda, which has offshoots not just for violence against women but violence in the home, gang violence — if we deal with what’s happening at home we can actually cut down on some of the social issues that are happening in Bermuda.”

Ms Shiell-Smith was asked on Saturday what progress had been made on the UN treaty.

She said: “Bermuda signed on CEDAW last year, however, that’s all we’ve done.”

The CAA, which helps about 120 women a year, needs $300,000 a year to fund its work, but has to rely on donations.

Ms Shiell-Smith said: “The next step for the Government is to actually become involved and make this a priority. Under their government, they have a Department of Child and Family Services, unfortunately they don’t service the family, they just service the child. A place like CAA or the work that we do should be under that department or a gender affairs department.”

She added: “This is a matter that doesn’t just affect women, it’s not a women’s issue, it’s a human rights issue.”

The forum also included discussions on the representation of women in politics and how to strike a good work-life balance.

Alexa Lightbourne, the caucus chairwoman and one of the event’s moderators, said: “While we initially wanted to host this intimate forum to accommodate 40 persons, we were overwhelmed with a room of nearly 70 diverse women engaged in learning and dialogue on key issues.”