The University of Malta together with the Women's Rights Foundation (WRF) have launched an EU-funded awareness campaign aimed at preventing femicide. 

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, lawyer and activist Lara Dimitrijevic from the WRF said the campaign would include five videos - in Maltese and English - that are the result of research conducted both on a national level as well as through comparative analysis. 

The campaign is part of the FEM-UNITED partnership which spans five EU countries and includes the University of Malta, the Cyprus University of Technology, the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, the University of Zaragoza and the University of Porto. The five countries involved are Cyprus, Germany, Malta, Portugal and Spain. 

The FEM-UNITED project, Dimitrijevic said, seeks to shine a spotlight on the urgent need to develop and implement effective strategies for preventing femicide.

In January, protestors gathered in front of the police headquarters to voice their anger and frustration at the mistreatment of women in Maltese society. 

The protest had been called by women's rights activists in reaction to the police's handling of the murder investigation of 29-year-old Paulina Dembska, who was raped and killed on January 2.  

The main message of the campaign

Through the five videos, the campaign underlines the need to: 

1. Name the killings of women and girls due to their gender as femicide
2. Link the normalisation of violence against women in our societies with femicide
3. See the warning signs and risk factors associated with femicide
4. Debunk myths and misconceptions on femicide that obscure the foundations of violence against women and femicide
5. Collectively demand that governments take action to prevent femicide