Project KITE
Keeping Kids In The Equation

When domestic violence affects a family, the child is affected too.

Project KITE is an emerging child-rights initiative working to ensure that children exposed to domestic violence are recognised, heard, protected and supported in their own right, alongside support for the parent experiencing violence, not instead of it.

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The scale

Behind every number is a child who saw it, heard it or lived with it.

610 million

children worldwide, around 1 in 4, live with a mother who experienced intimate partner violence in the past year.

UNICEF, November 2025

28 million

of those children live in Europe and North America, 13% of all children in the region.

UNICEF, November 2025

73%

of women in the EU who experienced partner violence said their children were aware of it.

EU Fundamental Rights Agency, 2014

4,755

disclosures of abuse against children were made to Women’s Aid in Ireland in 2025.

Women’s Aid Annual Impact Report 2025

670

times in 2025, abusers threatened to have children taken from their mothers.

Women’s Aid Annual Impact Report 2025

65,000+

domestic abuse incidents were responded to by An Garda Síochána in 2024, around 1,250 every week.

An Garda Síochána, cited by Women’s Aid

Service disclosures and police incidents show demand, not the full number of children affected. Much of what children experience is never reported or counted.

The issue

Children are part of the story.

Domestic violence may be directed at one parent, but its effects can reach the whole family. A child may:

1

See or hear what is happening.

2

Sense fear, tension or danger at home.

3

Try to defend, protect or comfort a parent.

4

Call for help or intervene during an incident.

5

Manage younger siblings.

6

Hide, stay silent or try to keep the peace.

7

Experience the effects long after the incident has ended.

Children can become the first people to respond to a crisis in their own home. But they should never have to carry responsibility for stopping violence, protecting an adult or holding a family together.

No child should need a bruise to be believed.

Ireland must bring the EU domestic violence directive fully into law by June 2027, and the rules on child victims have not yet been drafted. Pledge your support for a law that recognises every child exposed to domestic violence as a victim in their own right, without having to prove harm and whether or not a case goes to court.

We will deliver every pledge to the Minister for Justice before those rules are drafted.

Sign the pledge

Domestic violence can make children feel responsible for things that were never theirs to carry.

Project KITE exists to help ensure that children are seen, not as bystanders, but as people whose safety, rights, experience and recovery matter.

Keeping Kids In The Equation