Protection of victims of gender-based violence - response to pandemic challenges

ended

Gender-based violence (GBV) against women is a violation of women’s fundamental rights. In response to this problem the EU adopted different mechanisms (EU Victims’ Directive, Directive 2011/99/EU and the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence). However, statistics show that GBV is still a prevalent problem across EU. According to data available, 1 in 3 women has experienced physical and/or sexual violence by intimate partner across the EU and around 38 % of all murders of women are intimate partner femicides. During the pandemic of Covid 19 and especially during the lock down there was an increase in GBV in all EU Member States and globally. The purpose of the project is to counter the increase of gender-based violence against women during the pandemic by conducting research and identifying increased risk level for victims in the context of the pandemic, ensuring continuity of service delivery to victims, finding new ways of providing support, enhancing the capacities of font-line workers in providing support to victims and implementing public sensitization campaign aiming to inform the victims of new services available and how to seek help. Main achievements are increased capacities of professionals to support GBV victims using new tools, improved services and empowerment of victims, prevention of future GBV, and strengthened multi-sectoral collaboration. Target groups are women victims, stakeholders providing support to victims (police, social care workers, judiciary, NGOs), decision makers and general public. Expected results are improved understanding of the needs of victims during the pandemic, improved service delivery to the victims resulting in their empowerment, increased capacities of stakeholders to protect and support women GBV victims, increased awareness and changed attitudes towards GBV among the general public, future GBV against women prevented through advocacy and campaigning.