Preventing Violence Against Women and Children Workshop Summary (2011) / Chapter Skim
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7 Papers on Global Partnerships and Government Initiatives
7 Papers on Global Partnerships and Government Initiatives
Pages 117-143
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From page 117... ...
It describes several successful attempts by Advocates for Human Rights, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) based in Minnesota, to partner with groups in Central Asia and Eastern Europe, areas that have typically had poor records of women's rights empowerment.
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From page 118... ...
Areas that need to be prioritized include developing local research capacity, particularly in resource-poor regions; improving monitoring and evaluation of GBV interventions to strengthen understanding of what works and what does not, especially in the area of prevention; supporting capacity building for entities engaged in addressing violence against women, including community-based
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From page 119... ...
This assessment gave rise to the creation of the Inter-American Alliance for Health and the Prevention of Gender-Based Violence, known as InterCambios. The alliance's goal is to help improve the capacities of the health sector in Latin America and the Caribbean to respond to violence against women from an integrated public health, human rights, and gender-equality perspective.
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From page 120... ...
From November 2006 to September 2010 it recorded a total of 177,382 visits, with the most visited sections being Events, Documents, News, and the newsletter. The most requested documents were Improving the Health Sector Response to Gender-based Violence: A Resource Manual for Health Care Professionals in Developing Countries, a guide for addressing partner violence with health personnel and the community, and documents concerning participatory research on teaching and learning processes.
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From page 121... ...
Promoting the Use of Evidence In coordination with several stake-holders, Intercambios has helped improve approaches to VAW through conducting research and using evidence, facilitating access to both research findings and evaluation processes, and disseminating data and lessons learned in research methodology. A key element has been a course, based on the practical guide to researching violence against women, whose evaluation stresses "the putting into practice of the knowledge acquired to be used in everyday work, extend research beyond academic arenas, and strengthen organizations to use research tools to evaluate and monitor their work" (Ellsberg and Heise, 2005)
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From page 122... ...
The toolbox contains the following materials: Health Sector Response to Gender-based Violence: Resource Manual for Health Professionals in Developing Countries (IPPF-RHO) ; a fact sheet on lessons learned in the training of health personnel; the In Her Shoes methodology; the María Luisa booklet; and interactive CDs on violence and HIV and on violence and maternal mortality.
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From page 123... ...
Thomas, J.D. The Advocates for Human Rights Introduction and Background Since 1993 the Advocates for Human Rights' Women's Program has been working with partners internationally to address domestic violence through an improved government response, particularly, better laws and more effective implementation of those laws.
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From page 124... ...
is to implement international human rights standards to promote civil society and reinforce the rule of law.2 The work of AHR's Women's Program focuses on domestic violence as a violation of fundamental human rights. One of the most important components of efforts to address domestic violence is policy and law reform that promotes victim safety and offender accountability -- which are principles articulated in numerous human rights instruments.
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From page 125... ...
There were no particular laws on domestic violence, so victims were trying to access the justice system through criminal assault laws, divorce laws, and other laws not specific to domestic violence. Many legal system authorities were reluctant to use these laws in domestic violence cases, explaining that it was not their role to be involved in "family matters." There was no training for medical professionals, legal professionals, or civil society on effective responses to domestic violence.
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From page 126... ...
In a successful global partnership, the leadership of local partners is essential to any domestic violence reform effort. The years of experience and the profile of international human rights groups would contribute little to real progress internationally without the vision and the hands-on work of local partners.
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From page 127... ...
ANA's goal was to expose domestic violence as a widespread and devastating problem in Romania that the government was ignoring. They believed that partnership with an international human rights organization would garner the problem more attention among officials both inside and outside their country, which could lead to greater improvements, and they appreciated the longstanding Minnesota experience of addressing domestic violence.10 The resulting report, Lifting the Last Curtain: Domestic Violence in Romania, was published in 1995 (Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights, 1995)
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From page 128... ...
The resulting reports, Domestic Violence in Bulgaria and Domestic Violence in Albania, identified weaknesses in the laws and legal process that were jeopardizing women's safety, preventing domestic violence victims' access to meaningful remedies, and undermining offender accountability (Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights, 1996a, 1996b)
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From page 129... ...
AHR developed a particularly long-standing partnership with the Bulgarian advocates, which is described below. Recent Partnerships in Drafting and Implementing Domestic Violence Laws Today, although though there is increasing acknowledgement internationally that domestic violence is a pervasive human rights violation with devastating consequences, there is still an urgent need for technical assistance in drafting and implementing new domestic violence laws and amendments to existing laws.
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From page 130... ...
AHR's partners greatly appreciate and depend upon this expert commentary. In January 2011, a member of the Lithuanian Human Rights Committee wrote, "I would like to express my gratitude to your precious and prompt work on commenting the draft law.
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From page 131... ...
StopVAW, which is focused on CEE/FSU, provides current research, news about promising practices, model laws, and training modules.16 In response to the urgent need for technical assistance on legal reform on domestic violence, AHR is working currently with UNIFEM (recently re-named UN Women) to develop the legislation section of the newly launched Virtual Knowledge Center to End Violence Against Women (http://www.endvawnow.org/?
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From page 132... ...
Experts in domestic violence legal reform, including judges and police, also traveled from Minnesota to Bulgaria numerous times to consult with legal officials, parliamentarians, and journalists about the need for new laws on domestic violence and about how the laws work as they are applied at the scene of an assault, in the courtrooms, and in the daily lives of victims. BGRF and AHR also partnered to organize several technical training sessions specifically for police, prosecutors, and judges on how to implement domestic violence laws.
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21 See Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights Training Program Schedule for Georgian Working Group on Domestic Violence Legislation, Jan.
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, and AHR's work with WRC has continued to the present (Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights, 2000)
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From page 135... ...
WRC was also a valuable partner on the StopVAW website. Through the WRC's work, readers could follow the struggle for a domestic violence law, including working group meetings, roundtables, training sessions on advocacy for the draft law, study visits to other countries to witness the implementation of their laws, and analyses of human rights reports on domestic violence in Armenia.
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From page 136... ...
These funds are limited and often unpredictable, making it difficult to sustain the long-term projects that are necessary to achieve lasting systems change. Another challenge AHR and its partners have faced is the urgency of domestic violence victims' needs.
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From page 137... ...
Violence and abuse occurring in various close interpersonal relationships is called family violence in New Zealand and is broadly defined to include partner abuse, child abuse and neglect, elder abuse, child-to-parent violence, and sibling abuse. The predominant forms of family violence in New Zealand are male partner violence against women and child abuse and neglect.
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From page 138... ...
. In 2002 the Te Rito New Zealand Family Violence Prevention Strategy was launched as an official government response and commitment to addressing all forms and degrees of violence, and it provided a framework for action.
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From page 139... ...
In 2009 the associate minister for social development and employment (and associate minister of health) , the Honorable Tariana Turia, was given the responsibility for the national government's response to addressing and reducing the impact of family violence as well as the establishment of the Family Violence Ministerial Group (replacing the Family Violence Ministerial Team)
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From page 140... ...
The key focus of this legislation is the welfare and best interests of the children where any dispute about them exists in order to keep the children safe and free from all forms of violence. However, where family violence exists, children still tend to be invisible beyond custody battles.
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The Violence Intervention Program (VIP) promotes assessment for family violence among those using District Health Board (DHB)
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From page 142... ...
The whole government approach is an attempt to have a more cross-sectoral approach to addressing family violence, because the previous silo approach adopted by government departments meant that women and children reliant on help from services would fall through the chasms that existed. Furthermore, interwoven into the government initiatives are strategies to address violence against Maori women and children.
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From page 143... ...
Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Social Development. Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights.
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