The creation of an effective system of crisis intervention and multi-agency cooperation requires the coordination, elaboration of methodologies and standards as well as information campaigns to the public. This should be supported by a public body responsible for the coordination of policies to prevent and eliminate violence against women and domestic violence according to the requirement of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing on and combating violence against women and domestic violence, Art. 10.
This project is designed to help to address the missing systematic approach through the creation of a Coordinating Methodical Centre, which will be established by the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family and will act in a coordination with the Department of Gender Equality and Equal Opportunities responsible for the issue of VaW in Slovakia. The legal status of CMC will be ensured after the analysis of its best form. There is a strong recommendation to include all relevant public and private entities in the management of the centre. Therefore, the Project Promoter shall submit to the government a draft on the governmental resolution, which should ensure that:
1. The relevant line ministries (Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Interior) will take part in the management of the centre and ensure the co-financing of the Project as well as the costs coverage after the Project is completed within the Norway Grants.
2. The board of supervisors or similar body shall be established, composed of the representatives of all relevant stakeholders (national, regional public administration bodies, services providers etc.). The board shall supervise the activities of the centre and approve the plans and programmes to be undertaken in the coming periods.
The goal of CMC will be to develop, implement and coordinate a comprehensive national policy for the area of prevention, intervention and elimination of violence against women. The CMC will create an expert team responsible for technical coordination and supervision of the system of prevention intervention services for victims of VaW and domestic violence and overview and ensure the quality of services provided in the area.
The responsibilities of CMC will be – inter alia – to provide a platform for the creation and implementation of the common methodological guidelines for the provision of services (Integrated System of Crisis Intervention) and the primary prevention of violence against women and children, coordination of the training and education activities, creation of the condition for multi-agency co-operation of helping professions and ensuring their systematic and standardised education as well as responsibility to set up the system and conduct the research and monitoring. The legal status of the CMC will be set up after a careful analysis and evaluation of its best form.
CMC will meet the requirement of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing on and combating violence against women and domestic violence, Art. 10 “Parties shall designate or establish one or more official bodies responsible for the coordination, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and measures to prevent and combat all forms of violence covered by this Convention.”
In Slovakia, the issue of violence against women is specifically and systematically addressed by the women’s NGOs with know-how and potential for help to setting up an effective and systematic solution. Thus, experts from NGOs will be actively involved in all phases of the creation of the CMC and the system for dealing with the issue of violence against women and domestic violence. CMC will therefore meet also the requirement of the Convention RE, Article 9.
Goal: Prevention and elimination of violence against women (VaW) and domestic violence
Objectives:
- To create the body responsible for the coordination, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and measures to prevent and combat all forms of violence according to the Council of Europe Convention on preventing on and combating violence against women and domestic violence, Art. 10;
- To develop and implement a coordinated system to ensure an effective prevention, intervention and elimination of VaW and domestic violence;
- To ensure effective and immediate assistance to all women survivors of violence or at the risk of violence and other victims of domestic violence with respect to their specific needs arising from their situation;
- To develop a knowledge base on the phenomena of violence against women and domestic violence as an essential prerequisite for the creation and practical implementation of effective tools and measures for the intervention and prevention in cases of violence.
Information on the project promoter:
The Department of Gender Equality and Equal Opportunities (hereinafter referred to as DGEEO) at the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and the Family (hereinafter referred to as MLSAF) performs several important functions related to gender equality and VaW. First, the department deals with the development of the state policy on gender equality and equal opportunities. DGEEO within its responsibilities processes strategic and conceptual documents related to gender equality and equal opportunities. Under the responsibility of the department GEEO falls the addressing of the issue of prevention and elimination of violence against women, particularly the coordination of the preparation and adoption of strategic documents related to VaW. It is particularly responsible for the legal framework on abuse and violence against children.
DGEEO leads the Expert Committee established by the National Council for the Crime Prevention. The committee is an important tool for the multi-institutional and cross-cutting cooperation among all relevant ministries, sectors and NGOs.
DGEEO is responsible for the coordination of the work of the Committee for Gender Equality which is a working committee established by the Governmental Council for Human Rights. A working group constituted particularly from NGOs members and other experts have been established within the Committee for Gender Equality. Both mentioned committees shall contribute to the wider cooperation among experts, public institutions and the NGOs.
The MLSAF also provides the strategic framework for the social services served also for victims of VaW and domestic violence. DGEEO also is responsible for the general framework and elaborates standards for the prevention and service provision related to VaW and works closely with other departments of MLSAF on a coordination of services and standards related to other target groups, victims of domestic violence.
Besides the mentioned activities of the DGEEO, the department has also experience in project implementation and supervision; department fulfils the tasks as expert´s body by the implementation of the national project Support of elimination and prevention of violence against women which is supported via European Social Fund. DGEEO also implements a project for the coordination of horizontal priority equal opportunities
Project activities:
1. COORDINATION ON LEGISLATION, METHODOLOGY, STANDARDS AND REPORTING
Establishment of CMC consisting of a team of experts, working groups and the secretariat;
Creation, co-ordination and a professional management of a national system of the prevention, intervention and elimination of VaW and domestic violence;
Coordination of the national policy and setting up the regional intervention teams;
Elaboration of the methodological guidelines and standards for the provision of services in collaboration with the partners fromNorwayand others CoE countries;
Creation of a system for an accreditation for service providers including legal conditions based on experience fromNorwayand CoE convention and standards;
Analysis of the current legislation on violence against women and domestic violence and the preparation of a new legislative measure and strategic materials;
2. RESEARCH AND REPORTING
Evaluation of the current statistical reporting system to identify the gaps and weaknesses, enhance and supplement of a system of data collection for all relevant areas;
Creation of a comprehensive management of the statistical data and a regular publication of the statistics on violence against women and domestic violence according to the common EU indicators developed to monitor the implementation of policies and activities to eliminate violence against women and the recommendation of CoE on the administrative data collection on VaW and domestic violence;
Implementation of various types of the research on violence against women and domestic violence, including a research aimed at women with the multiple discrimination (i.e. Roma community), children, disabled, elderly and domestic violence against men;
Implementation of common projects with the Norwegian partner: Competence module, women’s shelters, “A week to count”, Primary prevention and work with children who experience domestic violence
3. EDUCATION
1. Law enforcement (to be organised in cooperation with CoE):
Provision of the training of trainers in co-operation with the partners fromNorway, CoE and other relevant countries;
Creation of the accreditation for training courses based on the experience abroad;
Creation of the standard education system for the service providers and helping professions including the university courses and a lifelong learning system based on the experience from Norway and other relevant countries;
Carrying out training for professions:
– Judges
– Police and prosecutors
2. Staff working at the service providers and counselling centres
3. Supporting professions:
– Social workers
– Psychologists
– Health personal
– Public authorities
– NGOs
4. PREVENTION
Coordination of the education and the awareness raising activities aimed at the primary prevention with the gender-sensitive approach in all phases of preparation, design and implementation of the curricula and educational standards; elimination of the gender stereotypes in all types and levels of the education system from the kindergartens to the universities; incorporation of the gender sensitive education into the curricula of university programs preparing teachers particularly on the human rights of women, violence against women and gender equality;
Development and the implementation of strategies to promote zero tolerance to violence against women and to promote gender equality in the media;
Coordination of a national campaign on the prevention and elimination of violence against women.
All the developed methodologies and analysis will be carried out and implemented under the supervision of the Norwegian and CoE partners as part of their role in the Coordinating Committee as well as the experience of other EU countries.
Implementation time: 2013 – 2016
Expert team and planned staffing at the CMC
CMC will be composed of at least by the below-mentioned team of experts. Each of them will have a team/working group of external experts:
First expert responsible for the service area aimed at the prevention, intervention and elimination of violence against women and domestic violence. He/she will be responsible for the multi-agency co-operation and the co-ordination of the Integrated System of Crisis Intervention, including the development of the methodological guidelines and standards and the knowledge transfer of a good practice fromNorway;
The second expert will be responsible for the education; the training of trainers in the co-operation with partners from Norway, the development of the training manuals for the service providers and helping professions and the implementation of the education and training system in the practice;
The third expert for the prevention and publicity shall be responsible for the outcomes of the publicity and information activities (campaigns, newsletters, update websites, press conferences) and co-ordination of the professional educational activities aimed at the media and the public;
Forth expert for the legislation, monitoring and research will be responsible for the ensuring the development of necessary legislative measures, proposals and the research and monitoring of violence against women and domestic violence;
Director of the CMC shall be responsible for the supervision and co-ordination of the experts within the CMC, their cooperation with relevant ministries, local authorities, NGOs and other decision makers and actors, as well as for the development of a strategy for sustainable financial mechanisms to support the new system;
Secretariat of the CMC will support the experts and the director in their daily work.
Expected outputs of the project:
Establishment of a national system for the coordination, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and measures to prevent and combat all forms of violence against women and domestic violence;
CMC created with employed/contracted internal and external experts and other staff ;
Methodological guidelines created for the services and a multi-agency co-operation, including the accreditation system for providers based on the transfer of good practice inNorway;
Education system of service providers and helping professions, including the accreditation system for training courses;
Education and training of trainers and helping professions performed;
Analysis of the national legislation and suggestions for its revision carried out;
System for the monitoring and research developed
Monitoring reports elaborated and the research conducted;
System of the primary prevention elaborated and piloted;
Campaign and awareness-raising activities carried out;
Design of a sustainable system of the financial mechanism prepared.
Expected impact / results of the project:
· Quality assurance for the prevention and intervention system;
· Effective help to the victims of violence against women and domestic violence;
· Increased sensitivity of the main actors, the media and the public on the VaW and domestic violence;
· Increased sensitivity of victims and thus increased level of cases of VaW and domestic violence brought to the court;
· Reduced incidence of violence against women and domestic violence.
