Activities 2012

Dear Sir/Madam,

On 6 December 2012 the Council adopted Conclusions on "Combating violence against women, and the provision of support services for victims of domestic violence", prepared by the Cyprus Presidency on the basis of the European Institute for Gender Equality's (EIGE's) new report "Review of the Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action in the EU Member States: Violence against Women Victim Support". The report is the first one to deliver a full set of comparable and reliable data on support services for women victims of violence in the 27 EU Member States and Croatia. It is now available on the Institute's webpage at http://www.eige.europa.eu/content/document/violence-against-women-victim-support-report. We invite you to publish a link to the report on your organisation's website and share the information with relevant institutions and gender experts in your country.

The report was developed in cooperation with the Cyprus Government, the European Commission and the High Level Group on Gender Mainstreaming. We hope that the results of EIGE's work will contribute to your commitment to making equality between women and men a reality for all people in your country. More information

Summary

The adopted Conclusions reaffirm that neither custom, tradition, culture, privacy nor religion can be invoked to justify violence against women or to avoid the obligations of the Member States with respect to its prevention and elimination and the prosecution of perpetrators. The Council of the European Union calls on the Member States to sign, ratify and implement the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, without prejudice to the possible future negotiations on possible EU accession.

Taking note of EIGE's report, the Council calls to ensure that support services for victims of violence are in adequate supply and apply gender equality perspective. The Council calls also to improve the collection and dissemination of comparable, reliable and regularly updated data on victims and perpetrators of all forms of violence against women and to make full use of the work of EIGE.

EIGE's report aims to support you in your efforts to combat and prevent violence against women, by providing policy makers and all relevant institutions with reliable and comparable data and information for effective actions and evidence-based policy improvement. The report is the first one to deliver a full set of comparable and reliable data on support services for women victims of violence in the 27 EU Member States and Croatia. It presents an in-depth overview of the range and quality of services to which women victims of violence have access: emergency services, 24-hours helplines, legal advice and other services and gives recommendations for improving the services.

The findings show that specialised services are insufficient and unequally distributed in and among the Member States. Only 12 out of the 27 EU Member States legally foresee state funding of specialised services for women victims of violence. Even women shelters and helplines, possibly the most common support for victims of domestic violence, are not in place and available everywhere. Although 24 Member States and Croatia have women shelters and 17 Member States have women helplines, only 15 Member States and Croatia offer free of charge specialised shelters and only six helplines are free of charge and available 24/7 which are the basic requirements highlighted in the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.

The full Report is available at http://www.eige.europa.eu/content/document/violence-against-women-victim-support-report

Kind regards,

EIGE's Communications

13/11/2012, Conference organized by European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE)

The President attended a Conference organized by EIGE on “Advancing Gender Training to Support Effective Gender Mainstreaming” 13-14 November 2012, in Vilnius, Lithuania. She submitted a paper which was circulated among the participants entitled “The role for gender training in bridging the gender gap in the academic community. The needs and challenges in Cyprus”.

* [Paper]

8/11/2012, Conference: Combating Domestic Violence against Women in the EU

The President represented the Ministry of Justice and Public Order in an online discussion on “Gender Training in the European Union” which was held on 25 and 26 September 2012 by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE). The main findings of the online discussion were summarized and uploaded on EIGE’s website. A selection of the comments were published in a booklet by EIGE “Gender Training in the European Union Reflections from the online discussions” (2012), which quotes some of the comments made during the online discussion by EKIF President, Dr Despina Solomi.

14/9/2012, Conference: The role of men in gender equality – European insights and strategies

The President participated in the General Assembly of the Cyprus Women Lomby, associated with the European Women Lomby which took place kin Nicosia on 27 March 2012.

The President and Members of EKIF Board were invited to attend the cocktail at the Presidential Palace by the President of the Republic, Mr Dimitris Christofias and Mrs Elsie Christofia on the occasion of Women's Day, 8 March 2012.

The President of EKIF, Dr Dena Solomi, was invited and attended the Sub-Committee of the National Machinery for the Rights of Women of the Ministry of Justice and Public Order on Women's Exploitation and Trafficking, held in Nicosia on 14 February 2012.