f-67075 strasbourg cedex proceedings/actes · 2008. 7. 22. · june 2007 council of europe campaign...

Council of Europe Campaign to Combat Violence against Women, including Domestic ViolenceProceedings

Launching Conference

Madrid, 27 November 2006

Campagne du Conseil de l’Europe pour combattre la violence à l’égard des femmes, y compris la violence domestique

Actes

Conférence de lancement

Madrid, 27 novembre 2006Pro

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Gender Equality and Anti-Trafficking DivisionDirectorate General of Human Rights and Legal AffairsCouncil of Europe

F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex

Division pour l'égalité entre les femmes et les hommes et la lutte contre la traiteDirection générale des Droits de l’Homme et des Affaires JuridiquesConseil de l’EuropeF-67075 Strasbourg Cedex

www.coe.int/stopviolence

COUV A4 DOMESTIC def 6/07/07 9:45

Launching conferenceMadrid, 27 November 2006

Proceedings

Campagne du Conseil de l’Europe pour combattre la violenceà l’égard des femmes, y compris la violence domestique

Conférence de lancementMadrid, 27 novembre 2006

Actes

Directorate General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs,Council of Europe

June 2007

Council of Europe Campaign to Combat Violenceagainst Women, including Domestic Violence

EG-VAW-conf (2007) 1

Gender Equality and Anti-Trafficking DivisionDirectorate General of Human Rights and Legal AffairsCouncil of EuropeF-67075 Strasbourg

© Council of Europe, 2007. First printing June 2007

Printed at the Council of Europe

Contents
INTRODUCTION
Council of Europe Campaign to Combat Violence against Women, including Domestic Violence … p. 9

Campagne du Conseil de l’Europe pour combattre la violence à l’égard des femmes, y compris la violence domestique … p. 10

PROGRAMME OF THE LAUNCHING CONFERENCECOUNCIL OF EUROPE CAMPAIGN TO COMBAT VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN,

INCLUDING DOMESTIC VIOLENCEProgramme … p. 12

PROGRAMME DE LA CONFÉRENCE DE LANCEMENTCAMPAGNE DU CONSEIL DE L’EUROPE POUR COMBATTRE LA VIOLENCE À L’ÉGARD

DES FEMMES, Y COMPRIS LA VIOLENCE DOMESTIQUEProgramme … p. 16

OPENING OF THE CONFERENCEWords of welcome by Mr Juan José Lucas, Second Vice-President of the Senate, Spain … p. 23

Opening of the conference by Mr Terry Davis, Secretary General, Council of Europe … p. 25

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN:SITUATION IN COUNCIL OF EUROPE MEMBER STATES

Keynote speech: Ms Carol Hagemann-White, Professor, Faculty of General Pedagogy and Gender Studies, University of Osnabrück, Germany … p. 29

SUPPORT AND PROTECTION OF VICTIMSAddress: Ms Rosemarie Zapfl-Helbling, Vice-Chairperson of the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe … p. 35

Keynote speech: Mr Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner for Human Rights, Council of Europe … p. 36

Speech: Ms Nimet Çubukçu, State Minister for Women and Family Affairs, Turkey … p. 38

Speech: Ms Darinka Stantcheva, Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe … p. 40

Speech: Ms Sandra Barnes, Member of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Council of Europe … p. 42

« Stop à la violence domestique faite aux femmes » : Conférence de lancement, Madrid, 27 novembre 2006 3

Stop domestic

against womenv i o l e n c e

INNOVATIVE LEGAL AND POLICY MEASURES TO COMBAT VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

– DATA COLLECTION AS A PREREQUISITE FOR EFFECTIVE POLICIESAddress: Ms Dubravka Šimonović, Chairperson of the Council of Europe Task Force to Combat Violence against Women, including Domestic Violence … p. 47

Keynote speech: Ms Tuula Haatainen, Minister for Social Affairs and Health, Finland … p. 49

Speech: Ms Donatella Linguiti, Secretary of State, Ministry for Rights and Equal Opportunities, Italy … p. 51

Speech: Ms Meg Munn, Deputy Minister for Women and Equality, United Kingdom … p. 53

Speech: Ms Soledad Murillo, Secretary General on Equal Opportunities, Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Spain … p. 55

Allocution : M. Jean-Guy Branger, Membre de l’Assemblée parlementaire, Conseil de l’Europe … p. 57

Speech: Ms Genoveva Tisheva, Managing Director, Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation, Bulgaria … p. 59

Speech: Ms Sylvia Walby, Professor, Sociology Department, Lancaster University, United Kingdom … p. 61

SOLEMN LAUNCHING CEREMONYWelcoming address by Mr Francisco Javier Rojo García, President of the Senate, Spain … p. 65

Address by Mr René van der Linden, President of the Parliamentary Assembly, Council of Europe … p. 67

Address by Mr Ian Micallef, President of the Chamber of Local Authorities of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Council of Europe … p. 69

Allocution : M. Fiorenzo Stolfi, Président du Comité des Ministres, Conseil de l’Europe … p. 71

Address by Mr Terry Davis, Secretary General, Council of Europe … p. 73

Allocution : M. Terry Davis, Secrétaire Général, Conseil de l’Europe … p. 75

Address by Mr José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Prime Minister, Spain … p. 77

CHANGING ATTITUDES TO COMBAT VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

Address: Mr Pēteris Elferts, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Representative of Latvia to the Council of Europe, Thematic Co-ordinator on Gender Equality of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe … p. 83

Keynote speech: Ms Yakin Etürk, United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences … p. 84

Speech: Ms Jadranka Kosor, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Family, Veterans’ Affairs and Intergenerational Solidarity, Croatia … p. 87

Speech: Ms Susana Camarero Benítez, Member of the Congress of Deputies, Spain … p. 89

Speech: Ms Isabel Llinàs, Director of the Women’s Institute of the Balearic Islands, Spain … p. 91

Speech: Ms Karine Henrotte-Forsberg, Representative of the Conference of INGOs enjoying participatory status with the Council of Europe … p. 93

UNITED IN COMBATING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

Keynote speech: Ms Widney Brown, Senior Director, International Law, Policy and Campaigns, Amnesty International … p. 97

Allocution : Mme Catherine Vautrin, Ministre déléguée à la cohésion sociale et à la parité, France … p. 100

Speech: Ms María Antonia Martínez García, Member of the Senate, Co-rapporteur of the Inter-Parliamentary Union on “How parliaments can and must promote effective ways of combating violence against women in all fields”, Spain … p. 102

4 “Stop domestic violence against women”: Launching conference, Madrid, 27 November 2006

Stop à la violence

faite aux femmesdomestique

Speech: Mr Ramón Ropero Mancera, Member of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Council of Europe … p. 105

Speech: Ms Hijran Huseynova, Chairperson of the State Committee for Family, Women and Children’s Issues, Azerbaijan … p. 107

CLOSING SESSIONAllocution de clôture : M. Philippe Boillat, Directeur général des droits de l’homme, Conseil de l’Europe … p. 111

Closing speech: Mr Philippe Boillat, Director General of Human Rights, Council of Europe … p. 113

Allocution de clôture : Mme Minodora Cliveti, Présidente de la Commission sur l’égalité des chances pour les femmes et les hommes de l’Assemblée parlementaire du Conseil de l’Europe … p. 115

Closing speech: Mr Jesús Caldera Sánchez-Capitán, Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, Spain … p. 117

PARTICIPANTSList of participants/Liste des participant(e)s … p. 119

BLUEPRINT OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE CAMPAIGNBlueprint of the Campaign to Combat Violence against Women, including Domestic Violence, prepared by the Task Force to Combat Violence against Women, including domestic violence (EG-TFV) and adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 21 June 2006 … p. 133

Programme de la Campagne pour combattre la violence à l’égard des femmes, y compris la violence domestique, préparé par la Task Force pour combattre la violence à l’égard des femmes, y compris la violence domestique (EG-TFV) et adopté par le Comité des Ministres le 21 juin 2006 … p. 139


Introduction

blank Page

Council of Europe Campaignto Combat Violence against Women, including Domestic Violence

The Launching Conference of theCouncil of Europe Campaign toCombat Violence against Women, in-cluding Domestic Violence, was heldon 27 November 2006 in the SpanishSenate in Madrid. All Council ofEurope member states, except Arme-nia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herze-govina, Liechtenstein, Poland andSwitzerland were represented. Thefollowing states attended as observ-ers: Canada, Holy See and Mexico.

In all, over 400 participants at-tended the conference, includingdeputy prime ministers, ministers,deputy ministers, state secretaries andhigh-level civil servants, parliamen-tarians and representatives of localand regional authorities dealing withgender equality matters as well as rep-resentatives of international intergov-ernmental and non-governmental or-ganisations and Council of Europeorgans and bodies.

The Campaign was officiallylaunched during a solemn ceremony,in which the high-level participantsexpressed their support for its imple-mentation. The Council of Europedecided to launch this Campaignduring the Third Summit of the or-ganisation in May 2005, during whichHeads of State and Government ofmember states reaffirmed their com-mitment to eradicating violenceagainst women, including domesticviolence, and defined the future activ-ities of the Council of Europe in thisfield in the Action Plan which theyadopted. In addition to their decisionto implement a campaign on thisissue, they decided to set up a TaskForce to Combat Violence againstWomen, including domestic violence.This group of eight international

experts in the field of preventing andcombating violence against womendeveloped the Blueprint for the Cam-paign, which was subsequently ap-proved by the Committee of Ministersof the Council of Europe on 21 June2006. This document serves as aroadmap for implementation of theCampaign and contains a definition ofviolence against women, as well asCampaign aims, objectives, messagesand activities to implement the Cam-paign.

The Campaign consists of three di-mensions: intergovernmental, parlia-mentary and local and regional. It iscarried out by the Council of Europeas well as its member states, in part-nership with intergovernmental or-ganisations and NGOs involved in theprotection of women against violence.

Throughout the duration of theCampaign and beyond, memberstates are requested to implement allmeasures contained in Council ofEurope Recommendation (2002) 5 ofthe Committee of Ministers to memberstates on the protection of women fromviolence, as well as to launch nationalcampaigns in parallel or as a follow-upto the Council of Europe Campaign.

The Campaign will come to an endduring a closing conference to be heldin the first half of 2008. On this occa-sion, the Council of Europe Task Forceto Combat Violence against Women,including Domestic Violence, willpresent its conclusions and assess-ment of measures and actions taken atnational level to combat violenceagainst women, including domesticviolence as well as its recommenda-tions to the Council of Europe forfuture action in this field.


Campagne du Conseil de l’Europepour combattre la violence à l’égard des femmes, y compris la violence domestique

La Conférence de lancement de laCampagne du Conseil de l’Europe pourcombattre la violence à l’égard desfemmes, y compris la violence domes-tique, s’est tenue au Sénat espagnol deMadrid le 27 novembre 2006. Tous lesÉtats membres du Conseil de l’Europe yétaient représentés, à l’exception de l’Ar-ménie, la Belgique, la Bosnie-Herzégo-vine, le Liechtenstein, la Pologne et laSuisse. Les États suivants ont assisté à laconférence en qualité d’observateurs : leCanada, le Saint-Siège et le Mexique.

Plus de 400 personnes ont participé àcette conférence, y compris des vice-premiers ministres, ministres, vice-mi-nistres, secrétaires d’État, hauts fonc-tionnaires, parlementaires, représen-tants des autorités locales et régionalestraitant des questions d’égalité entre lesfemmes et les hommes ainsi que des re-présentant(e)s d’organisations interna-tionales intergouvernementales et nongouvernementales et d’organes et ins-tances du Conseil de l’Europe.

La campagne a été lancée officielle-ment lors d’une cérémonie solennelle,au cours de laquelle les participant(e)sde haut niveau ont exprimé leur soutienà sa mise en œuvre. Le Conseil de l’Eu-rope a décidé de lancer cette campagneau cours du 3e Sommet de l’Organisa-tion, qui s’est tenu en mai 2005, durantlequel les chefs d’État et de gouverne-ment ont réaffirmé leur engagement àéradiquer la violence à l’égard desfemmes, y compris la violence domesti-que, et ont défini les activités futures duConseil de l’Europe dans ce domainedans le Plan d’action qu’ils ont adopté.En plus de leur décision de mettre enœuvre une campagne dans ce domaine,ils ont décidé de mettre en place uneTask Force pour combattre la violence àl’égard des femmes, y compris la vio-lence domestique. Ce groupe de huitexperts internationaux compétents en

matière de prévention et de lutte contrela violence à l’égard des femmes aélaboré le programme de la campagne,qui a été approuvé par la suite par leComité des Ministres du Conseil del’Europe le 21 juin 2006. Ce documentsert de feuille de route pour la mise enœuvre de la campagne et contient unedéfinition de la violence à l’égard desfemmes, ainsi que toutes les informa-tions relatives aux buts, objectifs, mes-sages et activités pour mettre en œuvrela campagne.

La campagne comporte troisdimensions : intergouvernementale,parlementaire et locale/régionale. Elleest menée par le Conseil de l’Europeainsi que par ses Etats membres, en par-tenariat avec des organisations inter-gouvernementales et des ONG impli-quées dans la protection des femmescontre la violence.

Pendant toute la durée de la campa-gne et au-delà, il a été demandé auxEtats membres de mettre en œuvretoutes les mesures contenues dans la Re-commandation (2002) 5 du Comité desMinistres aux États membres sur la pro-tection des femmes contre la violence,ainsi que de lancer des campagnesnationales en parallèle ou dans le cadredu suivi de la campagne du Conseil del’Europe.

La campagne s’achèvera lors d’uneconférence de clôture qui se tiendradurant le premier semestre 2008. Acette occasion, la Task Force du Conseilde l’Europe pour combattre la violence àl’égard des femmes, y compris la violencedomestique, présentera ses conclusionset son évaluation des mesures et actionsprises au niveau national pour combat-tre la violence à l’égard des femmes, ycompris la violence domestique, ainsique des recommandations au Conseilde l’Europe sur les actions futures dansce matière.


Programme of the Launching

conference

Council of Europe Campaign to Combat Violence against Women, including

Domestic Violence

Stop domestic

against womenv i o l e n c e Programme of the Launching conference

Programme

Launching conference

Organised by the Council of Europein co-operation with the Spanish authorities

Senate, Madrid, Spain,27 November 2006

Sunday, 26 November 2006 Welcoming dinner

8-11 pm Dinner-buffet hosted by Mr Terry Davis, Secretary General, Council of Europe, for all participants

Monday, 27 November 2006 Launching conference

8 am Registration of participants

9 am Words of welcome by Mr Juan José Lucas, Second Vice-President of the Senate, Spain

Opening of the conference by Mr Terry Davis, Secretary General, Council of Europe

9.10 am Violence against Women: Situation in Council of Europe member statesKeynote speaker: Ms Carol Hagemann-White, Professor, Faculty of General Ped-agogy and Gender Studies, University of Osnabrück, Germany

Questions and discussion

9.30 am Support and protection of victimsChair: Ms Rosemarie Zapfl-Helbling, Vice-Chairperson of the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

Keynote speaker: Mr Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner for Human Rights , Council of Europe

Panel discussionMs Enriqueta Chicano, Chair of the Federation of Progressive Women and Vice-Chair of the State Observatory on Violence against Women, Spain

Ms Nimet Çubukçu, State Minister for Women and Family Affairs, Turkey

Ms Darinka Stantcheva, Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

Ms Sandra Barnes, Member of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Council of Europe



Stop à la violence


10.30 am Innovative legal and policy measures to combat violence against women – data collection as a prerequisite for effective policies

Chair: Ms Dubravka Šimonović, Chairperson of the Council of Europe Task Force to Combat Violence against Women, including Domestic Violence

Keynote speaker: Ms Tuula Haatainen, Minister for Social Affairs and Health, Finland

Panel discussion

Ms Donatella Linguiti, Secretary of State, Ministry for Rights and Equal Oppor-tunities, Italy

Ms Meg Munn, Deputy Minister for Women and Equality, United Kingdom

Ms Soledad Murillo, Secretary General on Equal Opportunities, Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Spain

Mr Jean-Guy Branger, Member of the Parliamentary Assembly, Council of Europe

Ms Genoveva Tisheva, Managing Director, Bulgarian Gender Research Founda-tion, Bulgaria

Ms Sylvia Walby, Professor, Sociology Department, Lancaster University, United Kingdom


11.40 am Break

12.10 pm Solemn launching ceremony

Musical performance by Ms Esperanza Fernández

Welcoming address by Mr Francisco Javier Rojo García, President of the Senate, Spain

Address by Mr René van der Linden, President of the Parliamentary Assembly, Council of Europe

Address by Mr Ian Micallef, President of the Chamber of Local Authorities of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Council of Europe

Address by Mr Fiorenzo Stolfi, Chair of the Committee of Ministers, Council of Europe

Mr Heliodoro Gallego Cuesta, President of the Spanish Federation of Municipal-ities and Provinces, Spain

Mr Jesús Caldera Sánchez-Capitán, Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, Spain

Mr Juan Fernando López Aguilar, Minister of Justice, Spain

Mr Miguel Angel Moratinos, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Spain

Mr Manuel Marín González, President of the Congress of Deputies, Spain

Address by Mr Terry Davis, Secretary General, Council of Europe

Address by Mr José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Prime Minister, Spain

1.30 pm Lunch-buffet hosted by “Las Cortes Generales” for all participants


Stop domestic

against womenv i o l e n c e Programme of the Launching conference

3 pm Changing attitudes to combat violence against women Chair: Mr Pēteris Elferts, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Per-manent Representative of Latvia to the Council of Europe, Thematic Co-ordina-tor on Gender Equality of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe

Keynote speaker: Ms Yakin Etürk, United Nations Special Rapporteur on vio-lence against women, its causes and consequences

Panel discussionMs Jadranka Kosor, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Family, Veterans’ Affairs and Intergenerational Solidarity, Croatia

Ms Carmen Alborch Bataller, Member of the Congress of Deputies and Chair of the Joint Committee on Women’s Rights and Equal Opportunities, Spain

Ms Susana Camarero Benítez, Member of the Congress of Deputies, Spain

Ms Isabel Llinàs, Director of the Women’s Institute of the Balearic Islands, Spain

Ms Karine Henrotte-Forsberg, Representative of the Conference of INGOs en-joying participatory status with the Council of Europe


4.30 pm Break

5 pm United in combating domestic violence against womenChair: Mr Valerio Prignachi, Chair of the Committee on Social Cohesion of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe

Keynote speech: Ms Widney Brown, Senior Director, International Law, Policy and Campaigns, Amnesty International

Panel discussionMs Catherine Vautrin, Minister Delegate for Social Cohesion and Parity, France

Ms María Antonia Martínez García, Member of the Senate, Co-rapporteur of the Inter-Parliamentary Union on “How parliaments can and must promote effective ways of combating violence against women in all fields”, Spain

Ms Anna Záborská, Chairperson of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality of the European Parliament

Mr Ramón Ropero Mancera, Member of the Congress of Local and Regional Au-thorities, Council of Europe

Ms Hijran Huseynova, Chairperson of the State Committee for Family, Women and Children’s Issues, Azerbaijan


6 pm Closing session Mr Philippe Boillat, Director General of Human Rights, Council of Europe

Ms Minodora Cliveti, Chairperson of the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

Mr Jesús Caldera Sánchez-Capitán, Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, Spain

6.30 pm End of conference


Programme de la Conférence

de lancement

Campagne du Conseil de l’Europe pour combattre la violence à l’égard

des femmes, y compris la violence domestique

Stop domestic

against womenv i o l e n c e Programme de la Conférence de lancement

Programme


organisée par le Conseil de l’Europeen coopération avec les autorités espagnoles

Sénat, Madrid, Espagne,27 novembre 2006

Dimanche, 26 novembre 2006 Dîner de bienvenue

20h-23h Dîner-buffet offert par M. Terry Davis, Secrétaire Général, Conseil de l’Europe à tous/toutes les participant(e)s

Lundi, 27 novembre 2006 Conférence de lancement

8h Enregistrement des participant(e)s

9h Paroles de bienvenue de M. Juan José Lucas, second Vice-Président du Sénat, Espagne

Ouverture de la Conférence par M. Terry Davis, Secrétaire Général, Conseil de l’Europe

9h10 Violence à l’égard des femmes : situation dans les États membres du Conseil de l’EuropeRapporteuse : Mme Carol Hagemann-White, Professeur, Faculté de pédagogie gé-nérale et d’études de genre, Université d’Osnabrück, Allemagne

Questions et discussion

9h30 Soutien et protection des victimesPrésidence : Mme Rosemarie Zapfl-Helbling, Vice-présidente de la Commission sur l’égalité des chances pour les femmes et les hommes de l’Assemblée parle-mentaire du Conseil de l’Europe

Rapporteur : M. Thomas Hammarberg, Commissaire aux Droits de l’Homme, Conseil de l’Europe

Table rondeMme Enriqueta Chicano, Présidente de la Fédération des femmes progressistes et Vice-présidente de l’Observatoire national de la violence à l’égard des femmes, Espagne

Mme Nimet Çubukçu, Ministre d’État des Affaires relatives aux femmes et à la fa-mille, Turquie

Mme Darinka Stantcheva, Membre de l’Assemblée parlementaire, Conseil de l’Eu-rope


Stop à la violence


Mme Sandra Barnes, Membre du Congrès des pouvoirs locaux et régionaux, Conseil de l’Europe


10h30 Mesures juridiques et politiques novatrices pour combattre la violence à l’égard des femmes – Collecte de données, condition préalable de politiques efficacesChair: Mme Dubravka Šimonović, Présidente de la Task Force du Conseil de l’Eu-rope pour combattre la violence à l’égard des femmes, y compris la violence do-mestique

Rapporteuse : Mme Tuula Haatainen, Ministre des Affaires sociales et de la Santé, Finlande

Table rondeMme Donatella Linguiti, Secrétaire d’État, Ministère des Droits et de l’Égalité des chances, Italie

Mme Meg Munn, Vice-Ministre pour les femmes et l’égalité, Royaume-Uni

Mme Soledad Murillo, Secrétaire générale de l’Égalité des chances, Ministère du Travail et des Affaires sociales, Espagne

M. Jean-Guy Branger, Membre de l’Assemblée parlementaire, Conseil de l’Eu-rope

Mme Genoveva Tisheva, Directrice exécutive, Fondation bulgare des recherches de genre, Bulgarie

Mme Sylvia Walby, Professeur, Département de sociologie, Université de Lan-caster, Royaume-Uni


11h40 Pause

12h10 Cérémonie solennelle de lancementIntermède musical par Mme Esperanza Fernández

Allocution de bienvenue de M. Francisco Javier Rojo García, Président du Sénat, Espagne

Allocution de M. René van der Linden, Président de l’Assemblée parlementaire, Conseil de l’Europe

Allocution de M. Ian Micallef, Président de la Chambre des pouvoirs locaux du Congrès des pouvoirs locaux et régionaux, Conseil de l’Europe

Allocution de M. Fiorenzo Stolfi, Président du Comité des Ministres, Conseil de l’Europe

M. Heliodoro Gallego Cuesta, Président de la Fédération espagnole des munici-palités et provinces, Espagne

M. Jesús Caldera Sánchez-Capitán, Ministre du Travail et des Affaires sociales, Espagne

M. Juan Fernando López Aguilar, Ministre de la Justice, Espagne

M. Miguel Angel Moratinos, Ministre des Affaires étrangères, Espagne

M. Manuel Marín González, Président du Congrès des députés, Espagne

Allocution de M. Terry Davis, Secrétaire Général, Conseil de l’Europe


Stop domestic

against womenv i o l e n c e Programme de la Conférence de lancement

Allocution de M. José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Premier Ministre, Espagne

13h30 Déjeuner-buffet offert par « Las Cortes Generales » à tous/toutes les partici-pant(e)s

15h Changer les attitudes pour combattre la violence à l’égard des femmes Présidence : M. Pēteris Elferts, Ambassadeur extraordinaire et plénipotentiaire, Représentant Permanent de la Lettonie auprès du Conseil de l’Europe, Coordi-nateur thématique du Comité des Ministres sur l’égalité entre les femmes et les hommes, Conseil de l’Europe

Rapporteuse : Mme Yakin Etürk, Rapporteuse spéciale des Nations Unies chargée de la question de la violence contre les femmes, ses causes et ses conséquences

Table rondeMme Jadranka Kosor, Vice-Première Ministre et Ministre de la Famille, des Af-faires des anciens combattants et de la Solidarité entre générations, Croatie

Mme Carmen Alborch Bataller, Membre du Congrès des députés et Présidente de la Commission Mixte des droits des femmes et de l’égalité des chances, Espagne

Mme Susana Camarero Benítez, Membre du Congrès des députés, Espagne

Mme Isabel Llinàs, Directrice de l’Institut des femmes des Iles Baléares, Espagne

Mme Karine Henrotte-Forsberg, Représentante de la Conférence des OING dotées du statut participatif auprès du Conseil de l’Europe


16h30 Pause

17h Uni(e)s pour combattre la violence domestique à l’égard des femmesPrésidence : M. Valerio Prignachi, Président de la Commission de la Cohésion sociale du Congrès des pouvoirs locaux et régionaux, Conseil de l’Europe

Rapporteuse : Mme Widney Brown, Directrice principale de la Division de droit international, des politiques et campagnes, Amnesty International

Table rondeMme Catherine Vautrin, Ministre déléguée à la cohésion sociale et à la parité, France

Mme María Antonia Martínez García, Membre du Sénat, Co-rapporteuse de l’Union interparlementaire sur « Comment les parlements peuvent-ils et doivent-ils promouvoir une lutte efficace contre la violence à l’égard des femmes dans tous les domaines », Espagne

Mme Anna Záborská, Présidente de la Commission des droits des femmes et de l’égalité de genre du Parlement européen

M. Ramón Ropero Mancera, Membre du Congrès des pouvoirs locaux et régio-naux, Conseil de l’Europe

Mme Hijran Huseynova, Présidente du Comité national pour les affaires de la fa-mille, des femmes et des enfants, Azerbaïdjan



Stop à la violence


18h Session de clôture M. Philippe Boillat, Directeur général des droits de l’homme, Conseil de l’Europe

Mme Minodora Cliveti, Présidente de la Commission sur l’égalité des chances pour les femmes et les hommes de l’Assemblée parlementaire du Conseil de l’Eu-rope

M. Jesús Caldera Sánchez-Capitán, Ministre du Travail et des Affaires sociales, Espagne

18h30 Fin de la conférence


Opening of the Conference

blank Page

Words of welcome by Mr Juan José Lucas

Second Vice-President of the Senate, Spain

Ladies and gentlemen,It is always a great satisfaction for

the Spanish Senate to host here in thishistoric setting, conferences dedi-cated to discussing the concerns,needs and interests of our fellow citi-zens, in this historic setting.

This is the House of Freedom andas such the home of all the women andall the men of our country. I thereforewish to begin by welcoming theCouncil of Europe conference tolaunch the Campaign to Combat Vio-lence against Women, including Do-mestic Violence.

A conference devoted to this socialissue is always, and above all, a confer-ence about life, about what it is thatmakes us the unique and irreplaceablehuman beings that we are in reality.

Violence against women is not anisolated or random problem but onethat is to be found in all spheres ofsociety and which has deep structuraland cultural roots. It is therefore aproblem that cannot be solvedwithout the untiring efforts of thewhole of society.

It is through conferences like thisthat we can help make the publicaware that we must continue our sus-tained efforts to eradicate this scourgeon society and give more and bettersupport to victims.

Behind every case of gender vio-lence there is a personal story – thestory of a woman’s suffering – and amore general problem: the break-down of our model of society. Suchviolence is not a question of race, age,social rank, culture, religion or natio-nality. It is a universal problem.

Statistics bear this out:In Spain 62 women have alreadydied this year – more than in thewhole of 2005.

Every 18 seconds a woman is ill-treated somewhere in the world.One in every five European womenis regularly maltreated and 95% ofsuch violence takes place in thehome.As the World Health Organisationquite rightly points out, gender vio-lence is the main cause of death forwomen between 15 and 45 years ofage throughout the world: morewomen die in this way than in roadaccidents or of cancer.These figures continue to weigh on

the conscience and the peace of mindof every one of us. It is impossible tostand back and do nothing. Anyonewho does so or who turns away from awoman close to them who is sufferingviolence from the mere fact of being awoman not only has a heart of stonebut is also a coward.

If we are to face up to gender vio-lence, we must not turn a blind eye tothe victims. As long as we ignore thevictims there will be violence and thatwill mean that we are losing the battleagainst violence.

Another distinctive characteristicof a society that has a sense of civic re-sponsibility is not only the refusal togive way to violence but an increasingtendency to adopt an attitude of zerotolerance.

We must all put an end to violentbehaviour within our families and inour surroundings and strive with en-thusiasm and energy to eradicate thisscourge on society.

Governments must be untiring intheir efforts to combat violence andpromote the required measures.

The drafting of policies whichgrant equal opportunities to womenand men, thus making equality areality, is the basis of the educational


Stop domestic

against womenv i o l e n c e Opening of the Conference

model that is required to eradicategender violence.

We also need public awareness-raising policies.

Each victim is not only an irretriev-able loss but also an unforgivableshame, which weighs on the con-science of society as a whole and of thepublic authorities.

We never demonstrate greaterdignity or humanity than when wetackle the evils that beset us with thecourage and vigour that has charac-terised the human race since its crea-tion.

Throughout the intense day ofwork that lies ahead of us, we will lookat both the situation in Council ofEurope member states and at thesupport and protection afforded tothe victims of domestic violence, and

at the measures, laws and policiesapplied in combating violence, andwill discuss how to change attitudesand how to join forces in preventingdomestic violence.

I believe that the conference pro-gramme, which will begin with anaddress by Mr Terry Davis, the Secre-tary General of the Council of Europeand be closed by the Minister ofLabour and Social Affairs of Spain,Mr Caldera, could not be more inter-esting, more appropriate or more nec-essary.

But I also believe that my finalwords this morning should be wordsof gratitude and of official encourage-ment to all those who work every dayto rid society of this scourge.

To those who help through theirefforts to avoid gender violence,

showing not only their sense of dutyand dedication to the common goodbut also their human sensitivity, inother words their love of their neigh-bour. And our society needs suchdemonstrations of civic duty, dedica-tion and sensitivity.

Finally, I would like to express mysolidarity and my support for thewomen suffering from violence andmy admiration for those who defendthem, thereby setting an example tothe entire community. They showcourage and integrity, for which wepublic servants can only express thedeepest gratitude.

It is a real privilege for the SpanishSenate to host events such as this. Allthat remains is for me to wish youmuch success in your work.

Thank you very much.


Opening of the conference by Mr Terry Davis

Secretary General, Council of Europe

Ladies and gentlemen,I welcome you to the Conference

launching the Council of EuropeCampaign “Stop domestic violenceagainst women”. I would like to thankmost warmly the Spanish authoritiesand especially our hosts today, theSpanish Senate, for the hospitality andsupport in organising this event.

I was asked to officially open theConference, but I think that the first tospeak should be those most directlyconcerned by our Campaign – thevictims of domestic violence. Theshort video which you are about to see

contains testimonies of the victimsspeaking about their experience andtheir expectations from us. We cannot– and we do not need to – reveal theirnames and their countries of origin:these women could come from anybackground in any country in Europe.For far too many women in Europehome is a very dangerous place. This isthe reason for our Campaign.

The video can be seen on the Internetat http://www.coe.int/stopviolence/

intergov/.


Violence against women:

Situation in Council of Europe member states

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Keynote speech: Ms Carol Hagemann-White

Professor, Faculty of General Pedagogy and Gender Studies, University of Osnabrück, Germany

It is a pleasure and a great honour forme to speak at the opening of this veryimportant campaign. Although theCouncil of Europe has recognised vio-lence against women as an infringe-ment of human rights since 1993, andmember states have implemented avariety of measures to address it, be-ginning as early as the 1970s, this cam-paign is very necessary. It is a preciousopportunity to establish a sustainableshared strategy based on a coherentand comprehensive approach to over-come this very serious problem.

Despite the increased attention togender-based violence and many pos-itive developments in policy and inpractice, violence against women inits various forms is widespread in allEuropean countries.

Violence against women is so per-sistent and prevalent because it hasmultiple roots. It grows from, ex-presses, and sustains cultural, socialand legal traditions that define womenas subordinate to men, not full andequal citizens. Many institutions ofmodern society are organised on theunexamined premise that women takeon supporting roles in both work andfamily, and for low rewards, care forothers while receiving little care forthemselves; and that men have theright to expect these services andsupport as measured by their ownneeds. Gender-based violence growsfrom the idea that men have the right,and it is exercised in the service of mas-culine dominance. It is one of the clear-est indicators of gender inequality,

The modern private sphere holdswithin itself a second major root ofgender-based (as well as inter-genera-tional) violence. The family has beenconsidered a sphere in which societyand the state ought not to intervene.

Along with the undeniable value ofprivacy for many human needs, it isalso a space in which the abuse ofpower cannot easily be checked. Inaddition, everything seen as sexual istreated as a private matter, wherever ithappens at work, on the streets, in or-ganisations such as sports clubs or po-litical parties. We have not reachedthat level of civilisation where itbecomes self-evident that sexual inti-macy requires willing consent. Notonly have we centuries of laws permit-ting a man to use his wife sexually ashe pleases; perversely, when a man as-saults a woman sexually, bystanders oragents of justice often assume an inti-mate relationship based on consent.European societies still find it easier torestrict smoking or drinking than toforbid sexual assault in any effectiveway.

There is, however, a third impor-tant root of gender-based violence. Itmust be said that there is widespreadrespect for violence itself, as a meansof winning a struggle, establishingstatus or even as an expression of self,in our mainstream majority cultures.The media play to the sympathy forviolence daily. Respect for violencepersists (and resurges) whenever indi-viduals or groups are not competentor secure enough to solve conflictsconstructively. In addition, violencefeeds on violence: it can become aneed, a habit, or even a day’s work.

Gender-based violence againstwomen is thus complex, and in eachconcrete case, different aspects –dominance, defence of privacy, andconflict tactics – may come to the foreor be the primary determinants of actsthat cause harm to women, to childrenand to society. Nonetheless, as thebody of research shows, we must becareful not to confuse them


Stop domestic

against womenv i o l e n c e Violence against women:

Since 1995, many Europeanmember states have commissionedpopulation-based surveys to measurethe extent of violence against women;at least 23 such studies are currentlyavailable.1 In addition, victimisationhas been studied within the healthcare system, where the percentage ofwomen with a background of violenceis usually higher than in the generalpopulation, regardless of their reasonfor seeking health care. A Europeanresearch network, the Co-ordinationAction on Human Rights Violations(CAHRV), has examined the availabledata more closely over the past threeyears.2

More than one woman in ten hassuffered sexual coercion or rapeduring her adult life. For women – butnot for men – all kinds of attacks, in-cluding sexual assault and rape, aremost often carried out by partners andex-partners. Across countries,between 20% and 40% of women whohave ever had have a partner have ex-perienced at least one act of physicalor sexual partner violence (or both) intheir lives. Emotional violence is evenmore frequent and can do seriousharm to women’s general healthstatus. It should not be under-esti-mated; some studies have found thatemotional violence, especially when itis repeated and takes a variety offorms, does even greater damage tothe health and well-being of the victimthan do physical attacks.

Domestic abuse is a more specificproblem; it is best defined as a patternof coercive control including repeatedphysical, emotional and sexual attacksthat may cause fear, distress, andhealth damage. In-depth data analysesin several countries support an esti-mate that 12% to 15% of all ever-part-nered women have been in a relation-ship of domestic abuse. In all studies,physical and sexual violence by formerpartners are at least twice as frequentas abuse by current partners, indicat-ing that women are not secure whenthey leave a relationship.

The health impact of violencereaches far beyond immediate inju-ries. Common health consequencesinclude: psychosomatic problems,chronic pain syndromes, eating disor-ders, depression and anxiety. Womenwho have been physically, sexually oremotionally abused are at signifi-cantly higher risk for the excessive useof nicotine, alcohol, and psychophar-macological medication. Their sexualand reproductive health is affected aswell: Women suffer an increased riskof unwanted pregnancy, foetal inju-ries, complications during pregnancyand miscarriage, a higher risk of sexu-ally transmitted infections, and othergynaecological disorders, infertility,and sexual dysfunction. Thus, it is notsurprising that when women seekhelp beyond the circle of family andfriends, they turn to the health caresystem even more often than to thepolice. Regrettably, health profession-als are often not trained to recognisethe effects of violence or to respond.

Research finds that witnessing do-mestic violence and growing up in aviolent environment has a harmfuleffect on the child’s emotional, behav-ioural and mental health, and increasesthe risk for children to suffer traumaticstress symptoms, psychosomatic ill-nesses, deficit attention disorder, andlow educational achievement. Further,boys who witness violence against theirmother are more likely to becomeviolent against their partner them-selves in adult life; girls with this back-ground are more than twice as likely asothers to be victims of domestic vio-lence, and four times as likely to en-counter sexual violence in their adult

lives. Thus, when the society fails toprotect women from violence, childrenwill not thrive, and a pattern of violenceis likely to continue.

Gender-based violence has conse-quences for both the wider society andthe individual victim. It causes pain,fear and distress, reduces the capacityof victimised women to contributeproductively to the family, theeconomy and public life, and drainsthe resources of social services, thejustice system, health care agenciesand of employers – costs that must beseen both in terms of human sufferingand of economic loss. Most studiesarrive at estimates in a range of about20 to 60 euros for every person in thepopulation per year. Thus, a countrywith a population of 10 million couldbe facing a financial burden of inter-vention, policing, health care andservices of some 400 million euroseach year from violence againstwomen in the home. For the entireCouncil of Europe, the cost of domes-tic violence could be reckoned at anannual total of at least 33 billion euros.

In a broader view, domestic vio-lence lowers the overall educationalattainment, mobility and innovativepotential of a significant proportion ofthe population: the women who arevictimised, the children growing upwitnessing the violence, and even theperpetrators who resort to destructiveacts are restricted in their potential. Asociety that tolerates what it sees as“private” violence will be a crippledcompetitor in the knowledge- andcreativity-based economy of thefuture. The high costs of violenceconfirm that gender-based violence isa social, a public and no longer aprivate problem, and that it urgentlyneeds to be addressed, as society as awhole, governments, individuals, or-ganisations and businesses pay for it.

In April 2002, the Committee ofMinisters of the Council of Europeadopted Recommendation Rec (2002)5 on the protection of women againstviolence. This was the first interna-tional legal document to frame a com-prehensive approach including allforms of violence against women.

It covers services, legislation, po-licing, intervention with perpetrators,

1. National representative surveys havebeen published in Belgium, Denmark, Esto-nia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland,Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal,Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United King-dom (England and Wales, Scotland). Datahave also been collected on a national level inBosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Re-public, Iceland, Slovakia and Turkey, butpublications do not exist or are not availablein a widely-read language. Serbia/Monte-negro was included in the WHO multi-coun-try study. For an overview see Martinez, M.,Schröttle, M. et al., Report on the state of Euro-pean research on the prevalence of interpersonalviolence and its impact on health and humanrights, 2005, http://www.cahrv.uni-osnabrueck.de/.2. Research overviews both on the datacomparison and on evaluation of measuresto address violence are to be found on theWeb site http://www.cahrv.uni-osnabrueck.de./


Stop à la violence

faite aux femmesdomestiqueKeynote speech: Ms Carol Hagemann-White

awareness-raising, education andtraining and data collection as well asspecific additional measures. Centralto the Recommendation is the call fora co-ordinated national strategy ineach country, based on maximumsafety, protection and empowermentof victimised women.

A Group of Specialists on imple-mentation and follow-up drafted amonitoring framework based on indi-cators, sent to all member states by theCDEG in June 2005. The replies to thissurvey, in combination with multi-country research assessments of theeffective functioning of differentmeasures compiled within a broad-based European research network,allowed us to take stock of where theCouncil of Europe and the memberstates stand in combating violenceagainst women.

We found that an increasingnumber of member states are devel-oping an overall strategy in the shapeof National Action Plans, but there arestill significant gaps in the protectionafforded to women. On average, theaction plans address only four of thenine forms of violence mentioned inthe Recommendation; in particular,sexual violence is not being addressedin many countries. Correspondingly,less than half of the member statesreport having rape crisis centres withspecifically trained staff. Most coun-tries do, however, recognise the needfor shelters where women can escapedomestic abuse, although the numberof places varies greatly, and manywomen do not, in fact, have access tothem when in need. Protection fromfurther violence, a clear priority of theRecommendation, is often left to theefforts of NGOs.

Good laws are the foundation forsetting limits to violence. Legal andpolice systems differ, however: Divi-sions between civil, criminal, public/police and procedural law, levels of re-sponsibility (national, state/district,municipal) and jurisdictions differamong the states, as do the roles ofstatutory agencies and the voluntarysector. Thus laws are not easily com-pared transnationally. We can see avery dynamic process of legislativereform and elaboration to address do-

mestic violence, but it is not certainthat the laws are being implemented.

In assessing progress, it is useful todistinguish between:

measures to protect victims fromfurther harm, andmeasures to deter and punish vio-lence against women.These two types of measures often

do not work together easily. For exam-ple, policy-makers and legislators fre-quently focus on punishing perpetra-tors. Yet violence to a woman isusually perpetrated by a man whoknows her, or even lives with her.Before the case comes to court, weeksor months may pass, during which thewoman may be in even more danger.On the other hand, measures thatoffer only safety from further attacksfail to confront the perpetrators withtheir wrong-doing. Women haveoften spent years of their lives inhiding, afraid that an abusive manwould hunt them down or even killthem. Protection without sanctions ordeterrence makes women dependenton their protectors.

There is a trend towards specificlaws that penalise domestic violencemore strongly than in the past, expect-ing the public prosecutor to initiateproceedings ex officio. There is, how-ever, little monitoring of the actual pro-portion of cases prosecuted, and toolittle mention of protective measuresfor the victim. The data at presentsuggest that, for all forms of gender vio-lence, including rape and sexual as-sault, there has been little success inbringing perpetrators to court. Evenheavy penalties do not deter the vio-lence if they only exist on paper, as maywell be the case if the victim is notoffered safety and support. It is essen-tial to link safety for the victims withdeterrence for the perpetrators.

To this end, legal measures havebeen developed to protect women byfrom further violence by a partner orex-partner. These aim to secure animmediate physical distance betweenthe perpetrator and the victim, forexample by police action on the spot,removing him from the home (as inAustria and Germany), or by court-issued restraining orders at therequest of the victim (as in the United

Kingdom). Such legislation is usuallyseparate from laws aimed at criminalprosecution.

In most countries, it has takenmany years of imaginative and persist-ent awareness-raising and patient co-alition-building to reach a point atwhich a coherent strategy of address-ing violence against women canemerge. Since conditions and struc-tures differ, there is no one best solu-tion, no method of choice, but on thewhole, the work of civil society organ-isations has been vital to the process.In each country, region or community,those who care about ending violenceagainst women must study their envi-ronments, assess the existing re-sources and try to identify thecommon interest in bringing aboutchange. Member states need to showclearly that they value these efforts byrecognising the work of NGOs.

But if the pathway forward windsdifferently to fit the local landscape,we can also now speak with assuranceof standards for good practice. Theseare developments and achievementsthat have been put to the test in prac-tice and that have proved their practi-cal value across different countriesand over time. To attain sustainablechange, there must be possibilities forsecuring protection and imposingsanctions in all areas of the law andwith respect to all forms of gender-based violence. A clear legal founda-tion and the political will to overcome,not to disregard gendered interper-sonal violence is essential. At the sametime, all measures must be tailored toensuring the safety of the victims; thisis especially true of domestic violence,where any action must be examined inthe light of whether it increases thesafety of victims and their children.

For the future, progress towardsovercoming violence against womenwill depend on policies and publicawareness that go beyond protectionand deterrence and address the multi-ple roots of the problem. We mustovercome notions of legitimate maledominance, cease to shield the privatesphere from the obligation to respecthuman rights, and educate adults andchildren to transform conflict pro-ductively without violence.


Support and protection of victims

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Address: Ms Rosemarie Zapfl-Helbling

Vice-Chairperson of the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

Ladies and gentlemen,

I am most honoured to chair thesession on victim protection andsupport at this conference today.Before going any further, I should liketo introduce myself briefly: my nameis Rosemarie Zapfl-Helbling and I ama member of the Swiss NationalCouncil and Vice-Chair of the Parlia-mentary Assembly of the Council ofEurope’s Committee on Equal Oppor-tunities for Women and Men.

We just heard an interesting con-tribution by Professor Hagemann-White about the situation in Europe. Ishould now like to take you furtherback and turn to the people we heardon video at the opening session thismorning: the victims or survivors ofdomestic violence against women. Forall the best laws and the most impres-sive campaigns will be in vain unlesswe succeed in protecting the victimsof such violence and helping them inthe actual situation they face. Thisalso means helping them escape fromtheir role as victims.

We at the Parliamentary Assemblyof the Council of Europe regard do-mestic violence as a violation ofhuman rights. We must make surethat human rights apply in the home,which means we must put an end todomestic violence against women. Asparliamentarians we have a right and aduty to make sure that women whosuffer domestic violence are able toturn to people or officials they cantrust so that the doors to a new life freeof violence and fear of violence areopened up for them. As one of the sur-vivors said on the video, it is essentialthat not just one door but ten doorsopen up. We parliamentarians cannotsucceed here on our own: we need ef-fective co-operation between parlia-mentarians, governments, NGOs, thecourts, the police and welfare serv-ices. That is why the Council ofEurope Campaign we are launchinghere today is so terribly important.

I am delighted to hand over to theCouncil of Europe Commissioner forHuman Rights, Mr Thomas Ham-marberg, keynote speaker on this par-ticular theme.


Keynote speech: Mr Thomas Hammarberg

Commissioner for Human Rights, Council of Europe

It has to be said at the outset that vio-lence against women is a manifesta-tion of unequal status between menand women in society. Therefore, vio-lence against women must be ad-dressed in the context of seeking toend all forms of discrimination, to ad-vance gender equality and to em-power women.

Women are still grossly under-represented in almost all political as-semblies and decision-making bodiesat all levels in Europe – also within theCouncil of Europe. This in turn is re-flected in the priorities selected and,very importantly, on budgets and de-cisions on funding.

In spite of the numerous women’srights conferences, agreed normsagainst discrimination and politicalpledges about gender equity, the gapbetween rhetoric and the daily realityremains. This is the main message inthe UN Study on Violence AgainstWomen which was published just afew days ago.

The UN Study points out thatthough strong laws have been adoptedin many countries, most national-level responses have been inadequateand have not eradicated the impunityperpetrators too often enjoy.

The Study confirms previousreports indicating that the level of vio-lence against women, including do-mestic violence, remains very high.Though precise data are lacking, weknow that such abuses are widespreadand a serious problem also acrossEurope – affecting the lives of a largenumber of women, as well as theirchildren.

We also know that where combat-ing violence against women hasindeed been made a priority by thegovernment, we have seen tangibleimprovements in a relatively short

time. The host country of this confer-ence has been one of those that havetaken the issue very seriously andprogress is being made. This is largelythanks to the efforts of the women’smoment and the good co-operationbetween the government and thewomen’s groups.

This Conference should clearlysend the message across Europe thatcombating violence against women isa very high priority and something tobe taken seriously. The support dem-onstrated here in statements must beturned into serious action at the na-tional and local levels, where it reallymatters.

The video testimonies of survivorsthat we saw this morning underlinedthe importance of a victim-centredapproach when combating violenceagainst women. Another importantprinciple is the need to empower thevictim. Victims of violence must beable to regain and take control of theirlives and they should not be re-victim-ised by unprofessional or insensitiveapproaches by social, health-care,judicial and other authorities.

One of the consequences of therecognition of violence againstwomen as a human rights issue is thatnot only the individual perpetratorsbut also the authorities carry respon-sibility. The authorities must doeverything they possibly can toprevent the violence, to protect vic-tims, to award compensation and toprosecute and punish the perpetra-tors.

However, when it comes to meas-ures to protect and support the victim,they cannot do it alone. The involve-ment of women’s groups and net-works is crucial.

There is a vast amount of knowl-edge and experience accumulated


Stop à la violence

faite aux femmesdomestiqueKeynote speech: Mr Thomas Hammarberg

over the years to guide the work of theauthorities on how to protect andsupport victims of violence againstwomen. They are listed in an impor-tant Recommendation adopted in2002 by the Committee of Ministerswithin the Council of Europe but alsoin a number of UN documents, in-cluding the reports by the SpecialRapporteur Yakin Ertürk. These aresome of the messages:

The legal framework is importantand must provide for a wide defini-tion of violence against women, in-cluding psychological forms. Itmust cover preventive and educa-tional measures, as well as protec-tion and assistance for victims andmeasures against perpetrators.A good law is the result of a broadconsultative process involvingwomen’s groups and experts, in-cluding victims, and taking intoaccount the opinions of civil soci-ety.The laws must be effectively en-forced. Detailed guidelines or pro-tocols to establish clear standards,for example for the police to followwhen dealing with violence againstwomen, are necessary.Education of police, social workers,health workers, teachers and thejudiciary must include training onhow to recognise and deal with vio-lence against women. It is crucialthat the response to such abuses isprofessional and gender sensitive.

The rights of the victims to privacy,dignity and full autonomy shouldbe met at all stages and by all auth-orities.We should give special attention to

those most at risk. A sensitive analysiswould, for instance, detect the partic-ular vulnerability of migrant women.A migrant woman who is subjected todomestic violence is unlikely to reportto the police for fear of losing her res-idence status, if it is dependant on herhusband’s status. Some countries haveaddressed this concern by allowingvictims of domestic violence to applyfor permanent residence status irre-spective of their spouses support forthe application. This is a responsibleapproach.

Sensitivity to the needs of thevictims also calls for comprehensiveand accessible services. The victimmust be able to overcome all thevarious difficulties and consequencesthat violence has caused. Supportservices must take into account andrespond to both immediate and long-term needs of the victim.

Health clinics are often first amongservices to come into contact withvictims of violence. It is importantthat health personnel are welltrained, gender sensitive and haveclear referral systems in place tolink to other support sectors.Health care providers must be ableto refer the victim to counselling or

temporary safe housing, and ifneeded, to the police.Essential services also include theprovision of information about therights of victims and access to legalaid.Hotlines and telephone help serv-ices must be set up to provide infor-mation free of charge.Ensuring that women have accessto shelters to protect them fromfurther violence is important.Good shelters also provide a rangeof other services. Often, sheltersare run by NGOs, but authoritiesdo have a responsibility to assistand co-operate with these organi-sations. Shelters should be seen asan emergency, short-term solutionand of course not justify that thevictim is the one who has to move.Providing services is essential but

they cannot eliminate the need to es-tablish an ethical consensus that vio-lence against women is an absolutetaboo. The threshold must be made ashigh as ever possible. This is why it isparticularly important that leadingpoliticians, male and female, do dem-onstrate that this is a priority issue.

They should listen to the women’smovement.They should do their share of edu-cating the public.They should explain the para-mount importance of zero toler-ance towards domestic vio-lence.


Speech: Ms Nimet Çubukçu

State Minister for Women and Family Affairs, Turkey

Esteemed participants, distin-guished press members,

It is a great pleasure for me to behere with you in this conference or-ganised by the Council of Europe inco-operation with the Spanish auth-orities. I greet you with respect.

Enhancing gender equality insociety and promoting women’shuman rights have been regarded inall international documents as the re-sponsibility of the State.

However, despite the considerableprogress made in guaranteeing the fullrights of women and ending violenceagainst women both at internationaland national level, women all aroundthe world continue to fall victim toviolence.

We all appreciate the fact that theCouncil of Europe has made the fightagainst domestic violence a priorityactivity in 2006-08, and call on allmember states to launch nationalcampaigns beginning in November.

Violence against women and chil-dren by men, which is harmful and de-structive in its very nature, knows noeconomic, social or geographicboundaries.

Therefore, it is really a globalproblem that has to be addressed. Onthe one hand, it reflects social genderinequality. On the other, it supportsthis inequality.

Social gender-based violence in-cludes domestic violence, rape andhonour killings and leads to killing,negligence and harassment of girlsand women as a result of physical orpsychological torture.

Dear participants, I should like to emphasise that

there is still so much to do to developa social awareness to combat violenceagainst women and to increase the

number and improve the quality ofrelated institutions.

It is not only knowledge and capitalthat are globalised in our time, butalso problems related to humanbeings.

It needs all of us to expand our ef-forts, in global co-operation at bothnational and international levels, tocombat violence against women.

I believe that this launching confer-ence is of great significance in thiseffort and I hope that it will contributeto our attempts to combat violenceagainst women in the next two years.

Violence against women is also awidespread social problem through-out Turkey.

Turkey has undertaken legislativereforms with the stated aim of en-hancing gender equality and promot-ing women’s human rights and hasmade the necessary progress in legalaspects. Yet there are still steps to betaken for the implementation of theselaws.

The most significant step to betaken, in this regard, is to change thetraditional practices which violate theexisting laws and to enhance aware-ness of social gender equality.

Dear participants, One of the most serious violations

of human rights which specificallytargets women is crimes committed inthe name of honour.

In 2005 the Investigation Commis-sion that was constituted within theTurkish Grand National Assemblycompleted its investigations on “TheCauses of Honour Killings and Vio-lence against Women and Childrenand Measures to Be Taken”.

In the light of the report preparedby the Investigation Commission, aPrime Ministerial circular on “Meas-


Stop à la violence

faite aux femmesdomestiqueSpeech: Ms Nimet Çubukçu

ures to Be Taken to Prevent Violenceagainst Women and Children andHonour Killings” was issued and putinto effect. This circular indicates theimportance that our government at-taches to issues related to violenceagainst women.

In accordance with the above-mentioned circular, the aim is to es-tablish a Monitoring Committee re-garding violence against women andto prepare a Violence Action Plan for2006-10 under the co-ordination ofthe Directorate General on the Statusand Problems of Women Office of thePrime Minister.

I should also like to draw attentionto:

the Law on the Protection of theFamily, adopted in 1998 to preventdomestic violence, which was amilestone;the New Labour Law, adopted in2003, which included decrees thatdo not allow direct or indirect dis-criminatory treatment regardinggender;the New Municipality Law,enacted in 2004, which authorisesmunicipalities to provide servicesfor victims of violence.

Dear participants, I should also like to inform you

about the institutional practices andcampaigns aiming at enhancingpublic awareness in Turkey.

The Directorate General of SocialServices and Child Protection Insti-tute provides services for batteredwomen through 17 refuges forwomen. Provinces, municipalities,

private institutions and associationsalso operate 13 refuges for women.

The total capacity of those sheltersin Turkey is 469. A total of 5 512women and 4 232 children werehoused in these shelters since theywere opened and 1 059 women placedin a job.

The Directorate General of SocialServices and Child Protection Insti-tute provides counselling services forbattered women through CommunityCentres and Family ConsultationCentres. Those community centresprovide psychological, legal and fi-nancial counselling for batteredwomen and direct those women to therelated units.

Another initiative targetingwomen is the Multipurpose Commu-nity Centres established by the South-eastern Anatolia Project (GAP) Ad-ministration. The number of thesecentres has reached 30 in 11 prov-inces.

Public institutions, local adminis-trations, media and NGOs have sup-ported the “Stop Violence AgainstWomen” Campaign that waslaunched in 2004.

In order to expand the boundariesof the campaign, with the valuablesupport of our Prime Minister infighting violence against women, a TVspot has been prepared to show on na-tional and local channels. Our PrimeMinister in person took part in thisspot and contributed to the campaignby saying “Stop Violence againstWomen”.

In 2007 the foremost textile firmswill support the campaign by stitching

a piece of cloth inside the jackets theyproduce bearing the slogan “Stop Vio-lence against Women”.

In order to enhance men’s involve-ment in preventing violence againstwomen and make them aware of thesignificance of the issue, educationalmaterials, CDs and posters that pointout the issues regarding the impor-tance of education for girls, equalitybetween women and men, women’shuman rights, violence againstwomen and the prevention of honour/virtue killings have been prepared andused in civic studies classes of non-commissioned officers.

Through extensive campaigns andeducational programmes that aim atpromoting men’s awareness of theissue of violence against women,Turkey has proceeded at all levels andcontinues its work with determina-tion.

The main aim of our government isto eliminate all forms of discrimina-tion against women and to combatviolence against women, to protectwomen’s human rights and to preventhonour killings.

I should like to thank the Council ofEurope and the Spanish Governmentfor organising this meeting, giving usthe opportunity to come together for ashared goal.

I shall conclude my remarks withan invitation to men: For a betterworld where we all, men and women,can live together in peace … “Stop Vio-lence against women, including do-mestic violence, at once!”

I wish you a very fruitful and suc-cessful meeting.


Speech: Ms Darinka Stantcheva

Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

Dear Chair, dear Ministers, dearfellow-parliamentarians, distinguishedguests,

It is with great pleasure and honourthat I address the launching confer-ence of the Council of Europe Cam-paign to Combat Violence againstWomen, including Domestic Violence.I am one of the now forty contact par-liamentarians appointed by nationalParliaments to implement the parlia-mentary dimension of the Council ofEurope Campaign, and I would like tothank warmly the Spanish Senate forhosting this conference today.

Violence is a word we get to hearmore and more often in our daily life;a word that fills anyone that hasrespect for human rights and dignitywith the resolve to fight against thisphenomenon.

Practice shows that for the fightagainst violence to be effective,actions of all parts of society must besynchronised: the executive, the legis-lature, local authorities, the non-gov-ernmental sector, the media, and civilsociety. The motto “This is everyone’scause” is the key to success. To thatend, it is necessary to establish an in-tegral, fully operational system of pro-tecting the victims (mostly women).

We all agree that domestic violenceis a human rights violation. But whatdoes this mean in concrete terms forthe victims and for society as a whole?

Violence against women preventswomen from enjoying their humanrights.Violence is one of the main reasonsfor the deterioration of women’shealth.Violence against women has a highsocial price. It leads to loss ofhuman potential, increased ex-penditure on social and rehabilita-

tion services, on law-enforcementactivities, the judicial system, etc.The Parliamentary Assembly has

always stressed that strong supportand protection of victims is crucial. Inits Recommendation 1681 (2004) on a“Campaign to combat domestic vio-lence against women in Europe”, theParliamentary Assembly emphasisedthat member states have an obligationunder international law to act withdue diligence to take effective steps toend violence against women, includ-ing domestic violence, and to protectits victims and survivors.

In the same way, the ParliamentaryAssembly put the needs of victimscentre-stage in fighting domestic vio-lence in its Resolution 1512 adoptedin June this year.

The Parliamentary Assembly istherefore inviting the public authori-ties to take the necessary action tocombat domestic violence effectivelyand publicly. Comprehensive action isneeded, which includes for example:

the creation of refuges for victims ofdomestic violence and their chil-drenthe setting up of domestic violencevictim support facilities in policestations the possibility for perpetrators ofdomestic violence to be bannedfrom the home of the victimthe training of staff working inhealth services, care, police, jus-tice, social and education services.It also means that women suffering

domestic violence must, from a legalpoint of view, be recognised as vic-tims. It must be ensured that the com-plaints they lodge with the police aretaken seriously and are adequatelyprocessed, that perpetrators are pros-ecuted and victims are awarded com-pensation.


Stop à la violence

faite aux femmesdomestiqueSpeech: Ms Darinka Stantcheva

The specific needs of the most vul-nerable women must also be consid-ered. This is why the ParliamentaryAssembly underlined in its mostrecent Resolution the necessity to givespecial attention to groups of womenwho are particularly exposed to therisks and consequences of domesticviolence, in particular women in andfrom immigrant communities, Romawomen, women from other ethnicminority communities, pregnantwomen, disabled or vulnerablewomen, women in precarious situa-tions or women confronted withalcohol or drug problems.

Ladies and gentlemen,This is everyone’s responsibility,

but first and foremost, it is our re-sponsibility, the responsibility of par-liamentarians. The fight against vio-lence should commence with thelegislative efforts of each individualcountry, making use of the good prac-tices of the others while necessarilyadapting them to the specific peculi-arities of the country in question.

I would now like to give you an il-lustration of how parliaments canimprove the support and protection ofvictims. Allow me to speak here aboutthe situation in my homeland, Bul-garia, where, until recently, domesticviolence was a hidden phenomenonwithout any relevant legal regulation.

Only a few years ago, women’sNGOs launched initiatives in order toincrease public awareness. Theseefforts led parliamentarians to take aninitiative on the issue of “discrimina-tion and violence against women”,which culminated in the adoption ofthe Protection from Domestic ViolenceAct, which is now a new standard inBulgarian law.

The Protection from DomesticViolence Act adopted in March 2005was a break-through in terms of patri-archal ideology characterising thesouth-east European countries and

the established clear separation ofpublic and private areas.

This Act was founded on the fol-lowing principles:

swiftness and even urgency of theact of defence; quick isolation of the perpetratorfrom the victim;special protection for the victims;accessibility of litigation;availability of various protectionmeasures;combination of legal defence underthe judicial administration proce-dures with administrative meas-ures and social protection and re-habilitation measures;co-ordination between the stateauthorities and the non-govern-mental sector.Preventing violence within families

was also one of the main objectives ofthe Act. I believe that this Act pro-vides a good basis for improving thepenal and legal defence mechanismsin cases of domestic violence, and theadministrative and legal regulationsdefining the competences of thepolice. The police plays a significantrole in taking swift action to protect thevictims of domestic violence: the policeshould intervene in cases of direct andimmediate danger.

It is the responsibility of the state toprovide assistance to the municipali-ties and the non-profit legal entities inthe creation of, and support for, theservices and centres for implementa-tion of the measures for rehabilitationof the victims and for the special pro-grammes intended for the perpetra-tors.

Special attention should be paid to:the provision of initial socialsupport to victims in order to facil-itate their social integration, byproviding special incentives to em-ployers hiring persons who haveexperienced violence; special job placement programmesfor such persons, in accordance

with the Employment PromotionAct.The allocation of funds for reme-

dies to aggrieved parties and victimsof violence, as well as steps to ensuretheir economic independence for aperiod of time (e.g. by setting up aspecial fund) must be among the pri-orities of the national programmes.

The protection and assurance ofthe physical and mental health of vic-tims, their self-image of preserveddignity, constitute an importantelement in the support given to them.A special role in such actions is playedby NGOs and the media, and the in-teraction with these in the promotionof public awareness about the meas-ures thus instituted.

A combination of greater publicityof the problem, educational workamong teenagers in schools, and pro-viding support for the families ofvictims will enable the effective appli-cation of the law, which is a crucialelement of the integrated system ofvictim protection.

By joining and supporting theCouncil of Europe initiative, webelieve that the national parliamentswill become a guarantor for furtherlegislative activity in this field, by fo-cusing on the three main goals: pre-vention, support of victims and theirsocial inclusion.

We, parliamentarians, must take allnecessary measures to ensure that ourgovernment is fulfilling its obligationsand ensuring effective protection ofvictims.

The Bulgarian Parliament there-fore warmly welcomes the Council ofEurope initiative for a pan-Europeancampaign.

We believe that the joint efforts ofall Council of Europe member stateswill be successful in combating vio-lence against women in all its formsand improve the protection of victims,even in their most private sphere.

Thank you for your attention.


Speech: Ms Sandra Barnes

Member of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Council of Europe

Good morning,I am Leader of South Northamp-

tonshire Council in addition to being amember of the Congress of Local andRegional Authorities’ Committee onSocial Cohesion.

Violence against women takes aterrible, often fatal, toll on women andtheir families in every town and regionacross Europe and is much morewidespread than many people believe.

The Congress of Local and Re-gional Authorities is committed tofighting this violation of human rightsand has already taken a strong standagainst violence and such crimes astrafficking in human beings. The Con-gress has also sought to countergender-based discrimination and theunequal balance of power between thesexes, insisting on the importance ofwomen’s participation in political lifeand their individual voting rights as ameans of empowerment and an affir-mation of their equal role in society.

What is the one thing that victimsof domestic violence have incommon? We have heard that peopleexperience domestic violence regard-less of their social group, class, age,race, disability, sexuality and lifestyle.That violence can take a number offorms from sexual abuse to threats,controlling behaviour and bullying,destructive criticism, isolation andharassment. The one thing all victimshave in common is that ultimatelythey live in a town, a municipality or aregion with specific municipal or re-gional authorities who are responsiblefor their welfare and to whom theyshould be able to turn for help.

So, I am here to speak about thesupport and protection of victims atlocal level. The strength of electedrepresentatives at local and regionallevel lies in their closeness to the

citizen which means they can be effec-tive where it matters – in targetedawareness-raising, and above all inimplementing tailored protection andprevention measures.

Many local and regional authori-ties across Europe have already intro-duced such initiatives, often throughclose co-operation with NGOs in thefield – and today I want, very briefly,to share a few of these initiatives withyou.

Many local authorities have dedi-cated domestic violence web-siteswhich have an enormous amount ofinformation to help victims – or putthem in touch with NGOs offeringcounselling or legal help – and toexplain their rights to them – to makethem understand that they have aright to be safe and free from harm.Local authorities are in the process ofsetting up specialised domestic vio-lence units – if they have not alreadydone so.

In Germany, recognising that theproblem of violence against women isa question of equality, Heidelberg hasset up an equality office which is re-sponsible for the majority of its poli-cies against domestic violence –women’s safety being the priority. Aspecial local police unit is empoweredto act immediately and remove an ag-gressor from the home environment.Perpetrators are provided with psy-chological counselling at a specialcentre. Victims can be helped eitherthrough home visits or a shelter. Bothcentres are financed by the municipal-ity. Furthermore, the town hall pro-vides women with free taxis at night,distribution of mobile phones, self-defence classes and information.

Shelters remain one of the mostimportant ways in which local author-ities can provide immediate protec-


Stop à la violence

faite aux femmesdomestiqueSpeech: Ms Sandra Barnes

tion for victims. However, there arestill many places in Europe – and, asAmnesty International’s 2006 reportoutlines, some of them are importantcapital cities – which don’t have asingle refuge for women. So I was verypleased to read that early next year thefirst women’s shelter in Vukovar isbeing opened as a partnershipbetween an NGO and the Vuko-varsko-Srijemska county. This shelteris the first one to be opened in thisrural area of Croatia which sufferedthe most war damage and has thehighest rate of people who wereexposed to a cluster of war stressors.

In the United Kingdom the impor-tance of local authorities’ role in fight-ing domestic violence has beenacknowledged and indeed key per-formance indicators have been estab-lished (“Best Value PerformanceIndicators”, http://www.lga.gov.uk) andpublished across the country to helpthose authorities know how to imple-ment relevant measures. There areeleven key questions that authoritiesmust answer and which will enablethem to assess their state of readiness.

Short-term housing is often just astop-gap measure and long-termplanning is required to help victimsreally find their feet. Many womenseeking help because of domestic vio-lence approach local authorityhousing services; so cities such as Ply-mouth City Council have a HousingAdvice Centre which, in addition tohelping with immediate accommoda-

tion for a victim and their family eitherin a local guesthouse or refuge, givelong-term advice and information onall the housing options available, in-cluding applying for housing benefit,finding accommodation with a privatelandlord, or making an approach tothe City Council’s Homeless Unit.

In Croydon, the local authority willinstall new doors as well as a cameraentry system to help victims feel safer.

A number of local authorities in theUnited Kingdom also provide moneyfor travel: if a victim needs help withtravel to a safe place for them and theirchildren, Social Services might be ableto provide them with a travel warrant.Otherwise, they can apply to the localDepartment of Social Security for acrisis loan.

In Germany a Domestic ViolenceRound Table has been set up in Glad-beck. This round table, which meetsfour times a year, brings together thecity administration, social welfare de-partment, youth welfare department,migration office, court clerks, theNGO Caritas and the head of the localmedical doctors’ association amongstothers to co-ordinate and co-operateand reflect on new ways to combat do-mestic violence, with the focus beingon what really works.

Back in my country, the UnitedKingdom, we have a similar new ap-proach to tackling domestic violence– the multi-agency risk assessmentconferences or MARACs. These havebeen piloted in Cardiff with outstand-

ing success. Their aim is to provide aforum for sharing information andtaking actions that will reduce futureharm to very high-risk victims andtheir children, as identified throughthe police risk assessment process.

You will see from several of my ex-amples that I emphasise the impor-tance of concertation – how critical itis that all those responsible for theprotection and support of victimswork together, because a decisivefactor in the success of many localcampaigns and initiatives is whetherthey have effective multi-agency re-sponse from key players.

We hope that by sharing our goodpractices and promoting this cam-paign as widely as possible we caninspire as many municipalities, towns,cities and regions to join us and bringabout a sea-change in attitudes to thiscrime which destroys lives and fami-lies.

Domestic violence may speakmany languages, have many coloursand live in many different communi-ties, but we, as elected representativesat local or regional level, have a duty tosay “domestic violence concerns us –it is a public, not a private matter”.

To finish, I should like to share withyou my conviction that as elected rep-resentatives we must not only “thinkright” – but we must above all DOright.

Thank you.


Innovative legal and policy measures to combat violence

against women

– Data collection as a prerequisite

for effective policies

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Address: Ms Dubravka ŠimonovićChairperson of the Council of Europe Task Force to Combat Violence against Women, including Domestic Violence

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,Before introducing the topic of this

session and its panellists, I, as Chair-person of the Task Force, would like tosay a few words about the Task Forceand its mandate.

At last year’s Summit, the Councilof Europe member states decided toplace more emphasis on the eradica-tion of violence against women. Theydecided to set up a Task Force toCombat Violence against Women, in-cluding Domestic Violence, and en-trusted it to develop the Blueprint forthis Campaign which we are here tolaunch today.

Eight international experts in thefield of preventing and combating vio-lence against women, who are also allhere today, were appointed to thisTask Force by the Secretary General ofthe Council of Europe. We have heldtwo meetings this year and will con-tinue our work throughout the Cam-paign period.

The Task Force was mandated toevaluate progress at the national leveland establish instruments for quanti-fying developments at European levelwith a view to drawing up proposalsfor action. With this objective inmind, we developed the Blueprint forthis Campaign. It spells out the aims,objectives and messages of the Cam-paign and describes the activities dif-ferent actors are invited to pursue.

This Blueprint clearly recognisesthat violence against women is ahuman rights violation correspondingto the responsibility of a state to actwith due diligence to prevent vio-lence, to protect women victims ofsuch violence and to punish perpetra-tors. It also calls on member states todemonstrate strong political will andprovide adequate resources to makereal progress in eradicating violence

against women, ideally through na-tional campaigns that should includemeasures for stronger implementa-tion of Recommendation Rec (2002) 5on the protection of women againstviolence.

This Campaign has three differentdimensions: intergovernmental, par-liamentary and local and regional,who are all present today to launch theCampaign. While this may seem com-plicated at first, it is important to unitethese key actors to achieve realchange. From our experience weknow that violence against womencannot really be stopped if it is onlydecision-makers and institutions whoare active. Instead, we need to joinhands and unite civil society, particu-larly NGOs that are working very hardat the grass-roots level, and publicactors as well as all others capable andwilling to contribute to this campaign.Joint public action and a multi-agencyapproach is what is needed.

During this campaign, active par-ticipation of men in all activitiesaimed at combating violence againstwomen should be encouraged. One ofthe expected results of the Task Forceis to further identify other possibleroles of men in the context of familyviolence including their role in bothpreventing such violence and protect-ing victims.

The Task Force is mandated tomonitor and assess any improvementsat national level and to evaluate the ef-fective functioning of the measuresfor preventing and combating vio-lence against women adopted at na-tional and international level. It is alsoentrusted to make proposals for revis-ing these measures or adopting newmeasures including those to assistmember states to monitor progressachieved.


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against womenv i o l e n c e Innovative legal and policy measures to combat violence against women

The main question in front of us is:Do we need a stronger European legalinstrument on the prevention of vio-lence against women or stronger im-plementation mechanisms or both?

I hope that with strong inputs fromall member states, from their reportson activities and results achieved wewill be able to make proposals in ac-cordance with our mandate.

As the Chairperson of the TaskForce, I strongly encourage everybodyassembled here today to make use ofthe unique framework of this Cam-paign to renew their commitment,concert their efforts and apply un-precedented vigour to eradicate vio-lence against women.

Turning to the topic of this session,let me just say that legal and policymeasures and data collection are twoof the four objectives of the CampaignBlueprint. These objectives spell outspecific measures which Memberstates are invited to implement. In thefield of legal and policy measures forexample, they are invited to criminal-ise marital rape – a necessary pre-requisite to eradicate domestic vio-lence which does not yet exist in allCouncil of Europe member states.

In addition to legal and policymeasures, we need improvements indata collection to monitor the imple-mentation of adopted legal and policymeasures. One of the greatest chal-

lenges that we face in this respect isthe collection of comparable data.Only if we know how many women arevictims of intimate partner violenceincluding the number of murderedwomen, or how many women areseeking shelters or how many protec-tion orders are used or perpetratorspunished we will have data or indica-tors of the effectiveness of adopted orneeded legal and policy instruments.

I hope this session will shed morelight on the legal and policy measuresand the comparable data needed forthe effective eradication of violenceagainst women.


Keynote speech: Ms Tuula Haatainen

Minister for Social Affairs and Health, Finland

Honourable Chairperson, dearSeminar participants,

I am very pleased for this opportu-nity to speak at this launching confer-ence. I want to thank the Spanish Gov-ernment for hosting this event. We arehere dealing with a very importantissue. Violence against women is acommon phenomenon, but it is still alargely underestimated problem inmany countries.

I myself remember very well howthe discussion about violence againstwomen was started in Finland in theend of the 1980s. The active genderequality actors and representatives ofwomen’s organisations were the oneswho started the discussion in Finland.At first the gender dimension and theextent of the problem were not under-stood in public discussion. By refer-ring to studies made in Canada, theUSA and by the United Nations wecould, however, indicate that it is aserious and extensive phenomenonthat remained hidden until now. Iknow that phase very well in mycountry since I was myself involved instarting it.

Many of us had the opportunity toparticipate in the Beijing UnitedNations Women’s Conference in 1995.In the declaration of the UN’s FifthWorld Conference on Women theGovernment of Finland, among manyother countries, committed itself tocarrying out a programme to reduceviolence against women. In theprocess of developing measures tocombat violence we noticed that whatwe needed was more and better dataabout the problem. Access to reliableinformation is a very important tool inreducing violence against women. It isdifficult to justify and plan measuresto reduce violence against women ifthere is no basic information about

the problem and its underlying fac-tors.

As we know, the first specific studyof women’s experiences of violencewas made in Canada in 1993. Sincethen, comparable studies have beenmade in other countries, too. Theyhave shown that when violenceagainst women is investigated in detailand by a study specifically planned toexamine this disguised, sensitive phe-nomenon, we can get more compre-hensive information than by generalvictim studies.

The first study in Finland on men’sviolence against women was made in1998. It was called “Faith, Hope andBattering”. It was of great importanceto us. It made us aware of the phenom-enon and showed the large extent ofwomen’s experiences of violence. Thestudy gave good information materialand arguments for the debate aboutviolence. It also supported the genderequality authorities’ belief that it is aserious issue which must be tackled. Itgave additional information on thevictims’ access to the services theywere in need of and on how these serv-ices should be developed.

Economic considerations are oftenof major importance in decision-making. Therefore we in Finland felt itimportant to obtain informationabout the economic impact of vio-lence experienced by women.

The assessment of economicimpacts proved to be a very complexand also a challenging task. Therewere no adequate statistics in healthcare and social services on this issue.For example, in some cases the realreasons for visits to a health care unitare not recorded in the statistics. Ourstudy estimated the costs incurred bythe municipal judicial system, socialwelfare and health care. It showed that


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the violence experienced by womencauses very significant financial coststo both society and the individual.Speaking about the costs of violencenaturally does not mean that wewould underestimate the great humansuffering caused by violence againstwomen.

Violence against women alsocauses other costs in the form of im-paired well-being and health, sickleaves, lost lives and loss of output inproduction. The impaired well-beingis further reflected in other familymembers, especially in children.

Prevention of violence againstwomen is crucial. Effective preventivework will increase the well-being andsecurity of all citizens. Tackling thisproblem is very profitable from thepoint of view of the national economytoo. Research-based information andraising the violence experienced bywomen for discussion and generalawareness also encourages women tospeak about the problem more openlyand also to seek help. Then the phe-nomenon is no longer considered as apersonal problem. However, it hasbeen estimated that in Finland onlyabout 10% of even the most seriousacts of violence come to the knowl-edge of the police. So we have muchwork in this field to do.

The Government has commis-sioned a follow-up study. With thisstudy we are going to obtain newfollow-up information on the devel-opment of violence against women inthe last ten years. Its general outcomeis that violence against women still isregrettably common. We must stillpay attention to tackling it.

In the future it would be most im-portant to obtain comparable andcomprehensive information about theprevalence of violence against womenin different countries. Unfortunately,at the moment it is difficult tocompare the results of individualstudies made in different countries.And on the other hand, not even allthe European countries have been in-volved in international comparisons.So far, there has not been any exten-sive international investigation of vio-lence against women in particular, but

there is a clear demand for such astudy, for instance covering the wholeof Europe.

Violence against women is still alargely unspoken, hidden secret inwomen’s lives. Silence is covered byshame. Making the problem visible isan important element in reducing vio-lence against women. At the begin-ning it was of particularly great im-portance in breaking the silence, thetaboo of violence against women. Butwhat is essentially important is legis-lation that criminalises the differentforms of violence against women.Legislation reflects the attitudes of asociety. It must show that violenceagainst women is a serious crime. Actsof violence cannot be justified byethnic or religious reasons. Neitherdoes marriage involve a right toviolate the physical integrity ofanother person. Intimate partner vio-lence is often a difficult problem as amutual emotional relationship is in-volved. Therefore, various methodsare needed to address it, for instancerestraining orders regarding violentfamily members. Orders that securethe victim’s physical integrity andenable the planning of further meas-ures.


Finally, I want to tell you howFinland has started the Council ofEurope Campaign to Combat Vio-lence against Women. The previousextensive campaign was carried out inFinland at the end of the 1990s. Itshowed that when a campaign is effec-tive, those who have experienced vio-lence are encouraged to contact auth-orities. The service system must beprepared for that, so that we canrespond to the demand. There shouldbe, for instance, a sufficient supply oftelephone help-lines.

At the moment we are planning tocarry out the new campaign togetherwith non-governmental organisa-tions. Next year we are going to organ-ise a regional seminar for the Balticcountries, the Nordic countries andRussia, together with the Council ofEurope. The theme of the seminar willbe provision of services for victims of

violence. Reduction of violenceagainst women has been a central aimof the Government Action Plan forGender Equality. We aim to integratethe campaign with other work that weare doing to combat violence againstwomen. The Action Plan of our Gov-ernment is comprehensive, target ori-ented and concrete. Reducing vio-lence against women is an essentialcomponent of it.

Reduction and prevention of vio-lence against women has been im-proved by developing the servicesystem. We have emphasised the de-velopment of co-operation betweenvarious actors, such as ministries, dif-ferent administrative sectors, regionalactors and professional groups. Ac-cording to our experience, reductionof violence against women demandsdevelopment of cross-sectoral co-op-eration. Therefore, I have proposed tothe Government that a cross-sectoralworking group should be set up. Itwould co-ordinate the reduction ofviolence against women, and will alsoconsult non-governmental organisa-tions.

Violence against women is a multi-faceted and extensive phenomenon.Its reduction demands long-termwork, political commitment and co-operation with different agencies, or-ganisations, civil servants, politiciansand professional groups. In order tobe successful it also demands financialresources specifically allocated to it.Co-operation and exchange of experi-ences between different countrieswithin the framework of the Councilof Europe campaign serves as an op-portunity to learn about each other’sgood practices and experiences. Thecampaign also provides support to thedebate conducted in member stateson reducing violence against women.


All of us – you and me – have theright to live without fear of violence.That is why we need awareness-raising and courage to speak aboutthis hidden shame. That is the reasonwhy we need this campaign.

Thank you.


Speech: Ms Donatella Linguiti

Secretary of State, Ministry for Rights and Equal Opportunities, Italy

In Italy, as in all European countries,violence against and towards womencontinues, by way of molestation, attimes grave molestation leading torape and assassination. It is thereforestill a serious problem, even thoughthere was a decrease in sexual moles-tation and attempted rape from 1997to 2002, especially thanks to profoundlegislative changes, a lifting of the si-lence surrounding this issue and to theintense activity of anti-violence cen-tres and shelters.

1996 was an important year forItaly. After twenty years of debate inparliament and among women, a Lawagainst sexual violence was passed,currently in force, according to whichviolence is no longer considered anoffence against public decency, butagainst the person. Before this, vio-lence was considered a crime only inthe case of permanent damage andwas considered, in any case, a minoroffence. Even if there was a conviction,it could be reversed by matrimony,which was the only socially acceptedway; if a woman wanted to reclaim herdignity and honour in the eyes of thecommunity she had to accept theterms of the marriage.

With the Law of 1996, the terms ofthe process finally changed: it was nolonger up to the victim to prove rapebut up to the aggressor to prove his in-nocence.

The Law regarding sexual violencein Italy therefore marked a turningpoint in customs and rights, compen-sating for a historical delay in ourcountry.

Today, violence against women is arecognised phenomenon, but the factthat it is no longer shrouded in secrecydoes not mean that there is little left tobe done.

A few days ago, during the day ded-icated to violence against women inparliament, l’Istat – the National In-stitute of Statistics – presented theresults of a study carried out on datacovering 1997 to 2002, using specificresearch methods, on the emergenceof this phenomenon. It painted analarming picture: ten million womenbetween 14 and 59 years of age had ex-perienced sexual molestation orsexual blackmail during their lifetimewith 500 000 cases of rape or at-tempted rape.

For women, the most insecureplaces are neither dark streets nor apark at night time, rather their homeand the workplace: in 97% of cases theviolence was carried out in the homeby partners, fathers or other relatives;900 000 women have been sexuallyblackmailed in order to be recruitedor to obtain a promotion. Targetedamong these are unemployed womenover employed, freelance workersover fixed contract workers and whitecollar workers over blue collars.

Moreover, one-third of women donot tell anyone of the violence experi-enced; of that sexual violence which isoften repeated and never reported. In90% of cases, women do not report itbecause they are ashamed or fearbeing judged or because of a lack oftrust in the police forces.

Prevailing and even more insidiousviolence is therefore that which isfamily-related. It makes no noise,often occurs in silence behind closeddoors and leaves little room forwomen to resolve. It can come up atany moment in the relationship.Sometimes it presents itself straightaway, sometimes it may arise with thebirth of a child or even after manyyears of matrimony.


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Risks of this violence on women’sphysical and psychological healthhave been defined, as have been theconsequences on minors – learningviolent cultural and relational models(for boys) or being subject to repeti-tion (for girls).

The image projected externally of awoman who is a victim, generally offamily-related violence, is that of aweak one, with no energy, afraid, withno alternative life plan.

This way of being, which is aneffect of the violence, is often mis-taken for subjective incapacity,absence of the will to escape the vio-lence, weakness in character, etc.

These women are often not sup-ported by actions that would aid in theremoval of the effects of the violencethey have endured but they are rathernegatively judged and penalised bydecisions that deprive them of ulteriorrights (for example the right to thehouse that they married into, custodyof their children, etc.).

With the arrival of the new govern-ment (centre-left wing), even beforefinal results were official, the Ministryfor Equal Opportunity and Rightsidentified structural actions (againstthe phenomenon of male violenceagainst women) among their priori-ties through a participatory path withwomen’s thoughts and political prac-tice in mind.

One fundamental passage was themeeting held on 19 September, calledby Minister Barbara Pollastrini, withantiviolence centres and shelters dis-persed over the Italian territory;places which have experience and pre-vention strategies having directly con-trasted violence against women,

places of research and identificationof intervention models that considerviolence against women a result of apatriarchal culture that still to this daydetermines a social, economical andpolitical model in our country,amongst others.

For this reason we consider allwomen at risk of violence, no one ex-cluded. Violence strikes everyone, in-dependent of age, social, economic,religious or ethnic status.

The experience acquired by anti-violence centres and by the women’smovement that worked profoundlyfor a radical change in dealing with thephenomenon in all spheres, havinggiven concrete psychological and legalsupport to women, having contrib-uted to changing culture by offeringtraining in schools, courts, hospitalsand among police officers, has beenprecious to us in launching a plan ofaction where the synergy between in-stitution and volunteers can deter-mine the conditions for increased effi-ciency of the actions undertaken.

A round table has in the meantimebeen formed among various minis-tries that, having recognised the phe-nomenon as a social problem thatconcerns all, is working on a struc-tured and transversal legislativeanswer; a new law that concernswomen but also transvestites, includ-ing cases of mistreatment and stalk-ing, which also provides for trainingfor all persons operating in the sector,statistics regarding violence and mis-treatment, the right to integratedsocial assistance for the victim, the in-troduction of new offences for acts ofstalking, the institution of a register ofanti-violence centres so that they can

constitute themselves as plaintiffs inlegal proceedings with the victim’sconsent.

This new law is intended to inter-vene in all forms of media and com-munication to eliminate sexist stereo-types and false representations ofwomen’s true knowledge and value.

We want to invest in culturalchange and therefore in prevention,with intervention guidelines thatinclude shared support principlesamong regions, local entities andprivate social services. It is known thatan increase in punishment alone willnot lead to a new culture and tochange in relationship between thesexes; and therefore the Ministry forEqual Opportunity has a plan ofaction that also includes the constitu-tion of a national observatory on vio-lence that will be one of the principlemotors of elaboration of politics andpositive actions to diffuse a newculture that targets feminine libertyand the building of a civil cohabitationamong sexes. This will help break thesilence surrounding violence againstwomen, give strength to the networkand to the protection which is indis-pensable if women are to be allowed toexpress their hardship and report theviolence; and it will help create insti-tutions to give the types of answersthat do not penalise women and thatdo not send them back into isolation,as well as being places capable of sup-porting male efforts to carry out an in-depth search on the dynamics of theirown sexuality and on the nature of re-lationships with women and withother men.


Speech: Ms Meg Munn

Deputy Minister for Women and Equality, United Kingdom

Thank you for inviting me to speaktoday. I am delighted to join you in mycapacity as Deputy Minister forWomen and Equality.

During the course of my workduring the last year, I have heard ofsome of the devastating stories fromvictims of domestic violence. But theyare not the only victims. I have alsomet those who have been sexually as-saulted, and I have heard first hand,the harrowing stories of some womenwho have been trafficked into theUnited Kingdom illegally as sex slaves.These are terrible crimes, predomi-nantly carried out against women.

This is why I am delighted to beable to attend the launch of theCouncil of Europe Campaign to tackleviolence against women, to ensurethat we, as ministers and representa-tives from our countries, raise aware-ness about these crimes and send astrong and unified message that weare not willing to tolerate this behav-iour within our communities.

We have a broad body of workbeing undertaken within the UnitedKingdom, which spans many govern-ment departments. In my role, I sit onthree inter-ministerial groups cover-ing human trafficking, prostitution,sexual offending, domestic violence,forced marriages, female genital muti-lation and honour killings.

I am particularly proud that since1997, the British Government hasrisen to the challenge that domesticviolence poses and we are now ensur-ing through our delivery plan that thispernicious crime is being tackledthrough all of our mainstream serv-ices.

Our ministers from across govern-ment departments involved in thisagenda particularly want to ensurethat it becomes easier for women to

seek support or redress when they ex-perience domestic violence.

I know many of you will be familiarwith the shocking domestic violencestatistics that our society is facing, butI always think it is worth remindingourselves of the extent of the problemwe face:

In the United Kingdom, domesticviolence accounts for 17% ofviolent crime;For 30% of victims, domestic vio-lence starts or escalates in preg-nancy;and every year around 120 womenare murdered by a current orformer partner. That’s more thantwo women every week.So what has the British Govern-

ment done?In terms of legislation, the United

Kingdom Government passed the Do-mestic Violence, Crime and VictimsAct (2004).

The Act gives greater protection tovictims and children and encouragesthem to stand up for their right to livewithout fear of violence.

The measures held within the Acthave been rolling out in stages sinceMarch last year.

Building on the new legislation, ourNational Delivery plan outlines howwe will ensure that perpetrators arebrought to justice, and that we providethe best possible help for victims, toencourage then to come forward inthe certainty that they will get the pro-tection and support they need.

Furthermore, the introduction oftwenty-five Specialist Domestic Vio-lence Courts as part of the programmewas put in place in April this year.There is now at least one specialist do-mestic violence court area in everyregion and in Wales.


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But we all have a part to play, andadopting a zero-tolerance approachwithin the work place is a key mecha-nism to bringing about importantculture change. In March 2005 theCorporate Alliance Against DomesticViolence was launched and hascreated a central resource for employ-ers through an interactive websitewhere employers and employees canfind out information and seek sup-port.

The Corporate Alliance is a groupof companies who have come togetherto promote Action Against DomesticViolence through the workplace.Their aims is to raise awareness of antake action to reduce the human andeconomic impact of domestic vio-

lence. Many government depart-ments, as well as private companies,are members, and I have encouragedall those departments where I havebeen minister to become involvedwith the organisation because weneed to share this important messageand make a real difference to the livesof victims.

The Alliance has pooled their con-siderable resources and skills to takecohesive action. They are doing moreto protect victims from workplaceharassment and improving workplacesafety.

There have been recent high-profile cases in the United Kingdomwhere perpetrators have stalked, har-assed and tragically murdered their

victims in the workplace. This dem-onstrates the vital role that corpora-tions, businesses and employers havein helping to achieve our primary ob-jective of reducing domestic homi-cides.

But in the United Kingdom, as ourMinisterial groups demonstrate, weare committed to dealing with allcrimes committed against women

We all need to take responsibilityfor bringing about change, and forkeeping our friends, colleagues, ourservice users and our communitiessafe from crimes that devastate fami-lies and ruin lives. As we all know, re-maining silent is collusion.


Speech: Ms Soledad Murillo

Secretary General on Equal Opportunities, Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Spain

Ladies and gentlemen,First of all I would like to thank the

Council of Europe for choosing ourcountry as the venue for launching theEuropean Campaign to Combat Vio-lence against Women, and the Presi-dent of the Spanish Senate for accept-ing the proposal and making itpossible for us to be here today in thismagnificent setting.

When we drafted what is now theorganic law on comprehensive pro-tection measures against gender vio-lence, which was unanimously ap-proved by Parliament, we were alsothinking of young women who did notlive with their attackers and of olderwomen who had separated from theirhusbands or partners. In its concernto protect women, the Council ofEurope should widen its scope toinclude not only domestic violencebut also gender violence as under-stood in Spanish law.

Action needs to be taken onvarious fronts:

The political agenda must giveeffect to laws against gender vio-lence and make the necessary re-sources available.We must change the message anddepict women not as helplessvictims but as winners, coming togrips with the problem. We mustneither victimise the victims norfuel their fears, much less let the of-fenders go unpunished.Putting an end to the violence alsomeans passing laws which promoteequality; if half the population haslimited access to culture, politicsand knowledge, where are womenwho are ill-treated to find examplesto follow and the confidence to feelthat they are citizens with fullrights?

The draft organic law on effectiveequality between women and menaccordingly advocates balancedrepresentation of men and women,with no fewer than 40% and nomore than 60% of either sex in alldecision-making spheres, be it inpolitics, the economy, culture oreducation. It is not a matter ofquotas or favours; it is simply aquestion of applying the principleof representation. Democracy isgovernment by the majority, and itis this representation of the major-ity that gives democracy its legiti-macy. Let us not forget that womenmake up 51% of the population.All the countries represented heretoday either have laws or areworking on laws to protectwomen’s lives. What I would like toask you to do now is to defend anduphold these laws which protectwomen’s lives. We cannot measuretheir importance based on thenumber of deaths by violence, anymore than we measure other lawsin terms of the number of offencesor criminals.We must remember that only

eighteen of the sixty-two women mur-dered in our country had complainedof domestic violence to the police, andhalf of them had declined protectionbecause they thought their violentpartners would change. Unfortu-nately, they did not. In the remainingcases, their assailants failed to complywith restraining orders.

Remember that anyone whocommits an assault is breaking thelaw. Men and women must under-stand that ill-treatment is not a moralbut a political issue and that democ-racy should normally be presentwhere people are supposed to be fondof one another.


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I wish to add the following messageto those we have heard in this cam-paign: violence against women is not

only a violation of human rights butalso a breach of democracy. I therefore

urge you all to take the law seriouslyand make sure it is fully enforced.

Thank you.


Allocution : M. Jean-Guy Branger

Membre de l’Assemblée parlementaire, Conseil de l’Europe

Madame la Présidente, Mesdameset Messieurs les Ministres, honorablesmembres de cette assemblée, cherscollègues,

C’est un grand honneur de pouvoirm’adresser à vous en ce jour. Je suismembre du Sénat français, et de laCommission sur l’égalité des chancespour les femmes et les hommes del’Assemblée parlementaire. C’est à cetitre que j’ai eu le plaisir de présenteren 2004 le rapport pour le lancementd’une « Campagne paneuropéennecontre la violence domestique àl’égard des femmes » – une campagneque l’Assemblée parlementaire asoutenu depuis lors avec beaucoupd’engagement et de détermination.C’est donc avec un plaisir tout parti-culier que je vais aborder avec vous lethème des mesures juridiques et despolitiques novatrices pour combattrela violence à l’égard des femmes d’unpoint de vue parlementaire.

Le combat que j’ai mené à l’Assem-blée parlementaire, puis au Sénat enFrance où j’ai présenté un rapport surce même thème, repose sur une con-viction profonde : les membres desparlements nationaux, représentantles peuples d’Europe, ont un rôle fon-damental à jouer pour faire évoluernos sociétés et lutter contre les vio-lences faites aux femmes, parce qu’ilsdétiennent la capacité de proposer etde voter des lois et d’inscrire ainsi dansla loi la répression des actes de vio-lence, la protection et le soutien auxvictimes, la prévention des violences.

La loi fixe la norme et, en l’espèce,nous considérons que les violencesexercées contre les femmes du seul faitqu’elles sont femmes, que ce soit dansl’espace public ou dans la sphère fami-liale, sont inacceptables dans unesociété respectueuse de la dignité etdes droits de la personne humaine.

Permettez-moi, au cours de cettebrève allocution, de vous donnerquelques exemples de mesures inno-vantes prises par les parlements natio-naux – et qui sont loin d’êtreexhaustifs :

Dès 1997, le Parlement autrichien aété l’un des premiers à inscrire dansla loi le principe de l’éloignementdu conjoint violent, pour éviterainsi à la femme victime de vio-lence domestique de devoir quitterle domicile familial. Cette loi per-met ainsi à la police d’expulser unepersonne menaçant d’autres per-sonnes du foyer, quelque soit la re-lation qu’elle entretient avec la vic-time, ou ses droits de propriété surla résidence.En Belgique, la loi fédérale du24 novembre 1997, complétée en2002, et qui a été étendue aux com-munautés et aux régions, préconisedésormais une « tolérance zéro ».Ainsi, toute infraction connue desservices de police devra être enre-gistrée, ce qui évitera tout senti-ment d’impunité.Le Royaume-Uni a institué dans saloi de 2004 sur la violence domesti-que un fonds budgétaire consacréaux victimes de violence domes-tique. L’autorité de compensationdes préjudices criminels dispose dudroit de récupérer auprès desauteurs de délits les sommes d’ar-gent qu’ils doivent payer aux vic-times à titre de compensation.En Turquie, la loi sur les Municipa-lités entrée en vigueur fin 2004 im-pose aux grandes villes et aux villesde plus de 50 000 habitants de créerdes refuges pour les femmes et lesenfants.A Monaco, une cellule d’accueilspécifiquement créée, avec unefemme policier notamment, per-


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met de répondre aux situationsd’urgence et une incrimination pé-nale spécifique est en cours de dis-cussion au Parlement.En France, la loi du 4 avril 2006 surle renforcement de la prévention etde la répression des violences ausein du couple a permis

– l’ajout de la notion du respect à laliste des devoirs et des droits res-pectifs des époux (article 2)

– l’élargissement du champ d’appli-cation de la circonstance aggra-vante à de nouveaux auteurs(comme les ex-conjoints et les per-sonnes pacsées) C‘est aussi une cir-constance aggravante des crimesde meurtres, de viols et d’agres-sions sexuelles)

– la reconnaissance légale du viol ausein du couple (article 11)

– ou encore l’éloignement de l’auteurde violences conjugales du domi-cile de la victime (article 12).Toujours en France, c’est encore àl’initiative du Sénat que l’âge dumariage des jeunes filles à été rele-vée à 18 ans contre 15 auparavant,dans le but de lutter contre lesmariages forcés.Au Luxembourg, pour assurer labonne application et le suivi d’une

loi 2003, considérée commemodèle, le parlement a d’ores etdéjà procédé à un audit externe dela loi, qui a mis en avant les amen-dements qui pourraient y être ap-portés.Enfin, comment, dans cette en-ceinte, ne pas souligner le rôle duparlement espagnol qui a voté uneloi exemplaire en matière de luttecontre les violences fondées sur lesexe. Le cas de l’Espagne devraitnous inspirer, et nous rappeler queles parlementaires doivent quel-quefois avoir la force et le couragede voter des lois qui peuvent sem-bler être en avant sur leur temps, etprécéder les évolutions de la so-ciété. Aussi souhaiterais-je saluertout particulièrement mes collè-gues parlementaires espagnolsprésents dans la salle aujourd’hui.

Mesdames et Messieurs, chers col-lègues,

Voter une loi contre la violence do-mestique est un pas décisif dans lalutte contre les violences faites auxfemmes. Il s’agit souvent d’un proces-sus long et difficile. Aussi est-il impé-ratif d’assurer la synergie entre tous lesacteurs politiques et tous les niveaux

d’intervention. En notre qualité deparlementaire, nous avons le pouvoirde proposer et de voter les lois, et ledevoir de veiller à leur bonne mise enœuvre.

L’initiative de l’Assemblée parle-mentaires décidée cette année sous letitre « les Parlements unis pour com-battre la violence domestique » nousoffre une formidable opportunité deconfronter nos expériences parle-mentaires, d’apprendre les uns desautres, et de mieux appréhender lesenjeux parlementaires de la luttecontre la violence domestique faiteaux femmes. La Campagne du Conseilde l’Europe nous permet de travailleren réseau et de dépasser ensemble lesblocages et les stéréotypes patriar-caux qui caractérisent, à plus oumoins grande échelle, l’ensemble denos sociétés.

Pour conclure, je formule le vœuqu’après la Conférence de Madrid,nous, parlementaires, puissionspuiser dans toutes ces expériencespour améliorer la loi et donner auxfemmes la place qui leur revient dansune société plus juste.

Je vous remercie de votre atten-tion.


Speech: Ms Genoveva Tisheva

Managing Director, Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation, Bulgaria

Monitoring the implementa-tion of the Law on Protection against Domestic Violence in Bulgaria – the NGO perspec-tive

“Violence against women is a mani-festation of the historically unequalpower relations between women andmen, which have led to dominationover and discrimination againstwomen by men and to the prevention ofwomen’ s full advancement.” – BeijingPlatform for Action, paragraph 118.

Thank you for the kind invitationextended to me by the Council ofEurope, which will allow me to focuson the crucial contribution of Bulgar-ian women’s NGOs for the develop-ment of legislation and good practiceson violence against women, andnamely domestic violence.

I should like to take advantage ofthis opportunity to focus on thecrucial role of NGOs in Europe, whoare the visionaries and the architectsin the area of violence against women– both of legislation and infrastruc-ture for the support of women victimsand their children. The continuousefforts of NGOs are keeping womenalive, are saving their children’s livesand are giving many women hope andrelief.

I represent here the BulgarianGender Research Foundation(BGRF), which also has branches inthree other towns in Bulgaria: Plovdiv,Haskovo and Silistra. It is part of theco-ordination of the Bulgarian Plat-form to the EWL and member ofWAVE. I am also a member of theEuropean Observatory on violenceagainst women. I would like to thankall these organisations and institu-

tions for their inspiration and sup-port.

In the last four years, thanks to thepersistent efforts of women’s NGOs,under foreign pressure and due to thechallenge of accession to the Euro-pean Union, the issue of violenceagainst women emerged as a relevantone and received public attention andrecognition in Bulgaria. The develop-ment by NGOs of support services forwomen who have suffered violence,and the influence of the decade ofhuman rights conferences during the1990s contributed to the unveiling ofthis phenomenon. As a result of theseprocesses, legislation in the field ofviolence against women started to de-velop, especially with the Law forCombating Trafficking in Persons, to-gether with corresponding changes inthe Penal Code, and the Law on Pro-tection against Domestic Violence.The Law on Protection against Dis-crimination, too, forms part of theseries of relatively new laws related togender equality. The adoption of allthese laws in a short period of time,between 2003 and 2005, is, withoutany doubt, a real achievement, mainlyof the Bulgarian parliament and civilsociety. Another important mecha-nism added in August 2006 is the rat-ification by the 40th National Assem-bly of the Optional Protocol toCEDAW, which will give further op-portunities for NGOs to challengebefore the CEDAW Committee vio-lations of women’s rights in Bulgaria.

The most striking example and alsothe “masterpiece” of this co-operationbetween NGOs and the parliament isthe Law on Protection against Domes-tic Violence. The draft law was initi-ated by BGRF experts, supported bywomen’s NGOs, and finally elabo-rated and adopted thanks to the joint


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efforts of NGOs and women MPsfrom the 39th National Assembly. Inthis process both BGRF and the MPsbenefited from the support of expertsfrom Minnesota Advocates forHuman Rights and the EuropeanWomen’s Lobby. We have the pleasureto have here with us the key personfrom the National Assembly who pro-moted the law and made its adoptionpossible: Ms Marina Dikova. Sheshould be proud of it – according toexpert opinions, the law which pro-vides for urgent protection of thevictims of domestic violence by civilprotection orders is one of the bestlaws in the region. It respects the au-tonomy of the victim and at the sametime provides for urgent action by thepolice and the civil court.

One and a half years after the entryinto force of the law, we can assess thatthe best compliance of the court andthe police with the law is in the townswhere active NGOs exist – like Sofia,Varna, Burgas, Plovdiv, Pernik, otherBGRF branches and partners, etc. InSofia more than 150 applications fororders for protection have been regis-tered since the beginning of 2006. Inone-third of the cases protectionorders have been issued already. InBurgas there are about 40 protectionorders for 2006, in Plovdiv over 50,etc. Services for victims of violence –

legal, psychological, etc. – are pro-vided entirely by NGOs; training ses-sions for the police and judges are or-ganised by NGOs; the firstagreements for the joint implementa-tion of the law were signed betweenNGOs and the local authorities inSofia (BGRF), Burgas (our partner“Demetra” Association) and in otherplaces with active NGOs. There is nogovernmental support for these activ-ities and no special budget was allo-cated for 2006 and most probably thesituation will persist in 2007.

Monitoring the implementation ofthe law and data collection are also inthe portfolio of NGOs active in thefield. For example, the BGRF and itspartners organised monitoring ofcourt hearings by volunteers fromcivil society, conducted a survey onthe cost of victim support provided byNGOs, analysed court practice, andorganised training sessions for policeand judges in co-operation with Min-nesota Advocates for Human Rights.

Besides the lack of support formuch-needed services for victims, themain shortcomings of the law are: in-adequate reaction of police and courtsin some instances, requirement of nu-merous pieces of evidence, non-respect by the courts of the urgency ofsafety protection as the main priority,of the principle of the shift of the

burden of proof, the inadequate reac-tion of prosecutors in cases of seriousthreat to health and life of victims, etc.

Some of these gaps can be filled byintroducing the respective legislativechanges, especially in the criminallaw; but others need continuous edu-cation and training of the profession-als.

Eager to see our new law on domes-tic violence implemented, and willingto make it a model also for other coun-tries and regions, we as NGOs willwork further with national and localgovernment to ensure the sustainabil-ity of the positive processes initiatedwith the adoption of the law. Therecent announcement by UNIFEMthat, together with our very goodpartner “Demetra” (Burgas) and in co-operation with the Bulgarian Fund forWomen, we are among the organisa-tions which received a grant from theUNIFEM Trust Fund for the Elimina-tion of violence against women, foundus at this important stage of jointwork. It will, hopefully, boost the ef-fective implementation of the LPADV,and ensure better protection ofwomen victims of domestic violence.

We dedicate the implementation ofthis two-year project to the Campaignof the Council of Europe against do-mestic violence against women.


Speech: Ms Sylvia Walby

Professor, Sociology Department, Lancaster University, United Kingdom

Data: Why is it needed? What is needed? Developing the ev-idence base for policies to stop violence against women

Why is data needed?Much rhetoric and statements ofgood intent

– Good rhetoric is good and neces-saryBut how much progress?Reliable evidence is needed toknow whether policies are workingTo identify and measure change,simply and reliably so as to evaluateimpact of policies

– The next step after good intentions

What is needed?Indicators:

– Changes in indicators, year by yearSupported by hard data: statisticsComparable between countriesLinked into action plans at na-tional, EU and international levelsLinked into national and EU inter-national monitoring

IndicatorsTo assist evaluation of policiesMeaningful summaries of complexdataSimplify complicated informationRobust enough for comparisonsEnable benchmarkingEnable setting of “targets”Essential for measuring changetowards targets over time andbetween countries

Benchmarks and targetsBenchmarks are stable referencepoints

– Point against which future posi-tions can be compared (for betteror worse) Targets are the goals represented ina figure that is measurable.Where do we want to go?When do we want to get there?Both depend on indicators and sta-tistics

The need for surveysPopulation surveys are the onlyform of reliable data over timeOfficial statistics from police andcourts underestimate the amountof violence since many women donot reportAs policies improve, more womenwill report, so police/court data isnot a reliable guide to changes overtime.

Information needed from surveys

Annual estimates of ViolenceAgainst WomenPrevalence and incidents

– What percentage of the populationaffected (prevalence)

– How many incidents in total Types of violence

– Rape, domestic violence, stalking,sexual harassment, honour crimesand moreSeverity

– Injuries– Frequency (domestic violence usu-

ally involves many incidents)

What has been done?Ad hoc national surveys, e.g. UKSome use of data e.g. Cost of do-mestic violenceUN Task Force to develop datagathering

– UN report


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– Expert meetingsEuropean gender mainstreaming

– Presidencies (indicators), Com-mission, European Parliament

What still needs to be done?Final agreement by UN task forceon standards for indicators, andmethods of data collectionEndorsement of these standards bycountries’ National StatisticalOfficesCreation and funding of compara-ble surveys in each country by Na-tional Statistical OfficesE.g. modules attached to annualcrime or health surveys

Link to national implementation ofaction plansOversight: Council of Europe,Eurostat, UN

ResourcesUN Secretary General’s Report onViolence Against Women (2006)http://www.un.org/womenwatch/

daw/vaw/index.htm

United Kingdom national survey ofgender-based violence: SylviaWalby and Jonathan Allen, Domes-tic violence, sexual assault andstalking: findings from the BritishCrime Survey, Home Office Re-search Study 276, 2004, http://

www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/

pdfs04/hors276.pdf

United Kingdom study by SylviaWalby on The Cost of DomesticViolence, (DTI, Women and Equal-ity Unit 2004). http://

www.womenandequalityunit.gov.uk/

research/

cost_of_dv_Report_sept04.pdf

Sylvia Walby (2005), “Improvingthe statistics on violence againstwomen”, Statistical Journal of theUnited Nations Economic Commis-sion for Europe, 22, 4, 193-216,2005.


Solemn launching ceremony

blank Page

Welcoming address by Mr Francisco Javier Rojo García

President of the Senate, Spain

Ladies and gentlemen, It is an honour for the Spanish

Senate to welcome you here at this im-portant, and I believe essential,launching conference of the Council ofEurope Campaign to Combat Violenceagainst Women, including DomesticViolence.

This is a problem which, after longyears of silence and neglect, andthanks to the untiring efforts of manybodies, in particular women’s NGOs,has now moved into the publicdomain.

On behalf of the Bureau of theSpanish Senate and the parliamentarygroups, I would like to welcome you tothis chamber. We trust that it is an ap-propriate place for discussing ideas onhow to change attitudes, outline newways of dealing with the problem,show unity in combating violenceagainst women and express oursupport for the victims and give themthe protection they deserve.

I trust you will allow me, in thisshort welcome address, to do some-thing which is not very common inpolitics, but which it is neither possi-ble nor appropriate to avoid when ad-dressing such a sensitive issue, namelyto speak of feelings.

The first feeling I would like toconvey is satisfaction. Satisfactionthat the Council of Europe has chosenSpain as the place to launch its cam-paign. We are aware of the Council’sdetermination and dedication tostrengthening the political commit-ment and joint efforts of memberstates to find out more about thisproblem and create an environment inwhich women can live free of genderviolence. We therefore fully appreci-ate the choice of Spain as the venue forthis conference.

But I must also express a feeling ofshame.

As a political leader I am ashamedthat, in our societies, there is still adeeply-rooted, centuries-old, male-centred culture which considers itnormal that women should be subor-dinate to men; a culture which consid-ers the imbalance of power betweenmen and women to be legitimate; aculture which systematically discrim-inates against women.

I am ashamed to say that genderstereotypes continue to exist in oursocieties; ashamed that there are stillfirmly held beliefs, attitudes, feelings,values, behaviour and activities whichmake a distinction between men andwomen in the different spheres ofeveryday life, in schools, interper-sonal relationships and working life.

I am ashamed that in our societieswe can rub shoulders every day withmen who systematically infringe thehuman rights and freedoms ofwomen, who harass, intimidate,threaten, abuse, blackmail, maltreat,beat and kill women. And these arenot simply uncontrollable, individualinstances of despicable conduct but away of perpetuating women’s subordi-nation to men through violence andfear.

And I should also like to express afeeling of gratitude. To thank youwomen for giving me the opportunity,at this solemn event, to show what Ifeel, when it should be you, who rep-resent women’s movements and net-works, you who have spent your livescombating violence and working forequality, who should be occupyingthis chair.

However, I must also express afeeling of pride. Pride that I ammember of a parliament that hasunanimously approved a comprehen-


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against womenv i o l e n c e Solemn launching ceremony

sive and exemplary law against genderviolence.

This law was drawn up with the fullparticipation of women’s organisa-tions; it contains a broad definition ofboth physical and psychological vio-lence, including attacks on sexual lib-erty, threats, coercion or the arbitrarydeprivation of freedom; it provides forpreventive and educational measuresas well as measures for providing pro-tection and assistance to victims; andit has increased the penalties imposedon the perpetrators of such violence.

I am also proud to belong to thosein politics who agree on the need tojoin forces and do our utmost torestore dignity, psychological well-being and full civic rights to those whohave been subjected to violence.

I am proud that local authorities,regional governments and centralgovernment have committed them-selves to the common cause of equal-ity, in the knowledge that only realequality between men and women canlead to full democracy.

Finally I wish to express my hope.Hope that, as a result of sustained in-

dividual and collective efforts, aware-ness-raising, prevention and educa-tion, 25 November will, in the not toodistant future, no longer appear on allour calendars as the International Dayfor the Elimination of Violence againstWomen, because it will be unneces-sary.

Only then will we know that wehave made real progress towardsachieving equality, development andpeace.

Thank you very much for your at-tention and welcome to thisHouse.


Address by Mr René van der Linden

President of the Parliamentary Assembly, Council of Europe

Dear Prime Minister, dear fellowparliamentarians, dear Ministers, dis-tinguished guests, ladies and gentle-men,

Today, while we meet here todiscuss and generate ideas about howto combat violence against women, allover Europe, thousands of womenface physical, sexual and psychologi-cal violence on a daily basis.

Domestic violence knows no geo-graphical boundaries or age limit.

Nor is it particular to any culture,social group or class.

Too many victims suffer in silenceand too many crimes go unpunished.

How long can we tolerate this situ-ation?

The Parliamentary Assembly hasrepeatedly condemned this – all toocommon – form of violence sufferedby women in Europe within their ownhomes.

The scale and spread of domesticabuse in Europe, which is a seriousviolation of human rights, call for res-olute and concerted action.

All actors – governments, parlia-mentarians, local and regional auth-orities and representatives of civilsociety – need to act in unison.

A full range of measures needs tobe taken, including legislation, tocombat domestic violence. But above all, given the scale of do-mestic abuse in Europe, we need tochange people’s attitude.

Through concrete action:By making better use of the educa-tion system – through educationalprogrammes that raise awarenessabout violence against women,their impact not only on womenbut on the family and our society asa whole, in particular children whosuffer psychological traumas. Such

educational programmes shouldpromote family values.By making better use of media andinformation technologies. Mediashould be aware of the impact it hason the general public – there is toomuch violence on our TV screens.Instead, media should promoteand diffuse good practices.The Parliamentary Assembly is

committed to giving its full support tothe Council of Europe Campaign.

In June this year our Assemblylaunched the project “Parliamentsunited in combating domestic vio-lence against women”.

I am convinced that the first cam-paign ever launched by the Parliamen-tary Assembly in this form will en-courage parliaments to adopt laws,and take other measures that canimprove women’s rights to live in asociety that is safe and free from vio-lence.

How can we, members of parlia-ments, make a difference?

Our parliaments are made up ofmen and women elected by all citi-zens, and consequently parliamentsare the most natural and legitimatedemocratic institution representingtheir interests.

It is, therefore, our duty and obliga-tion to listen to our citizens’ concernsand to take action to protect their in-terests.

We can play a vital role by adoptinglegislation to establish domestic vio-lence as a serious and unacceptableassault on human dignity and a viola-tion of human rights.

We can adopt legislation that pros-ecutes and punishes the perpetrators,protects the most vulnerable individ-uals, even in the private sphere, andreinforces the rights of victims.


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We must ensure that our statesrespect the international norms andstandards, in particular those derivingfrom the European Convention ofHuman Rights.

As parliamentarians, we have thecapacity, and the duty, to lead publicopinion, raise awareness and de-nounce publicly and explicitly domes-tic violence as something that has noplace in civilised societies.

National parliaments in the forty-six member states and observer par-liaments have already started to im-plement the campaign at parliamen-tary level, in close co-operation withnational and local authorities andnon-governmental organisations.

I can assure you that the contactparliamentarians, who have been ap-pointed by their national parliaments,are highly motivated to ensure thatthe campaign will be a success. Parlia-mentarians have established six re-gional groups and share a network ofcontacts and good practices.

By putting this on the politicalagenda of our parliaments and treat-

ing it as core issues of human rightsand of the functioning of democraticsocieties, each and everyone of us cancontribute to changing people’s atti-tude on the European continent andbeyond.

Combating domestic violence isnot the private hunting ground of theCouncil of Europe.

Together with our friends and col-leagues from the European Parlia-ment, the Nordic Council, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the Parliamen-tary Assembly of the OSCE, the par-liamentary forum of small states andthe Stability Pact for South-easternEurope, we are committed to voicingour deep concern, denouncing do-mestic violence against women as ahuman rights violation and to takingaction to combat it.

Being close to citizens, civil societyis one of the most important elementsin any democracy. We work togetherwith almost 400 civil society associa-tions in constructive partnership.

We cannot combat violenceagainst women alone. We need the

support and involvement of civil soci-ety. We need to encourage them totake initiatives, and bring forwardproposals for joint activities.

It is also important that equalrights and gender mainstreaming bepromoted in our laws to allow womento find their place in society and live indignity and security. This is drivingthe work of the Parliamentary Assem-bly in the field of promoting equal op-portunities for women and men.

Whether we are national, regionalor local elected representatives orsimple citizens, domestic violenceagainst women is a problem that con-cerns us all.

It is our individual and collectiveresponsibility to break the silence andtake action.

So let us stand up, speak out and to-gether make a difference: Stop a la vio-lencia doméstica contra las mujeres.

¡Muchas gracias! Thank you.


Address by Mr Ian Micallef

President of the Chamber of Local Authorities of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Council of Europe

Growing up as a boy, I learned a ruleof honour for men: respect others andnever physically attack another. Youwill disgrace yourself by doing so. Yet,millions of men are disgracing them-selves today across Europe throughdomestic violence against women,children and aged persons, which hasbrought about the need for the cam-paign that we are launching here inMadrid.

Violence has been a major issue forthis continent over centuries, espe-cially the last century with its twoworld wars. We have learned our les-sons, and, more or less, tackled vio-lence off the street – just to see it gointo houses, behind closed doors. Onany given day, in every single one ofmore than 200 000 territorial commu-nities of Europe, there is an appallingnumber of women who are victims ofviolence and aggression – often at thehands of the very people closest tothem.

I am honoured to be here today torepresent the Congress of Local andRegional Authorities, as President ofits Chamber of Local Authorities, andto speak to you about the importanceof the local and regional dimension inensuring the greatest possible impactof the campaign which we are launch-ing today.

Local and regional elected repre-sentatives, their police officers, socialworkers and administrative employ-ees are on the front line of dealing withdomestic violence and its repercus-sions and in providing the necessaryservices to the women and childrenwho are the most likely victims.

In this campaign, the Council ofEurope Congress will take themaximum advantage of its uniqueposition – on the one hand, as a pan-European body, representing, as I

have already mentioned, over 200 000territorial communities and speakingfor all municipalities and regions ofthe forty-six Council of Europemember states, and, on the otherhand, using its proximity to the citi-zens it serves.

I see the Congress’ role in this cam-paign in particular as follows:

Firstly, to provide a forum for anexchange of good practices amonglocal and regional authorities on apan-European level, taking intoaccount the initiatives already taken atterritorial level. We need to make surethat these initiatives, ranging fromways of protecting victims, workingclosely with NGOs in the field, totraining of municipal staff and pro-moting preventive education meas-ures in schools, are shared acrossEurope.

Secondly, in order to ensure thatthe message of the campaign falls onfertile ground, we also need to under-take urgent, immediate and sustainedawareness-raising action both withinmunicipal administrations and civilsociety.

To put this into practice, the Con-gress is planning to organise an aware-ness-raising week around 8 March2007, which will entail participatingcities, including the City of Stras-bourg, putting up posters and organ-ising public debates in schools andtown halls on the issue of violenceagainst women.

The Congress has also set up a Website dedicated to the issue, which, wehope, will also serve as a forum for theexchange of good practices. We invitemunicipalities and regions to sendtheir Web pages outlining examples oftheir good practices in fighting do-mestic violence, and we plan to createan interactive news update section to


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post upcoming events from nationalassociations of local authorities.

Ladies and gentlemen,We must join our forces in a con-

certed action against domestic vio-lence. One of the strengths of theCouncil of Europe is precisely that itcan reach every level of governmentand civil society. I can assure you thatthe Congress will work hand in handwith the intergovernmental and par-

liamentary dimensions of the Councilof Europe campaign to ensuremaximum synergy in carrying out theCampaign to Combat Violenceagainst Women, including DomesticViolence.

Violence can come in many shapesand forms, especially violence againstwomen. It can come in the form ofhuman trafficking and forced prosti-tution, or abuse at home, or harass-ment at work. Our task today is to

make sure that these phenomena donot go unnoticed, that our society isaware of them, and that national gov-ernments, parliaments, local and re-gional authorities and civil societytake urgent action to address them.

This is why I warmly welcome thiscampaign on behalf of the Council ofEurope’s Congress, and wish this con-ference every success.

Thank you.


Allocution : M. Fiorenzo Stolfi

Président du Comité des Ministres, Conseil de l’Europe

M. le Président du Gouvernement,M. le Président du Congrès des Dépu-tés, M. le Président du Sénat, M. lePrésident de l’Assemblée parlemen-taire (du Conseil de l’Europe), M. leSecrétaire Général du Conseil de l’Eu-rope, M. le Président de la Chambredes Pouvoirs Locaux du Congrès duConseil de l’Europe, Messieurs lesMinistres, Mesdames et Messieurs,

C’est un grand plaisir pour moid’être parmi vous aujourd’hui à l’occa-sion de la cérémonie de lancement dela Campagne du Conseil de l’Europepour combattre la violence à l’égarddes femmes, y compris la violencedomestique.

Le Comité des Ministres est forte-ment engagé dans cette campagne,qui constitue un élément important etparticulièrement tangible du Pland’Action du 3e Sommet adopté en mai2005 à Varsovie. Nous en avons suivide près les préparatifs, avec l’élabora-tion du Programme (« Blueprint ») dela Campagne, entériné en juin dernieret la promotion de la dimension inte-rinstitutionnelle de ce projet, notam-ment dans sa dimension intergouver-nementale.

C’est pourquoi je suis sûr de parlerau nom de tous les Etats membres etde tous ici présents, quand j’exprimema joie de voir cette période de prépa-ration intense prendre fin aujourd’hui,alors que notre Campagne prend sonenvol ici à Madrid et, dans les se-maines à venir, dans de nombreuxEtats membres.

Les objectifs poursuivis dans lecadre de cette action revêtent une im-portance particulière aux yeux desgouvernements représentés dansnotre Organisation. Le Comité desMinistres est extrêmement préoccupépar l’ampleur du phénomène de la vio-lence à l’égard des femmes, notam-

ment au sein de la famille. En effet, laviolence domestique est présente (etmême courante) dans tous les payseuropéens et dans toutes les couchesde la société. Nous allons par consé-quent tout mettre en œuvre pour en-courager les Etats membres à lutteractivement contre ce phénomène.

Sans entrer dans les détails desmoyens qui seront utilisés, je voudraisnéanmoins rappeler votre attentionsur le fait que cette Campagne joueraun rôle essentiel de sensibilisation etd’impulsion, afin que nous réalisionstous ensemble des progrès tangiblesvers l’élimination de la violence àl’égard des femmes.

Dans ce contexte, je tiens à rappelertout l’intérêt de la Recommandationsur la protection des femmes contre laviolence, témoin de notre volontéd’éradiquer ce monstrueux phéno-mène, que le Comité des Ministres aadressée aux Etats membres il y aquatre ans déjà. Il s’agit d’un texte nor-matif qui propose tout un ensemble demesures pratiques et législatives deprévention, d’aide aux victimes, de ré-pression et de sensibilisation, dont lamise en œuvre ne peut que contribuerà infléchir la tendance. En effet, un desbuts essentiels de la Campagne est jus-tement de promouvoir l’application etla mise en œuvre de toutes les mesurescontenues dans la Recommandationdu Comité des Ministres.

Un autre objectif crucial de la Cam-pagne est de presser les gouverne-ments à manifester leur volonté poli-tique en offrant les ressourcesnécessaires pour pouvoir présenterdes progrès tangibles vers l’élimina-tion de la violence à l’égard desfemmes. Le troisième objectif, enfin,est de sensibiliser l’opinion publiquedans les Etats membres du Conseil del’Europe au fait que la violence à


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l’égard des femmes est une violationdes droits de la personne humaine etd’encourager tout citoyen à la com-battre.

Il faut s’attaquer à la fois aux causesprofondes de la violence et à sesconséquences. Il faut essayer de faireévoluer les mentalités et les compor-tements et prendre des mesures juri-diques, politiques et pratiques, parmilesquelles la collecte systématique dedonnées statistiques ventilées parsexe, qui vont dans le sens de la Re-commandation du Comité des Mi-nistres dont je viens de vous parler.

Mesdames et Messieurs,La défense et le développement des

droits de la personne humaine et deslibertés fondamentales est une desgrandes priorités sur laquelle la Répu-

blique de Saint Marin va concentrerses efforts au cours de sa présidencedu Comité des Ministres.

La protection des droits desfemmes, en tant qu’aspect fondamen-tal des droits humains, trouvera danscette grande campagne une plate-forme paneuropéenne qui contri-buera à développer des mentalités col-lectives où le respect des droits desfemmes deviendrait un patrimoinevéritable, incontestable, enracinédans la culture et dans la société.

Nous-mêmes, à Saint-Marin,sommes en train de préparer un ampleprogramme d’initiatives qui impli-quent tous les services publics concer-nés et nous lancerons le 29 novembrenotre campagne nationale, qui sous lehaut parrainage des Chefs d’Etat,dédiera une attention particulière aux

jeunes citoyens, par l’intermédiaire del’Ecole et à l’Université. La Campagnesaint-marinaise recherchera toutes lescollaborations possibles à l’intérieurde la société civile dont l’implicationse révèle indispensable.

La République de Saint-Marin,avec sa tradition séculaire de liberté, atoujours mis au centre de son actionl’engagement en faveur de l’affirma-tion et de la protection des droits etdes libertés fondamentales. A ceteffet, la promotion du dialogue inter-culturel et inter religieux qui pournous saint-marinais est la conditionessentielle pour assurer une coexis-tence pacifique et démocratique dansles Etats et entre les Etats, a une im-portance particulière.


Address by Mr Terry Davis

Secretary General, Council of EuropeFrench version: page 75

Prime Minister, presidents, minis-ters, ladies and gentlemen,

Women suffering from domesticviolence are not only victims of abuse,they are also victims of silence, victimsof indifference and victims of neglect.They are not helpless and weak, butthey are often let down. This is whatthe Council of Europe Campaign isdetermined to change. The key wordsare inform, help and empower.

The slogan of the Campaign is Stopdomestic violence against women.This is the message to governments,who must meet their political, legisla-tive and administrative obligations toprevent domestic violence, help thevictims and punish the perpetrators.

It is a message to the public – to allof us – to stop looking the other wayand to stop minimising the scale andthe gravity of this problem.

It is also a message to men, whoshould be considered as essentialactors in preventing the violence. OurCampaign is not about women pro-tecting women; it is about men pro-tecting women as well.

Most importantly, the message ofthe Campaign must reach the victimsand tell them that they are not alone.Women suffering from abuse must betold that they are entitled to protec-tion and help, and they must be toldwhere it is and how they can get to it.

When it comes to the role of gov-ernments, we should start by recallingthe nature of their obligations. EveryGovernment has a responsibility toprotect the human rights of all its citi-zens and everyone else in the country.A Government must therefore take allreasonable measures to prevent, in-vestigate and punish all forms of vio-lence against women, including vio-lence within the family.

This Campaign will build on theexisting Recommendation by theCouncil of Europe Committee of Min-isters on the protection of womenagainst violence – the Recommenda-tion which was adopted in 2002. ThisRecommendation covers all forms ofgender-based violence, and it is thefirst international call for a globalstrategy to prevent violence and toprotect its victims.

The Recommendation is a non-exhaustive compendium of measureswhich have already been adopted bysome, but not all forty-six memberstates of the Council of Europe.

The first objective of our campaignis therefore to make sure that govern-ments go through this check-list ofmeasures and implement them if theyhave not already done so. By addingnew measures, every government canalso help to create a collection of goodpractices, which should allow ourmember states to learn from eachother’s successes and mistakes.

The Campaign has, of course, avery strong parliamentary dimensionas well, and the role of parliamentari-ans and representatives of local andregional authorities is essential inmaking sure that the results of theCampaign are implemented throughpolicy decisions and appropriate leg-islative and administrative measuresat the national and local level.

Finally, an effective fight againstdomestic violence requires the broad-est possible public action. We all havea role to play in stopping the violenceand helping the victims, from civilsociety to teachers, and from socialworkers to medical staff, but the factremains that violence against womenis a violation of human rights and aparticularly devastating form of crim-inal offence. Our governments do not


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have an option – they must act effec-tively and they must act now.

This Campaign is not launchedmerely to talk about domestic vio-lence; it is meant to do somethingabout it. Its ultimate success will notbe measured by the number of semi-

nars or declarations, but by the posi-tive and quantifiable changes whichour campaign helps to bring about inthe lives of women suffering fromabuse, through better laws, more shel-ters, better counselling, more helpand above all by prevention. Eighteen

months from now, we must be able tolook back and say we have made a dif-ference. We must not let down thesevictims of a widespread abuse ofhuman rights.


Allocution : M. Terry Davis

Secrétaire Général, Conseil de l’EuropeVersion anglaise : page 73

Monsieur le Premier ministre, Mes-sieurs les Présidents, Mesdames etMessieurs les Ministres, Mesdames etMessieurs,

Les femmes qui souffrent de la vio-lence domestique ne sont pas seule-ment victimes de sévices ; elles sontaussi victimes du silence, victimes del’indifférence, victimes de l’inaction.Elles ne sont pas faibles et désarméesmais elles sont souvent abandonnées.C’est cet état de fait que la campagnedu Conseil de l’Europe est déterminéeà changer. Information, aide et auton-omisation en sont les maîtres mots.

« Stop à la violence domestique » :tel est le slogan de la campagne. C’estle message adressé aux Etats quidoivent satisfaire à leurs obligationspolitiques, législatives et administra-tives pour empêcher la violencedomestique, aider les victimes etpunir les coupables.

C’est un message qui s’adresse aussià l’opinion publique – à nous tous –pour que nous cessions de détournerles yeux et de minimiser l’ampleur et lagravité du problème. C’est un messageaux hommes qui doivent être considé-rés comme les acteurs essentiels de laprévention de la violence. Notre cam-pagne ne vise pas seulement à assurerla protection des femmes par lesfemmes mais aussi à faire en sorte queles hommes protègent les femmes.

Qui plus est, le message de la cam-pagne doit parvenir aux victimes etleur donner le sentiment qu’elles nesont pas seules. Il faut que les femmesen butte à des sévices sachent qu’ellesont droit à une protection et à uneaide, qu’elles sachent aussi où ellespeuvent les obtenir et comment.

Quant aux Etats, commençons parrappeler la nature de leurs obligations,ils sont tenus de protéger les droits del’ensemble de leurs ressortissants et

de toute autre personne se trouvantsur leur territoire. Leurs gouverne-ments respectifs doivent doncprendre toutes les mesures appro-priées pour prévenir tous les types deviolence envers les femmes, dont laviolence au sein de la famille, etlorsque des actes de violence sontconstatés, mener une enquête et punirles auteurs.

Cette campagne s’appuie sur la re-commandation du Comité des Mi-nistres du Conseil de l’Europe relativeà la protection des femmes contre laviolence, adoptée en 2002. Cetterecommandation couvre toutes lesformes de violence sexuelle et consti-tue le premier appel international àl’adoption d’une stratégie globale deprévention de la violence et de protec-tion de ses victimes.

La recommandation est un recueilnon exhaustif de mesures qui ont déjàété adoptées par une partie, mais nonpar l’ensemble, des quarante-six Etatsmembres du Conseil de l’Europe.

Notre campagne a donc pourpremier objectif de s’assurer que lesgouvernements passent en revue lesmesures de cette liste et les mettent enœuvre s’ils ne l’ont pas déjà fait. Enajoutant de nouvelles mesures,chaque gouvernement peut aussicontribuer à la constitution d’un en-semble de bonnes pratiques, permet-tant à chacun de nos Etats membresde tirer les enseignements des succèset erreurs des autres.

La campagne a aussi, bien entendu,une très forte dimension parlemen-taire ; le rôle des parlementaires et desreprésentants des pouvoirs locaux etrégionaux est, en effet, essentiel pourgarantir l’application des résultats dela campagne par le biais de décisionsou de dispositions législatives et admi-nistratives adéquates prises par les


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pouvoirs publics aux niveaux local etnational.

Enfin, une lutte effective contre laviolence domestique exige la pluslarge action publique possible. S’agis-sant de mettre fin à la violence etd’aider les victimes, tous les membresde la société ont un rôle à jouer, des ci-toyens aux enseignants, des tra-vailleurs sociaux au personnel médi-cal ; autrement dit, nous sommes tousconcernés. Il n’en reste pas moins quela violence à l’égard des femmes est

une violation des droits humains etune forme particulièrement épouvan-table d’infraction pénale. Nos gouver-nements n’ont pas le choix : ils doiventagir avec efficacité et sans délai.

La campagne est lancée non passimplement pour parler de la violencedomestique mais aussi et surtout pouragir afin d’y remédier. Ce n’est pas, aubout du compte, au nombre de sémi-naires ou de déclarations que l’on éva-luera le succès de notre campagnemais aux changements positifs et

quantifiables qu’elle contribuera àproduire dans la vie des femmes mal-traitées grâce à de meilleures lois, à unplus grand nombre de lieux d’asile, àde meilleurs conseils et informations,à une assistance accrue et surtoutgrâce à la prévention. Il faut que, dansdix-huit mois, à l’heure du bilan, nouspuissions constater que nous avonsobtenu des résultats tangibles. Nousne devons pas décevoir l’attente de cesvictimes d’une violation des droits del’homme par trop répandue.


Address by Mr José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero

Prime Minister, Spain

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome toSpain.

My first words must be words ofsorrow, in homage to ConcepciónPérez Prieto, who died yesterday inAlmansilla (Seville) at the hands of herex-husband. In remembering hernow, I should like also to honour thememory of the 61 other women whohave been murdered so far this year inour country, victims of gender vio-lence. Events like the conference thatbrings us here today are of the utmostimportance if these women’s deathsare to serve as a permanent warning toour societies, if their ultimate sacrificeis not to have been in vain, if theirdeaths are to be an incentive to allpublic authorities in the commoneffort to put a stop to this intolerableviolence.

For this reason I should like tothank the Council of Europe forsetting the campaign to combat vio-lence against women in motion. Thiscampaign is the latest in a series ofpioneering steps the Council ofEurope has taken since the 1990s toprotect women’s fundamental rightsand freedoms.

In congratulating the Council ofEurope, I congratulate all its Europeanmember states. By giving this cam-paign our support we are making thefirm commitment that we will use ourlaws, our policies and our actions toachieve its aim.

I congratulate the men and womenof Europe on their growing awarenessof the serious consequences of thisviolence, and on the wind of changethat these initiatives announce.

Let me also express our country’sgratitude – it goes without saying – athaving been chosen to host the launchof this campaign. We are proud thatEurope has chosen to honour Spanish

society and its efforts to be fairertowards women in this way. Experi-ence has taught us that only by organ-ising our life together in a more equi-table and egalitarian way can we betruly free, because in acknowledgingan individual right we gain a right forsociety as a whole. Spain fully assumesthe responsibility this entails.

In respect of this and other prob-lems, our citizens have shown theirdetermination to bring about the nec-essary changes to achieve a fully dem-ocratic society, in unison with the agewe live in and the geopolitical place weoccupy. The parity Government I leadthrives on this thirst for true democ-racy.

The everyday lives our women leadare a constant reminder of their resil-ience, their intelligence, their ability tocope and their sense of devotion. It ishardly surprising that Spain’s womenare and always have been the primemovers in the struggle to win recogni-tion for their rights and freedoms andin the promotion of gender equality.

This year Spain celebrated the 75thanniversary of the first day of October1931, when Spanish women weregranted the right to vote. Clara Cam-poamor, a member of parliament whonever faltered in her struggle for polit-ical equality between women andmen, played a unique role in thisachievement and left us a messagethat we should remember every day:“we learn freedom by exercising it”.

Since those days life in Spain hasundeniably come to accept the princi-ple of equality between women andmen. All over the world the acknowl-edgment of women as subjects of lawhas been a vital step, essential to thedevelopment of the democratic polit-ical system. We must realise, however,that while there is no doubt of this in


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theory, in practice we need to workhand in hand to eradicate this sadlegacy of violence against womenfrom the society we leave our children.

In the last decade of the 20thcentury various international organi-sations echoed the voices of womenwho spoke out against the violenceperpetrated against them. In 1995 theUnited Nations Organisation ac-knowledged that violence againstwomen was an obstacle to equality,development and peace, as well as aserious violation of their human rightsand fundamental freedoms. Sincethen we have come to understandmore about this disgraceful phenom-enon and to see it as the social scourgeit is.

Eleven years have passed sincethen. The figures are as horrifying asever, because every woman who diesis a life cut short and every womanharassed a reminder of how affectionsometimes opens the door to repres-sion and domination.

A society cannot consider itself justif there are women who live in fear oftheir own family members, or whosuffer sexual harassment in the work-place. Fear and justice do not go to-gether, for there is no freedom whenfear obliges people to assume atti-tudes, positions or thoughts againsttheir will, and a society that sits backwhile a number of its members live infear is not a just society.

Fear, humiliation, pain and deathare incompatible with a decent socialproject, i.e. a society that makes surenone of its members are humiliated, asociety whose political action isgeared to reducing pain and cruelty inthe world.

We need to let women who live infear, wherever they may be, know thatsociety is with them, that what theyare going through is not their fault,that it is not a private matter, that theyhave no reason to hide, nothing to beashamed of. What is shameful is whensociety lives with this violence andlooks the other way, brushing it off asa matter of tradition or custom, oreven worse, justifying it as a form oflove or desire to protect.

For society to perceive violenceagainst women as a public rather than

a private problem is a good start. Theauthorities must take action toprevent this violence, condemn thosewho perpetrate it and offer protectionand recognition to the victims.

Europe must be a symbol of respectand solidarity, so that nobody feelsthat they do not belong, that nowoman feels like a stranger in her ownhome, her family or her work, lockedup in a space or in relationships whereshe feels unwelcome, or which cut heroff and hurt her.

Violence against women, includingdomestic violence, as the Council ofEurope rightly says, is one of the mostserious forms of human rights viola-tion. Gender violence is violenceagainst women simply because theyare women, exposing them to physi-cal, sexual and psychological abuse intheir families and at work.

For all these reasons we must seeviolence against women as a seriousobstacle to freedom, for if there is noequality between women and menthere can be no freedom in a demo-cratic society. It is everybody’s duty toavert this danger that shatters thepeace of some women and therefore ofour societies. It is everybody’s duty.We men must be the first to reject vio-lence as something natural in men, thefirst to see that masculinity is not syn-onymous with strength, violence, ag-gressiveness or scorn for women.

The effort to combat violenceagainst women needs the active anddetermined support of men, and com-plicity between men and women toforge relations based on equality, rela-tions which are just and dignified forall.

The social, cultural and economiccomplexity of gender violence calls foran approach that combines short-,medium- and long-term objectives. Inthe short term, policy should focus onthe criminal aspects and put a stop tothe murder of women by their part-ners or ex-partners. In the longerterm, we must make sure thatprogress on gender equality preventsmen from assuming positions ofpower and does away with the feelingsof possession and dependence thatcharacterise relations between somemen and women.

In the case of Spain, I lead a govern-ment that has contributed signifi-cantly to bringing the problem ofgender violence in our society out intothe open. We have passed laws, allo-cated financial and human resourcesand set up the necessary institutionalstructures.

The Comprehensive Law againstGender Violence was a pioneeringstep in the development of legal, eco-nomic and penal instruments for theprotection of women. This law, unan-imously adopted, met with the ap-proval of all the parliamentary groupsbecause of its comprehensive natureand the clamorous pleas of a societythat suffers with every woman who isthreatened. Its passage through par-liament, a fine example of co-opera-tion and consensus, helped to fuel asocial debate that removed the veils ofsocial and cultural tolerance that usedto conceal this problem.

The law is intended as a compre-hensive response to gender violence,including prevention, treatment andrepression. It accordingly containsprovisions to teach certain valuesthroughout the education process,values such as equality betweenwomen and men, equal dignity also,and dialogue as the only real means ofsettling disputes. It also containsstandards for the media and advertis-ing companies to observe, codes ofconduct to help them avoid socialstereotyping or the inappropriate por-trayal of women’s image.

Other provisions seek to help andprotect women victims of aggression,including specialised training forpublic servants (judges, police offic-ers, doctors and other health profes-sionals, or social workers) who comeinto contact with these women tooffer them care, treatment or protec-tion, so that the victims are not furtherhumiliated by tactlessness on the partof the very people who are there tohelp them; measures also to protecttheir identity, their work, their eco-nomic resources and welfare, and toencourage them to seek justice, toreport the facts bravely and with dig-nity, holding their heads high in frontof the depraved individuals whotorment them.


Stop à la violence

faite aux femmesdomestiqueAddress by Mr José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero

Needless to say, the law also con-tains criminal provisions which in-crease the penalties which await thosewho abuse their strength; provisionsmade more effective by the establish-ment of a network of specialisedcourts, tribunals and public prosecu-tor’s offices.

In the year and a half that has goneby since the law was enacted, its pro-visions have been implemented andconstantly monitored to determinetheir efficacy, the results achieved andtheir social impact.

Special administrative bodies havebeen set up, such as the GovernmentDelegation on Gender Violence. Withthe help and participation of expertsand women’s associations, we have setup the State Observatory againstGender Violence. We have establishedforty courts to deal solely with thistype of violence and another 419 havespecialised in the subject, and thenumber of police officers working ex-clusively to assist victims and prose-cute their aggressors has been in-creased by 88%, to a total of 1,395.

In this time over 35 000 protectionorders have been issued and 5 000women receive “tele-assistance”.

We have introduced the eleven-month Active Integration Benefit forwomen victims of aggression whohave no income, which is extended foranother three months if they have tomove to a new place of residence.

In education the law has intro-duced content designed to teach ourchildren equality, especially equality

between women and men. Nextmonth government departmentsactive in the health sphere will beadopting a common protocol onmedical treatment and health care forwomen victims of aggression.

Breaking an intolerable taboo,victims of gender violence have takenadvantage of the new law and filedmore than 150 000 complaints. Onething those of us in a position of auth-ority must make quite clear, however,is that preventing violence and pro-tecting women from it is not just theresponsibility of the victims. We mustall consider it our responsibility toreport any aggression or any sign thata woman is being battered, hurt ordowntrodden in her own home.

On 15 December this year the Gov-ernment will approve the NationalAwareness and Prevention Plan onviolence against women, which detailsnew measures, new targets and newresources, all with the same unswerv-ing aim in mind: to do away with ascourge that puts us all to shame.

We hope the day is not far awaywhen no more women die at the handsof their partners, when no morewomen are threatened, when no morewomen feel abandoned by thosearound them, or unable to face up totheir aggressors and report them.Until that day comes, we must con-tinue our efforts to make equalitybetween women and men a reality,aware of the importance of the roleeach and every one of us has to play.Any contribution is welcome; any ini-

tiative that contributes to respectbetween human beings brings thefuture a little closer.

Spanish society is committed tothat future. We will soon be celebrat-ing the 70th anniversary of the day inFebruary 1937 when civil equalitybetween women and men was offi-cially introduced. The Comprehen-sive Law against Gender Violence andthe Organic Law on Equality betweenWomen and Men are part of our her-itage and of what being a Spanishcitizen stands for.

Spain is accordingly pleased andhonoured to have been chosen to hostthe launch of the Council of EuropeCampaign to combat violence againstwomen. It is an acknowledgment ofthe effort Spanish society has made toguarantee all its members, regardlessof their gender, full enjoyment of theircivic rights and freedoms.

In a relatively short space of timeSpain has indeed come a long waytowards equal rights and respect forwomen. We have parity in our Gov-ernment, and the most advanced laws;but gender violence continues,women continue to suffer and genuineequality is still a long way off. My finalwords today will therefore be a call foraction. I urge the victims to reporttheir aggressors, I entreat women toclaim what is theirs and I encouragedecent, law-abiding men and womentogether to wage and win this war – ajust war if ever there was one – againstgender violence.

Thank you.


Changing attitudes to combat violence

against women

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Address: Mr Pēteris Elferts

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Representative of Latvia to the Council of Europe, Thematic Co-ordinator on Gender Equality of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe

Ladies and gentlemen, ministers,excellencies, dear colleagues,

Let me take this opportunity tothank the Spanish authorities forhosting this launching event. Tolaunch the Campaign was a commit-ment made during the WarsawSummit. It was also decided to createa Task Force for this purpose, whichproduced the Blueprint for the Cam-paign. Let me take this opportunity tothank the Task Force for their work. Itis also important to note the fact thatthis is a Council of Europe joint eventwith participation by all three pillars –the Committee of Ministers, Parlia-mentary Assembly and the Congressfor Local and Regional Authorities.The Chair of the Committee of Minis-ters – San Marino – is committed tothis Campaign.

As Thematic Co-ordinator onGender Equality of the Committee ofMinisters of the Council of Europe, Ihave the honour to chair this session -Changing attitudes to combat vio-lence against women.

There are many questions to beasked and answered. Firstly, have atti-tudes changed and are they changing?Secondly, if they are not changing,what is being done and what can bedone to change them?

In 1986, Tracy Chapman in hersong Why? asked the question, “Whyis a woman still not safe when she’s inher own home?” She also offered ananswer – “When the blind remove

their blinders and the speechlessspeak the truth.”

Why is a woman still not safe whenshe’s in her own home? Unfortunately,this question is as relevant today as itwas twenty years ago. The fact thatEurope needs a Campaign is testi-mony to the reality that the problemremains.

The question is – Why?There are many whys still to be an-

swered? What may, what is and whatwill be done to change attitudes tocombat violence against women?

This human rights violation con-tinues to be a problem in our memberstates. It is our common responsibilityto help break the silence, to empowervictims, to remove blinders and helpthe speechless speak the truth to trulychange attitudes to combat violenceagainst women.

Fortunately, we have an excellentpanel to help with these questions andchallenges.

Dear panellists, if you had eachcome here with one apple and ex-changed them, you would all leavewith exactly one apple. However, ifyou will share your experience and ex-change ideas we will all leave moreknowledgeable and with more thanone idea to change attitudes.

That in mind – let us welcome thissession’s keynote speaker: Ms YakinErtürk, United Nations Special Rap-porteur on violence against women,its causes and consequences.


Keynote speech: Ms Yakin Etürk

United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences

Distinguished participants,It is with great honour and pleasure

that I deliver this keynote speech atthe launch of the Council of EuropeCampaign to Combat Violenceagainst Women, including DomesticViolence.

IntroductionThe vision that inspires the

Council of Europe Campaign is basedon the global agenda to end all formsof violence against women at all levels.As articulated by the Beijing Platformfor Action eleven years ago, “… vio-lence both violates and impairs or nul-lifies the enjoyment by women of theirhuman rights and fundamentalfreedoms. … In all societies, to agreater or lesser degree, women andgirls are subjected to physical, sexualand psychological abuse that cutsacross lines of income, class andculture.…Violence against women is amanifestation of the historicallyunequal power relations between menand women” (Beijing Platform forAction, para. 112).

The global women’s movement hassucceeded in making violence againstwomen a public policy issue at the in-ternational level, which has beenslowly but surely trickling down to thenational level policy framework.There is a growing universal culturefor women’s human rights that dem-onstrates that violence is not aboutthe vulnerability of women, norsimply acts by deviant men or a char-acteristic of primitive cultures. In-stead, the problem is understood to berooted in a universal patriarchalculture entrenched in our conscious-ness as women and men, and in thecore values and institutions of socie-ties, albeit in diverse forms and

varying degrees. Dynamics of genderrelations, in other words, share acommon history; therefore, they arelocal and global; particular and uni-versal.

Understanding the diverse trajec-tories of women’s individual and col-lective resistance to oppression andviolence provides a powerful insightto how the agenda has evolved andhow it can be moved forward in tack-ling the “pandemic” of violenceagainst women.

On 25 November 1992, UN inter-national Day of No Violence againstWomen, Filomena Pacsi – an organi-sation of miner women in the Peru-vian Andes – organised an eventwhere about 300 women marchedthrough their community with plac-ards saying “Here you don’t beatwomen”. Their husbands threatenedthem, men stood aside and jeered.The march was like a bomb. In 1996,they marched again. This time, menfollowed the march and said they werethere because, “Thanks to FilomenaPacsi, we have learned not to treat ourwomen this way, because it affects allof us”.1

This was, no doubt, not due to arevelation from above, but rather anawakening which was stimulated bysocial praxis. Can we assume from theabove anecdote that violence againstwomen is no longer a problem in thePeruvian Andes? The answer is, “mostlikely not”. However, we can safelyassume that, in that community, thesilence around the problem no longerexists, women’s resistance to violencecontinues, the consensus that vio-lence against women is “normal” has

1. Quoted in: Francine Pickup et al. 2001,Ending Violence against Women, An OxfamPublication.


Stop à la violence

faite aux femmesdomestiqueKeynote speech: Ms Yakin Etürk

been ruptured and hopefully the auth-orities have assumed their positiveobligation to address the problem. Ata more general level what this anec-dote tells us is that men who are part ofthe problem have to be made part ofthe solution and that communitycompliance and co-operation is ofparamount importance if efforts tocombat violence against women arenot to go astray.

This requires, among other strate-gies, challenging and changing valuesand attitudes with respect to genderrelations and the use of violenceagainst women as a patriarchal privi-lege particularly in the private sphere.Societies across the globe – throughtheir laws and courts – continue tocountenance legal defences that privi-lege and benefit men committing vio-lence against women. The privilegecan be and must be revoked by crimi-nalising all acts of violence againstwomen. Non-discriminatory legisla-tion is an essential component ofdemocratic governance, for providingwomen equal access to justice and forensuring that crimes against womenare not committed with impunity.However, a legal approach alone is notenough to transform patriarchalvalues that sustain and justify vio-lence.

Changing attitudes Combating violence against

women requires a holistic strategythat employs multiple approachesthat supplement the human rights ap-proach in intervening at the level ofthe individual, the level of the commu-nity, the level of the state and the tran-snational arena. In my report to theCommission on Human Rights thisyear I elaborated such an approach ateach level in considering the due dili-gence obligation of the state to pre-vent, investigate and in accordancewith national legislation, punish actsof violence against women, whetherthose acts are perpetuated by the stateor private persons ((E/CN.4/2006/61).

In addressing the issue of changingattitudes, I would like to emphasise di-mensions of the problem at threelevels of intervention that needs to be

considered simultaneously, the firsttwo being at the macro level involvingsocietal/community attitudes and thethird at the micro level involving indi-vidual attitudes: (i) attitudes embed-ded in deeply rooted patriarchalnorms and values that operate to legit-imise, approve or condone the use ofviolence against women; (ii) attitudesregarding gender roles embedded inthe construction of power and domi-nation based masculinity and subor-dinate femininity in sustaining anunequal gender order; and (iii) atti-tudes of individual men known to besystematically violent. While theformer two require attitudinal changeto prevent violence from occurring inthe first place by creating critical con-sciousness and destabilising the foun-dation of hegemonic masculinity, thethird level requires responding to vio-lence by challenging the motivationsand attitudes underpinning theviolent behaviour of individual men.

Changing attitudes at the macro level

Creating critical consciousnessAn essential element of changing

attitudes at the societal level muststart with creating a public discoursethat challenges the dominant societalvalues and norms regulating sexuality,defining acceptable patterns of mas-culine and feminine identities andstructuring of gender relations. Thisrequires states to actively engage inwhat I have called “cultural negotia-tion” to create critical consciousnesswith respect to popular notions ofculture and its reproduction in soci-ety. Negotiating culture is a politicallybold move as it (a) draws on positiveelements within culture to demystifythe oppressive elements of culture-based discourses; (b) demonstratesthat culture is not an immutable andhomogenous entity; and (c) identifiesand contests the legitimacy of thosewho monopolise the right to speak onbehalf of culture, religion, national in-terest and other oppressive and dis-criminatory values used to create con-sensus and mass mobilisation,whether this takes place within stateapparatuses or in civil society.

Through public campaigns, dis-semination of gender sensitive infor-mation and responsible media report-ing the promotion of hegemonic anddiscriminatory gender norms andpractices presented as part of the na-tional, natural or divinely ordainedorder of things can be challenged,which will contribute to expandingpublic space for alternative views andit will encourage and empowerwomen and men alike to questionnotions of male superiority and dom-ination and the taken for grantedtruths that legitimise them. Withinthis context, it is important that thedifferentially situated voices in societyare heard and that social movements,particularly women’s organisations,facilitating this are recognised andsupported by the authorities.

The Beijing Platform for Actionidentified the media as having the po-tential to make an invaluable contri-bution towards a gender sensitivepublic discourse. Given the advancedlevel of information technologiestoday, the media commands incredi-ble power in formulating opinions andattitudes which transcends nationalboundaries. This power must be usedwith responsibility to effectivelychange attitudes that are discrimina-tory and tolerant of violence. The Plat-form calls upon the media to developcodes of conduct and other forms ofself-regulation to promote non-stere-otypical portrayals and degradingimages of women and avoid sensa-tionalised reporting of violenceagainst women. The few existing goodpractices in this regard should be ac-knowledged and integrated into na-tional, regional and internationalstrategies to combat violence.

Public education campaigns areanother powerful way of mobilisingcommunity support for women’srights and for promoting a zero toler-ance to violence. While campaigns areoften time bound, in order to achievesustainability, they must aim to insti-tutionalise their basic goals and prin-ciples into state policy, school curric-ula and working methods of keypublic institutions such as the police,the judiciary, immigration and healthservices and supported with a gender


Stop domestic

against womenv i o l e n c e Changing attitudes to combat violence against women

sensitive national budget. Publicstatements made by governmentleaders and other public figures have asimilar impact of either empoweringor disempowering the culture of vio-lence. The state is required to send anunequivocal message that all forms ofviolence against women is a seriouscriminal act that will be investigated,prosecuted and punished, regardlessof who the perpetuator is and what themotivation may be.

In this respect, it is particularly im-portant to avoid selective responses tothe more sensationalised types of vio-lence, such as honour-related crimesor FGM, as is often the case. Such a se-lective perception fragments the phe-nomenon of violence against women,and results in normalising certaintypes of violence while the “other”becomes stigmatised as the site of vio-lence.

Deconstructing masculinity Finally, if women are to live a life

free of violence efforts to change atti-tudes must include strategies to chal-lenge notions of masculinity based onpolicing women’s sexuality and /or onsustaining male supremacy in publicand private life. Violence is not only anact of individual men but it is embed-ded in the way manhood is con-structed, reinforced and challengedunder societal pressures, social ap-proval mechanisms and crisis situa-tions. During my official visits todiverse countries I have seen that vio-lence against women tends to inten-sify when men experience displace-ment and dispossession related toeconomic transformations, migra-tion, war, foreign occupation or othersituations where masculinitiescompete and power relations arealtered in society. The impact of suchsituations on women is rarely takeninto consideration in development,humanitarian and/or reconstruction

programmes and immigration/refugee policies.

It must be borne in mind that whilesocial change or conflict eliminatessome forms of masculinity, hegem-onic masculinity is reconfigured thusreproducing gender inequality in dis-crete and subtle forms. Therefore, thesources of inequality must be attackedby de-linking power and masculinityat all levels and by recognising andpromoting alternative masculinitiesthat are respectful of women’s rights.An environment that offers channelsof equal participation for all membersof society and inclusive democraticgovernance can foster such egalitarianvalues.

Changing attitudes at the micro level

While transformative change iscarefully tailored, in the short run, thebehaviour of violent men also needs tobe confronted and addressed. Invarious countries different modelshave been developed and employed bygovernmental and non-governmentalorganisations, particularly pro-femi-nist men, in addressing violent malebehaviour. Good practices in thisregard should be documented anddisseminated so that they can beadapted to particular local conditions.Efforts to deal with violent men, how-ever, must not lead to a deviation fromthe commitment to support women’sempowerment and the diversion ofresources from women’s pro-grammes. Women should not have tosubsidise the treatment of violentmen. Furthermore, let us not forgetthat elimination of violence againstwomen is inherently a project ofwomen’s empowerment.

ConclusionIn conclusion, we must celebrate

that eradicating violence against

women and ensuring that humanrights are universally enjoyed hasbecome a common goal and a sharedobligation. The progress achievedthus far towards this goal, althoughuneven and with notorious excep-tions, has verified our conviction thatoppressive values, institutions andunequal relationships can be trans-formed. However, we must be vigilantof the post-9/11 environment, wheretensions among peoples across theglobe have intensified, xenophobiaand anti-immigrant sentimentsheightened, and an overall conserva-tism has dominated global politics.This situation is not only making con-sensus in multi-lateral dialogue moredifficult but it is directly threateningwomen’s rights, particularly in theareas of reproductive and sexualrights, including sexual orientation.The Council of Europe Campaign toCombat Violence against Women, in-cluding Domestic Violence – if statesembrace it with determination andcommitment – provides a renewedopportunity to overcome these nega-tive trends within the Europeanregion itself and through the bilateraland multilateral contributions of indi-vidual member states, the goals of theCampaign can transcend its geo-graphic boundaries. With such an ex-pectation I believe that this campaignwill prove to be another milestonetowards women’s empowerment andgender equality.

As the Special Rapporteur on vio-lence against women, I will monitorthe process closely and would like toexpress my readiness to collaboratewith the Council of Europe and itsmember states in realising the goals ofthis campaign.

Thank you.


Speech: Ms Jadranka Kosor

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Family, Veterans’ Affairs and Intergenerational Solidarity, Croatia

Mr Chairperson, ladies and gentle-men,

At the outset I would like to thankthe Spanish authorities for co-organ-ising and hosting this important con-ference.

On this panel on “Changing atti-tudes to combat violence againstwomen” we shall discuss actions andmeasures needed for the eliminationof discriminatory attitudes and stere-otypes that construct domestic vio-lence against women as a privatematter.

This is not accepted in Europe anymore, but it is still a reality for toomany women victims of domestic vio-lence.

To stop and prevent domestic vio-lence against women we need toaddress the root causes of violenceagainst women and its consequences,as well as to change patriarchal atti-tudes.

The starting point should be therecognition of:

every woman’s right to be free andsafe from violence,violence against women as ahuman rights violation,responsibility of the State toprevent and protect women fromviolence and to punish perpetra-tors.

Mr Chairperson,Croatia welcomes and joins the

Council of Europe Campaign toCombat Violence against Women, in-cluding Domestic Violence, and fullysupports the work of its Task Forcechaired by Croatian expert Ms Šimo-nović.

Just two days ago, we celebrated theInternational Day for the Eliminationof Violence against Women andlaunched our national Campaign to

combat violence against women. Theslogan of our campaign is: “There is nojustification for violence”.

The goals of the National Cam-paign are going to be achieved in part-nership with NGOs in the followingfields of action: legal and politicalmeasures, support and protection ofvictims, gathering data and raisingawareness.

Mr Chairperson,I should like to stress that in the

eradication of domestic violenceagainst women awareness-raising isjust as important as taking legal stepsto protect women’s human rights.

Over the past several years, the Re-public of Croatia has elaborated acomprehensive legal framework forthe protection of women’s right to alife without violence.

Under the Croatian Constitution,gender equality is one of the highestvalues of the constitutional order ofthe Republic of Croatia.

The recent amendments to theCriminal Code of June 2006 stipulatemore severe punishment for crimesagainst family and for the crime of“violent behaviour in the family”.

The 2002 Law on Gender Equalityestablished the Ombudsperson onGender Equality and provides protec-tion against direct and indirect dis-crimination including violenceagainst women.

The 2003 Law on the Protectionagainst Domestic Violence sanctionsforms of domestic violence, the circleof perpetrators and a wide range ofprotective measures, including a re-straining order to remove the violentperson form the home.

The Protocol on Procedures inCases of Domestic Violence createsconditions for more effective co-oper-


Stop domestic


ation of the authorities in charge. Itprescribes obligatory proceedings ofthe authorities in charge – police,social care centres, judiciary, medicalinstitutions and educational institu-tions.

For example, it provides that incases of a notification of violence thepolice must immediately and with nodelay intervene by at least two policeofficers, preferably of both sexes.

Starting from the fact that domes-tic violence is a form of discriminationand bearing in mind that most oftenits victims are women; the NationalStrategy for protection against do-mestic violence for 2005-2007 in-cludes 27 short-term and long-termmeasures and introduces the obliga-tion for the authorities in charge to in-vestigate, prevent and punish anyform of domestic violence.

The recently adopted NationalStrategy for the Promotion of GenderEquality for the period 2006-2010 is abasic strategic document of the Gov-

ernment and Parliament, which con-tains a set of measures to combat vio-lence against women such aseducating judges deciding in domesticviolence cases, as well as developingawareness-raising campaigns.

The adoption of these laws andstrategies to combat violence againstwomen was an important step.

Now, the challenge lies in their fullimplementation.

We also need to strengthen themonitoring mechanisms and collec-tion of data in order to measureprogress at national and internationallevels. We are looking forward to re-ceiving the recommendations of theTask Force in this respect.

Mr Chairperson,I should like to underline the signif-

icant role that many non-governmen-tal organisations have in the process ofassisting women victims of violence.

The Croatian Government contin-ues to foster partnership and co-oper-

ation with NGOs in all its actions tocombat violence against women.

In conclusion, the key lies in chang-ing the attitudes of all the actors in-volved. We must support and develophuman rights and gender equality ed-ucation and awareness-raising pro-grammes for all strata of society. Therole of the media is crucial.

And most importantly, men needto join this Campaign, so that togetherwe can make a real difference in com-bating domestic violence againstwomen.

We demand that violence againstwomen be placed under the spotlight.Women are not to blame for the vio-lence. I call for zero tolerance of vio-lence against women. Let us movefrom Action Plans to action itself rightnow, because in the few minutes I wastalking, women were abused all overthe world. Let us put an end to vio-lence against women!

Thank you.


Speech: Ms Susana Camarero Benítez

Member of the Congress of Deputies, Spain

I should like to begin by stressing therelevance and usefulness of this Coun-cil of Europe Campaign to CombatViolence against Women, includingDomestic Violence, with its focus ongender violence. Thank you for invit-ing me to take part in it.

We have just celebrated 25 Nov-ember, the International Day for theElimination of Violence againstWomen, an important date whichreminds us that the fight to stamp outviolence should be a priority on ouragendas, for politicians, institutions,the media and society in general.

This Campaign serves a dual pur-pose, giving new impetus to the battle,the sharing of experiences and ideasbetween all the countries which formthe Council of Europe, while makingsure that every day for the next twoyears is 25 November, a day to remem-ber the victims and the cause we arefighting for.

Ladies and Gentlemen, gender vio-lence has become a social problem ofthe first order, an affair of state thatmust be brought out into the open anddiscussed, so that together we cancome up with solutions.

Discrimination against women hasmade this violence against them pos-sible, in some cases even accepted, asa means for men to demonstrate theirauthority and their superiority overwomen. Although there has, undenia-bly, been a marked change in the rolewomen play in Spanish and Europeansociety, we must not forget that do-mestic violence against women stillhas its roots in the situation of ine-quality women still find themselves ineven today, with the result that somemen consider women their property,to be used as they please.

There is no doubt that violenceagainst women has been and contin-

ues to be a means of dominating them.A special brand of violence, differentfrom others, a manifestation of thehistorically unequal balance of powerbetween men and women, consoli-dated by discrimination. Generallyspeaking, this violence has been suf-fered in the family, where it has beentolerated and, except in very seriouscases and even then only recently, hashardly ever been reported, out of fearor shame. It was a private matter, to bekept in the home.

Today it is safe to say that this haschanged, and that political parties andthe public authorities consider it anextremely serious social scourge, apublic matter, and solving it hasbecome a political priority.

All those of us who have devotedthemselves to politics, the civil serviceor the media, must take a closer lookat the causes behind violence againstwomen, to make sure such aberra-tions no longer go unpunished, and toprovide better assistance and protec-tion for the victims.

Evidently, such acts are intolerableviolations of women’s fundamentalrights, which not only do them physi-cal harm but destroy their lives, pre-venting their personal fulfilment andtheir participation in society.

The battle against domestic vio-lence has passed through variousphases or stages. First, as I alreadymentioned, thanks to the constantefforts and demands of many women’sorganisations, it was brought out intothe open, into the public eye. It was nolonger a private matter but somethingacknowledged by the institutions andthe different levels of government(both central Government and theAutonomous Communities, whichare directly responsible for developinglegislative measures), who have made


Stop domestic


it a priority on their political agenda.Social awareness came next, with thehelp of the media, whose role I wouldlike to underline here because theirspecial treatment and sensitivity havehelped us come this far, by publicisingall the policies the authorities imple-ment.

Once the problem was brought outinto the open, it became possible toassign resources and develop instru-ments to combat the problem andprotect the victims. Previous roundtables have mentioned the Compre-hensive Law, passed by a unanimousvote, an important instrument thatsupplements the measures taken bythe previous government, whichpaved the way for it, as did the variousreforms of the Criminal Code, theCode of Civil Procedure, the ViolencePlans or the Active Integration Allow-ance, and above all the Law regulatingProtection Orders.

We in the PP believe and never tireof repeating that passing laws does notnecessarily change society, that a lawis not the only solution, that after theComprehensive Law much stillremains to be done, that the politicalpromise embodied in a law must beaccompanied by material and humanmeans, and of course by the corre-sponding budget.

We realise, however, that the socialdebate that took place at the sametime as the parliamentary debate onthe Law was positive and helped atleast to reduce the number of womenmurdered while encouraging victimsto report their aggressors.

This momentum has not been keptup, however, and this year has seen analarming increase in the number ofvictims. We in the PP consider it im-portant to keep up the momentumand the debate in society, which is why

I began by welcoming the opportunitycampaigns like this one give us to keepthe pressure on, in society and in themedia.

Bringing the violence out into theopen encourages women to speak out,informs them of their rights and of thecourses of action open to them.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the fightagainst gender violence needs a lot ofsupport if the “zero tolerance” theEuropean Parliament recommendedyears ago is to become a reality.

This is a problem that concerns usall, public authorities, politicians, themedia, associations, law enforcementagencies, educators and society ingeneral. So it is important that every-one should be aware how important itis to be involved, to do what they canto help.

Achieving equality, respect andhuman dignity and freedom is a prior-ity at every level of life in society.

We believe that the change of atti-tude this panel discussion is aboutmeans making greater efforts toeducate our younger generations;teaching them values, principles andequality will avoid the macho-style at-titudes that go with gender violence.

We all agree that violence is closelylinked to education and values. Menmistreat women because they con-sider them as their property, theirs totreat as they please. This is why it isimportant to change mentalities, tochange roles and to change the way webehave. To achieve this we must startwith the education system, fromschool right through to university, andeven adult education.

We also consider it essential to im-plement additional provision 3 of theComprehensive Law, which calls foreducation in respect for people’s fun-damental rights and freedoms and for

equality between women and men,and for education in tolerance andfreedom within the democratic prin-ciples of living together.

Gender stereotypes and discrimi-nation must be eliminated and theidea that men and women are equal invalue promoted.

Society needs to recover its essen-tial values, for when a society hasvalues it can prevent this type of prim-itive and irrational behaviour.

We must count on the work doneby NGOs, education and the familyand build up self-esteem and individ-ual freedom if we are to prevent thisviolence from continuing.

And in addition to proper educa-tion and training, we must increaseawareness. Accordingly, all the groupsin the Spanish Parliament have unitedin calling for the immediate entry intoforce of the National Awareness andPrevention Plan, as an essential toolfor the implementation of Section I ofthe Comprehensive Law, whichfocuses on prevention, education andpublic information measures.

Finally, let me insist that combatingviolence must be a basic ingredient inthe action of political parties, institu-tions and governments, for muchremains to be done and it is our duty tohelp the victims and encourage themto report their aggressors.

I will finish with a few words thatnicely summarise our thoughts. Theyare from the Declaration of the UnitedNations 4th World Conference onWomen, in Beijing, which says: “Onlywhen there is equality will the abusestop. Violence against women is anobstacle to the achievement of the ob-jectives of equality, development andpeace”.


Speech: Ms Isabel Llinàs

Director of the Women’s Institute of the Balearic Islands, Spain

I should like to thank the Council ofEurope for choosing Spain to host thelaunch of the Campaign to CombatViolence against Women, and also theSpanish Government for organisingthings so well and for the invitationnot only to take part in today’s pro-ceedings but also to share our experi-ences and best practices with othercountries.

I will not talk to you about chang-ing attitudes; others before me havedone that and done it very well.

The State, the Government, pro-vides us with the necessary legalframework, but we in local and re-gional government are the ones whoimplement the measures concernedand put them into practice. And Iwould like to tell you a little about themeans we in regional government useto assist victims of gender violence.Our geographical and demographicrealities may differ, but the essence ofthe comprehensive assistance weprovide remains the same.

Principles of our actionUniversal assistance to all womenvictims, be they Spanish or foreign,in the country legally or illegally.Cross-disciplinary action: throughinformation, orientation, assess-ment and training we give priorityto women exposed to gender vio-lence with a view to preparingthem to re-enter the social main-stream. Prevention, as an integrating factorto help forge behaviours and skillsdesigned to eradicate gender vio-lence. Administrative co-ordination: thisis important in concluding co-op-eration agreements with the Con-sells Insulars (Island Councils) and

municipalities so that we can offercommon services.Immediate treatment of emer-gency cases.

Comprehensive assistance pro-grammes for victims of gender violence in the Balearic Islands

Institut Balear de la Dona (IBD – Balearic Women’s Institute)

Lines of action

Co-ordination, control and follow-up

Co-ordinating Centre for Protec-tion Orders: the Institut Balear de laDona is the co-ordinating centre forprotection orders, which involvessending out information on the IBD’swork and services to the other organ-isations involved.

CareWomen’s Information Centres: afree service providing information,guidance and advice on: legalmatters concerning the family, civillaw, criminal law, administrativelaw and labour law; social ques-tions (social services, health,housing and leisure activities); andwork and education issues (occu-pational and educational guid-ance).Legal Information Points forwomen: a service providing free in-formation, guidance and advice onlegal questions related to family,civil, criminal, administrative andlabour law. 24-hour emergency care and im-mediate response service for casesof gender violence: this requires


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social assistance and rapid re-sponse on the ground.Psychological assistance to womenvictims of violence: free psycholog-ical assistance service for womenover 14 years of age who have suf-fered any form of maltreatment,with individual psychological as-sistance sessions and care andsupport facilities.Psychosocial support service forchildren of women victims ofgender violence sent by theWomen’s Information Centres.Shelters: the services providedinclude reception, board and lodg-ing, information and guidance,follow-up and psychological care,welfare, assistance in finding workand housing, and legal advice.The Autonomous Community of

Madrid, which has law enforcementpowers, has set in place an automaticremote surveillance system toimprove the quality of life and securityof women victims of gender and do-mestic violence.

Courts can order offenders to wearanti-violence bracelets, in addition toany other judicial, social or policemeasures. This is a first in Europe andthanks to the impetus and the effortsof the authorities in Madrid, other au-tonomous communities, like the Bal-earic Islands, have also introducedthis practice and women in othercommunities will soon benefit.

Reintegration – Getting back to normal

Co-operation agreement with theInstituto Balear de la Vivienda toprovide rental accommodation forthe social reintegration of womenvictims of gender violence. TheInstitut Balear de la Dona standsguarantee for the first year andpays for basic furnishings.

Casal de les Dones, a place wherewomen can meet and exchangeideas, helps women victims ofgender violence to form associa-tions.

PreventionTeaching aids to prevent genderviolence, developed by the InstitutBalear de la Dona and the Educa-tional and Cultural Council of theGovernment of the Balearic Is-lands. Aimed at teachers, parentsand pupils in infant, primary, sec-ondary and vocational trainingschools in the Balearic Islands.

Awareness“The Minotaur’s Labyrinth andAriadne’s Thread”, a travelling ex-hibition on gender violence.Campaigns in the press.Information days for local authori-ties on the implementation ofEquality Plans.Gender equality training for publicofficials.We will only eliminate gender vio-

lence by fostering gender equality andempowering women, eliminating ex-isting forms of discrimination andguaranteeing full enjoyment bywomen of their human rights.

Thank you.


Speech: Ms Karine Henrotte-Forsberg

Representative of the Conference of INGOs enjoying participatory status with the Council of Europe

Ambassador Elferts, excellencies,ladies and gentlemen,

As Chairperson of the GenderEquality Grouping at the Council ofEurope asked to represent the Confer-ence of INGOs and the 400 interna-tional non-governmental organisa-tions enjoying participatory statuswith the Council of Europe, it is a greathonour for me to address you at thishigh level launching conference of theCouncil of Europe Campaign toCombat Violence against Women, in-cluding Domestic Violence.

Men’s violence against women –physical or mental – is among themost serious violations of humanrights: it violates the right to life and itviolates the right to physical andmental integrity. This violation isbased on the unequal distribution ofpower between women and men andit hinders the development towards ademocratic society. In order torespect women’s fundamental humanrights, one of the most importanttasks for the European political arenais therefore to eliminate men’s vio-lence against women and to fight suchcrimes, to establish effective actionsof prevention and to give support tovictims. Violence against women is acrime and the violation of women’shuman rights can only be stopped iflegal measures guarantee that theseare addressed properly and that per-petrators are sanctioned. Zero toler-ance is needed for violence againstwomen.

A common European strategy isurgent and necessary and the Confer-ence of INGOs welcomes this initia-tive by the Council of Europe to or-ganise this pan-European Campaignto Combat Violence against Women,including Domestic Violence. Whatcivil society would like to see is a real

political will in all countries to combatviolence against women. The rootcauses of violence have to be ad-dressed by member states to ensuresecurity and the rule of law. Memberstates should have to present nationalplans of action on how they intend tocombat but also in the future preventviolence against women, with con-crete action plans and time frames to-gether with a sufficient budget setaside for this purpose so that the strat-egy can be put into practise.

In order to achieve effective resultsa close co-operation between NGOsand parliamentarians is imperative.Non-governmental organisations andwomen’s organisations in particularare crucial to carry out the campaignat the grass root level since theyprovide immediate practical servicessuch as shelter and counselling towomen victims of abuse and violence.I pay tribute to the many volunteers innon-governmental organisations whoface harsh realities when trying tohelp women and children in difficultsituations due to insufficient numbersof shelters, lack of sufficient fundingand often lack of support from policeor social authorities. Non-govern-mental organisations need to be moreclosely included in the work with na-tional parliaments and be providedwith adequate funding to be effectivein their missions. It is in large part dueto the efforts of voluntary organisa-tions, women’s shelters and thewomen’s movement that violenceagainst women now is on the politicalagenda. Still we need to bear in mindthat violence against women is not awomen’s issue but concerns thesociety as a whole. We need to changethe perception that domestic violenceis a private or individual matter whichonly concerns women and make


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people realise it concerns us all. Inorder to create a well-functioningsupport system for women subject toviolence and when preventing vio-lence the following key areas shouldbe highlighted:

Men need to be mobilised in thestruggle against domestic violence toinform other men of their responsibil-ities to stop violent behaviour. Weneed non-violent men as role modelsto bring about a fundamental changein attitudes.

There is a need to improve genderstatistics in general and criminal sta-tistics in particular. At the momentthe statistics in this area are extremelyunsatisfactory in many Europeancountries. This makes it very difficultto compare the figures betweenmember states. The fact that womenoften withdraw their complaints fol-lowing pressure from their partner orfamilies make statistics unreliablesince withdrawals are not included inthe statistics. The role of indicators isequally important – the ones for in-stance developed during the DanishPresidency of the European Unionhave still not been put into practice inEuropean member states. Europeansurveys should also be conducted inorder to know more about men’s andwomen’s perceptions of domestic vio-lence.

We need to increase the number ofdomestic violence cases reported to

the police and the proportion of casesthat proceed to trial. It is a fact thatfew cases of domestic violence go tocourt, even in those countries thathave already passed specific legisla-tion in this matter. This has a pro-found effect, not least psychologicallyon women seeking protection andredress from the judicial system.Domestic violence seldom leads toprosecution or court proceedings,even though more reports of offencesare brought to the attention of thepolice than before. Studies are neededon the impact of decisions to dropcases or not to prosecute victims andperpetrators and on their surround-ings.

There is a need to initiate researchprogrammes which focus on particu-lar aspects of violence against women,namely the devastating impact whichdomestic violence has on children andthe link between alcohol and domesticviolence.

A particular attention needs to begiven to targeted groups like migrantwomen, disabled and Roma women,elderly but also very young women,not forgetting women in rural areas.Older women are frequently victimsof violence from close familymembers for reasons linked to inher-itances and, when moved to institu-tions, often become victims ofrenewed violence.

The media have an important roleto inform and should be used morefrequently to present prevention cam-paigns on domestic violence. But themedia must also be held more respon-sible when it comes to eliminate vio-lence from publicity. Ethic guidelinesare greatly needed to put an end toabusive images of women in the mediabut also to fight gender stereotyping.

And finally, last but not least,society needs to be regularly informedof how much violence costs to societyin human suffering, loss of lives, lostdays of work, medical costs, etc.

The Conference of INGOs wouldlike this pan-European Campaign notjust to be activities during the time ofthe Campaign but would like to seereal results, if possibly in all forty-sixmember states of the Council ofEurope. The Campaign has alreadythe merit that people now start to talkabout violence against women andthanks to it many more in the comingyears will become increasingly awareof the totally unacceptable situationthat women face today in our society.

Through a change of attitudes,through dissemination of informationand through an increased awarenesswe can all actively contribute to put astop to violence against women. If wecan achieve small concrete changes inevery country this Campaign will havebeen successful.



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Keynote speech: Ms Widney Brown

Senior Director, International Law, Policy and Campaigns, Amnesty International

Good afternoon. Amnesty Interna-tional is delighted to participate in thelaunch of the Council of Europe Cam-paign to Combat Violence againstWomen, including Domestic Violence.

In this talk I will address one of themost pervasive, destructive andhidden forms of violence againstwomen: domestic violence.

The toll exacted by domestic vio-lence on individual victims, their chil-dren, their families, their communi-ties and society in general is largelyunrecorded. But it is the toll of unful-filled promise, of lives stripped downto survival, and in some cases of liveslost, of children learning about abuseof power and in too many casesgrowing up to replicate those lessons.It is of communities and societieslosing the benefit of the full realisationof the potential of too many women ir-reparably harmed by domestic vio-lence.

One night from 7pm to 4am he was drinking and torturing me in various ways. He took the meat cleaver when I was lying on the settee, and held it against the front of my neck, just because I called my sister, and he said, “Why did you call your sister, you wanted to ask about your brother-in-law and not your sister”. So he beat me very badly. I was horrified. I was preg-nant just in my first months. He then took a shot of raki and sat in silence for five minutes. Then he took the cleaver, and with all the force of his upper hand pushed my head to one side and put the cleaver to my neck. I don’t know how I didn’t die from the shock. He was interro-gating me trying to find out who I liked or if I had someone else. I didn’t answer his questions as I was very afraid and didn’t want to make

any mistake as I knew it could end very badly. Then he took another shot and sat for another five min-utes. Then he took the electrician’s pincers and pulled at my new blouse trying to get at my breast and destroyed the blouse with the pin-cers; then he took my hair and cut it with a bread knife; then he tried to gouge my eyes out with his finger; then he put his fist in my mouth with as much pressure as he could. All the time while he tortured me, he would stop, take a shot of raki, and then start torturing me again. I passed out at about 4.30 am. I am carrying the past around inside me. No one can see my heart, how it is inside. I could speak today about the defi-

nition of domestic violence and aboutthe legal obligations of states and ofdue diligence – but because this isabout how we work together: govern-ments, advocates, activists, and survi-vors, I want to address how we canunite to end domestic violence in aslightly less legalistic framework.

As many of you know, domesticviolence can take many forms, at itscrudest it is about inflicting physicalpain and harm on the victim. It cantake many other forms includingsexual violence or creating the totaleconomic dependence of the victim orpsychological abuse. But for the pur-poses of this discussion today, themost important aspect may well be torecognise that the experience of virtu-ally all victims and survivors is the iso-lation of being victimised.

In many cases the abusive partnerso controls the victim’s day to dayworld that she cannot escape her iso-lation and thus her sense of identity isreflected solely through how theabuser defines her. She is told that she


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against womenv i o l e n c e United in combating domestic violence against women

is worthless, incompetent, stupid, abad mother, a bad wife, that she is uglyand without value and if she is suffer-ing she deserves to suffer because shehas caused that suffering through herown behaviour.

We got engaged and from that moment onwards he was jealous. He was always telling me, “Don’t look here, don’t look there” and he didn’t even allow me to talk to my neighbours. I hoped that he would change with time.Unfortunately for most women,

the isolation goes unnoticed or ideasof how one should respect “relation-ships” means that the isolation is notchallenged. And the downward spiralinto believing that you are to blame forthe violence and that you have noworth continues unchallenged. In theworst cases families and communitiessee the abuse but prefer to maintainthe illusion that all is well. Lack ofawareness, ignorance and wilfuldenial all have the same impact on thewoman, they reinforce her isolationand in the worse cases make her feellike she is crazy.

So what does this mean for us –governments and non governmentalorganisations alike – as we attempt toaddress and end domestic violence?

It means that we must learn toreach out to the places where womenalways are – no matter how isolatedthey may be.

It means reflecting back an imageof each woman who turns to us forhelp that contradicts the image that isbeing imposed on her every day by herabusive partner.

It means making allies of individu-als and groups and government agen-cies that find acknowledging the exist-ence of domestic violence unsettlingand intervening frightening.

Specifically, media campaigns aimedat raising awareness must be distributedthrough venues and media that themost socially isolated woman canaccess. Those media messages mustspeak to the women in a way that says“hey, I am talking about you.” And theymust be distributed through venueswhere women can go without raisingquestions, on the bus, to nurseries andschools, to pre- and postnatal health

clinics, at the grocery store, at thelaundry mat, on radio and TV. It shouldgo without saying that such messagesneed to be distributed in languages thatreflect the diversity of the womanwithin a community.

It means that when women who areabused come into contact with thegovernment, typically through thehealth care system or the criminaljustice system, that those systemsmust be proactive in reaching out toassess the situation.

Women who access pre-natal careshould be routinely screened to see ifthey are in an abusive relationship.This is of particular importancebecause a woman’s pregnancy oftentriggers the abuse and because theabuse may threaten the well-being ofthe woman and her pre and post natalhealth and the health of the foetus. Tomake screening effective, it must bedesigned to be and perceived to beuniversal. Otherwise women who areasked about their intimate relation-ships may feel a need to hide ratherthan take the opportunity to seek help.

Additionally, medical service pro-viders, in particular urgent or emer-gency care providers should betrained to identify both the physicaland psychological manifestations ofbeing victimised in an intimate rela-tionship and be given the skills to in-tervene.

Perhaps this is the point at which itis important to note that recognitionand intervention without appropriateresources will often fail.

Security will be the most criticalneed of a woman ready to acknowl-edge that she is in an abusive relation-ship and is ready to leave that relation-ship. Yet this is where most states fail.Security is seen as a short term needtypically related to restraining orders.But women need physical securityfrom violence directed at themselves,their children, their families and theirsupport systems, they also need somedegree of financial security and securehousing – by secure housing I meannot just a place that is safe, but a placethat allows enough security of tenurethat a woman can rebuild her life fromthe stable platform of a secured placeto live.

I had a constant feeling of fear which grew and grew and I finally took the child and went to my mother’s place. I left the flat which is a big step in these times. It wasn’t easy at my mother’s place. She also has a one-room flat. We were all to-gether, me, my child, my mother and her husband. I slept on the floor for two months. Then my stepfather threw us out with the child right on the street. A woman I was working with put us up and let me stay in her home. I stayed there a year.The role of secure housing cannot

be overstated. Women with childrenwho can not provide that housing mayhave to choose between returning tothe abusive partner and losing herchildren.

The criminal justice system is thesecond most likely place in which agovernment can make a proactive in-tervention. Police officers, investiga-tors, forensic medical specialists andprosecutors must be trained to assesssituations in which the victim of vio-lence often seems to undermine herown case because – in fact – she maybelieve that she does deserve theabuse. And the perpetrator of the vio-lence is often all too good at portray-ing himself as the long sufferinghusband of an incompetent and infu-riating wife.

Women must be engaged in amanner in which they get a clearmessage that no one – no one – de-serves to be abused. But perhaps moreimportantly, she must be encouragedto take control of the decisions in herown life.

Yet, despite a clear understandingthat creating a space in which womencan reclaim control of their lives, mostwomen’s interaction with the criminaljustice system is about lack of control.Engagement with the criminal justicesystem is too often a replication of lackof control and at its worst abuse ofpower.

Women must make decisionsabout filing complaints and pressingcharges without a comparable com-mitment on the part of the state toprotect her and her children andfamily. It is about entering a legal maze


Stop à la violence

faite aux femmesdomestiqueKeynote speech: Ms Widney Brown

in which the woman herself often feelsunder attack.

That attack can come from severalplaces: the officers responding to acomplaint may dismiss her as deserv-ing the abuse; she may be accused bythe police of making a false complaintor otherwise abused by the police; ifshe is from a marginalised communityshe may see her complaint taken seri-ously but then her abusive partnertreated in a manner that reveals biason the part of the police; she may begiven an ultimatum to either pursue acomplaint or quit relying on the policeto respond; she may be told that if shecannot control her abusive partnershe will lose her children for endan-gering their welfare; she may seek aprotective order but learn that thepolice will only respond after anattack. The list goes on.

I said at the beginning that I did notwant to be over-legalistic in my analy-sis of the problem or the solutions weseek together today. But as we con-template the ways in which the crimi-nal justice system too often failswomen I want to bring up the issue ofdue diligence. We all recognise that nostate has the power to prevent all badacts by individuals. But we also recog-nise that when a state takes particularissues seriously and works with con-victions and resources to stop partic-ular types of bad acts, it can make sig-nificant gains.

The failure of states to act with duediligence and an appropriate sense ofurgency to address domestic violenceis a human rights violation. No statecan tolerate the threat of violence tohalf its people, and yet, acceptance –no matter how regretful – of domestic

violence in effect becomes a form oftolerance towards domestic violence.States can do better.

And I would suggest that they cando better by working side by side withNGOs with expertise in addressingdomestic violence including advo-cates for survivors and more effectivesystems, service providers and thoseworking to empower survivors.

Put simply, women have a right tolive their lives without fear of violenceand secure in the knowledge that ifviolence should occur – the state willtake that violence seriously.

Working together we can make adifference. Working together we mustmake a difference – the cost to all of usit too high to accept failure.

Thank you.


Allocution : Mme Catherine Vautrin

Ministre déléguée à la cohésion sociale et à la parité, France

Mesdames et Messieurs les Minis-tres, Mesdames et Messieurs les par-lementaires, Mesdames, Messieurs,

Je tiens à remercier le Gouverne-ment espagnol et le Conseil de l’Eu-rope pour l’organisation de cetteconférence et je félicite ce dernierd’avoir pris l’initiative de lancer cettecampagne européenne de lutte contrela violence à l’égard des femmes.

En agissant au plan européen, nous stigmatisons plus fortementles comportements violents en sus-citant un mouvement internationalde réprobation et de lutte,nous donnons plus de force et derésonance à nos campagnes natio-nales et nous créons une émulation entrenos pays qui poussent chacun àfaire davantage.La France s’est fortement mobilisée

pour combattre ces violences qui per-sistent à un niveau préoccupant puis-que, au cours des neuf premiers moisde l’année 2006, une femme est mortetous les trois jours sous les coups deson compagnon dans notre pays.

Nous avons lancé un plan triennal(2005-2007) d’action globale, que j’airenforcé à deux reprises, et adopté, le4 avril 2006, une loi renforçant la pré-vention et la répression des violencesau sein du couple :

Nous sensibilisons la populationpar des campagnes de communica-tion nationales et nous nous atta-chons à mieux connaître le phéno-mène des violences et sesconséquences ;Nous avons renforcé les sanctionscontre les auteurs de violences etj’ai fait reconnaître la notion de violentre époux.Nous améliorons l’accueil etl’écoute des femmes victimes ainsique le traitement judiciaire de ces

violences : par exemple, un numérod’appel unique, facile à retenir, seramis en place dès 2007.J’ai également renforcé la prise encharge des femmes victimes autriple plan de l’hébergement, dessoins et de l’insertion profession-nelle. Nous expérimentons ainsi unnouveau mode d’hébergement enfamille d’accueil.Je m’attache, enfin, à mieux préve-nir la récidive en encourageant lacréation de nouvelles structuresprenant en charge les hommesauteurs de violences.Nous luttons aussi contre d’autres

formes de violence commises à l’en-contre des femmes, notamment lesmutilations sexuelles. Nous avons à cetitre renforcé la répression des muti-lations sexuelles commises à l’étran-ger sur des mineurs résidant habituel-lement en France.

Par ailleurs, la France accorde unegrande importance à la collaborationque nous pouvons avoir avec lesacteurs non gouvernementaux et àl’action internationale.

Je salue les responsables d’Amnestyinternational. Dans de nombreuxpays, leur campagne « Halte à la vio-lence des femmes » a permis de faireévoluer les mentalités et d’accélérerles réformes pour protéger les femmeset poursuivre les auteurs de violence.

En France, le rapport d’Amnestypublié en février dernier, « Les vio-lences faites aux femmes en France :une affaire d’Etat », a formulé des pro-positions d’améliorations qui rejoi-gnaient nos préoccupations et quenous avons retenues, pour certainesd’entre elles.

J’évoquerai également notre parte-nariat avec la Fédération nationale so-lidarité femmes, une ONG mobiliséesur le terrain de l’accueil et de l’accom-


Stop à la violence

faite aux femmesdomestiqueAllocution : Mme Catherine Vautrin

pagnement des femmes victimes deviolences.

Cette fédération gère des structu-res disséminées sur tout le territoire.La proximité est une condition d’effi-cacité de notre action. C’est pourquoije lui ai confié la gestion du nouveaunuméro d’appel que nous allonsmettre en place.

Faire front uni contre la violence,c’est aussi s’engager au plan intergou-vernemental.

L’étude récente des Nations Unies,que nous avons cofinancée avec lesPays-Bas, permet de mieux connaî-tre ce phénomène. Portant sur 71pays, elle a montré que c’est unfléau mondialement répandu et

qu’en moyenne une femme surtrois en est victime au cours de savie. Cette étude a servi de base àune résolution de l’Assemblée gé-nérale des Nations-Unies, adoptéela semaine dernière, qui nousengage tous à redoubler d’effortsdans ce domaine.Collaborer, c’est enfin soutenir desactions innovantes et partager lesexpériences. C’est ce que nousfaisons au travers du programmeDaphné II de l’Union européennequi permet d’expérimenter desprojets d’ONG et de mutualiserensuite leurs résultats pour enassurer la diffusion la plus large.

Mesdames, Messieurs,

Avec cette campagne du Conseil del’Europe, nous allons opposer à la vio-lence la force de nos volontés réunies.

Cette campagne internationale il-lustre la vitalité de nos valeurs com-munes et notre capacité à nous mobi-liser collectivement pour les défendre.

Son slogan touche juste : « Celacommence par des cris, cela ne doitjamais finir par le silence ». Nousdevons combattre à tout prix le silencecar la violence, c’est aussi ce qui neparle pas.

Je vous remercie.


Speech: Ms María Antonia Martínez García

Member of the Senate, Co-rapporteur of the Inter-Parliamentary Union on “How parliaments can and must promote effective ways of combating violence against women in all fields”, Spain

On my own behalf and on behalf ofthe IPU, I should like to thank theCouncil of Europe for including us inthis panel discussion and, above all,for launching the Campaign tocombat Violence against Women, in-cluding Domestic Violence. I earn-estly hope that this Campaign willhelp to place this issue high on the po-litical agenda of all Council of Europemember states, at national, regionaland local level.

I can fully affirm that the IPU willbe your unconditional ally in thisCampaign, whose aims and objectivesit fully endorses and I have been toldthat a co-ordination meeting is to beheld within the next few days.

For the time being I wish to informyou that, after the evaluation carriedout in 2005 through the Resolutionentitled “Beijing + 10: An evaluationfrom a parliamentary perspective”and in view of the persistence andextent of violence against women inthe world, the IPU decided to com-mission the drafting of a report and aproposal for a resolution on how par-liaments could foster effectivemethods of combating violenceagainst women in all spheres, includ-ing the domestic sphere. I had thehonour of sharing the task of draftingthis report and resolution withMs Lee, a member of the SouthKorean Parliament. The report wasfinally approved in Nairobi in May2006, 21 years after the Third WorldConference on Women had takenplace in this same city and at which itwas declared that violence againstwomen was an obstacle for theachievement of equality, developmentand peace and to the full implementa-tion of the Convention on the Elimi-nation of All Forms of Discriminationagainst Women.

Through this work the IPU, whichis conscious of the varying degrees oflegislative development and politicalcommitment in the world with regardto the need to eradicate violenceagainst women, wishes to help estab-lish a body of law and a framework ofaction for parliamentary activity thatis fully compatible with the Council ofEurope’s commitment.

Eleven years have gone by since allthe governments which took part inthe Fourth World Conference onWomen solemnly proclaimed in theBeijing Declaration, among othercommitments to the Women of theWorld, their resolve to “prevent andeliminate all forms of violence againstwomen” (29) and “promote andprotect all human rights of womenand girls” (31) and to implement theBeijing Platform for Action with suffi-cient financial resources. The Millen-nium Declaration uses exactly thesame wording.

Since then, the governments of theworld, and particularly European gov-ernments, have made successive dec-larations and undertakings at regionalsummits. I will not take up the timeavailable to me in drawing up a list ofthese texts, of which you are all aware.The work carried out by various par-liamentary associations, of which theParliamentary Assembly of theCouncil of Europe and the Interparlia-mentary Union are good examples,and above all the huge number of res-olutions and agreements adopted inthe United Nations, is also commend-able.

Nevertheless, and although it maybe difficult to believe, violence perpe-trated against women is still one of themajor obstacles to their progress, andis, as Kofi Annan once said, perhapsthe most shameful human rights vio-


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faite aux femmesdomestiqueSpeech: Ms María Antonia Martínez García

lation that knows no boundaries ofgeography, culture or wealth.

Despite the existing legal texts atinternational and regional level, manycountries still do not have any laws ormeasures, or even worse, any politicalresolve to put an end to a problemwhich exists all over the world and isparticularly acute in war zones and inpost-war periods, in the form of slav-ery, exploitation for the purposes ofprostitution, sexual violence, femalegenital mutilation, violence at workand, above all, in the very widespreadform of domestic violence, which isdirectly linked to the long-standinginequality between the sexes andsexual discrimination.

Domestic violence is the mostwidespread form of violence againstwomen and accounts for the largestnumber of sexual assaults on womenand girls (between 10% and 20% ac-cording to the WHO), more than halfof the murders of women are commit-ted by their husbands or partners(WHO) and female genital mutilationis also practised under the protectionof the family.

The WHO’s Multi-Country Studyon Women’s Health and Domestic Vi-olence against Women is extremelyinteresting. The foreword to the studypoints out that each culture has itssayings and songs about the impor-tance of home, and the comfort andsecurity to be found there. Yet formany women, home is a place of painand humiliation. I believe the time hascome to bring this pain and humilia-tion out into the open. The principleof respect for the human and funda-mental rights enshrined in Europeanconstitutions also extends to people’shomes and the public authorities havea duty to take immediate action.

UN General Assembly Resolution58/147 on “Elimination of DomesticViolence against Women” urges statesnot to “invoke any custom, traditionor religious consideration to avoidtheir obligations to eliminate violenceagainst women”.

Women are the victims of this typeof violence throughout the world butthe perpetrators are often not prose-cuted or punished, domestic violence,including sexual violence in marriage,

continues to be considered a privateaffair and violence of this type, in all ofits forms, continues to be socially ac-cepted.

It should therefore be pointed outthat Recommendation No. 12 (1999)of the Committee of the Conventionfor the Elimination of all Discrimina-tion against Women stipulates thatunder Articles 2, 5, 11, 12 and 16 of theConvention states must protectwomen against all types of violence inthe family, at work or in any other areaof social life. It should also be borne inmind that the definition of violenceagainst women set out in UN Resolu-tion 48/104 of 20 December 1993 in-cludes physical, sexual and psycholog-ical violence occurring in the family,within the general community, or per-petrated or condoned by the State. Ex-amples of such practices are sterilisa-tion or forced abortion, the forced useof contraceptives, pre-determining achild’s sex and female infanticide. Ipersonally very much like the defini-tion of domestic violence used in thecampaign.

The resolution adopted by the114th Assembly in Kenya in May 2006recommends specific measures forcombating domestic violence. It callsupon governments and parliaments:

if they have not yet done so, todevelop and implement specificlegislation and/or strengthen ap-propriate mechanisms to handlecriminal matters relating to allforms of domestic violence, includ-ing marital rape and sexual abuse ofwomen and girls, and to ensurethat such cases are brought tojustice swiftly;if they have not yet done so, todevelop and implement adequatelegislation to combat domestic vio-lence;to develop national plans tocombat domestic violence thatinclude measures related to re-search, prevention, education, in-formation and penalisation, theprosecution and punishment of allacts of violence against women (in-cluding violence within marriage),social, financial and psychologicalsupport for victims (including chil-dren who have witnessed domestic

violence against their mothers),special support for the most vul-nerable groups and effective legaltools to protect victims.to make certain that legislation onviolence against women precludesany kind of culture-related vio-lence; also calls upon legislators todeny any form of undue mitigationof sentence for crimes committedin the name of culture. to adopt measures to encourageadequate reporting of domesticviolence and to combat recidivism. It also urges governments and par-

liaments to ratify international and re-gional instruments pertaining to vio-lence against women, such as theConvention on the Elimination of AllForms of Discrimination againstWomen (CEDAW) and its OptionalProtocol, and to ensure full compli-ance with those instruments.

It calls upon parliaments to reviewlegislation that impedes the attain-ment of equality between the sexes, inparticular in education, health andaccess to property and land.

It encourages governments andparliaments to establish observatorieson violence against women, and todevelop indicators and compile data,disaggregated by sex, to monitor theeffectiveness of policies for the elimi-nation of such violence.

It encourages the establishment ofparliamentary bodies to monitor andevaluate all international and nationalmeasures designed to prevent anderadicate violence against women.

Finally, it calls upon parliaments toensure that sufficient resources are al-located to guarantee the implementa-tion of legislation and measures de-signed to combat violence againstwomen, including domestic violence,female genital mutilation and violenceat the workplace, in human traffickingand in situations of armed conflict.

This resolution provides the basison which the IPU works on improvingparliamentary action to put an end toviolence against women. It is workingtogether with the United Nations, andparticularly with the Division for theAdvancement of Women, and we areconfident that it will be able to make amajor contribution to the work


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carried out in this sphere by theUnited Nations.

I should also mention variousfollow-up activities conducted by theIPU in line with this resolution:

The seminar for parliamentarianson the Convention for the Eliminationof All Forms of Discrimination againstWomen held in Geneva by the IPUand the UN Division for the Advance-ment of Women on 19 October 2006,at which the subject of violenceagainst women was discussed and atwhich the IPU resolution and the UNreport on violence against womenwere presented.

The Conference for parliamentarycommittees on gender equality andthe status of women concerning therole of parliamentary committees inmainstreaming gender and promotingthe status of women, which is to beheld in Geneva from 4 to 6 December2006 and will include a debate on whatparliamentarians can do to combatviolence against women. Proposals by

the Parliamentary Assembly of theCouncil of Europe, the United Na-tions, Amnesty International and par-liamentarians will be welcome at thisconference.

From next year onwards, the IPUwill hold regional seminars for parlia-mentarians on violence againstwomen, which will be linked to thesubject of gender-based budgeting(for example how national budgetscan provide appropriate funding forefforts to combat violence againstwomen).

Another sphere of activity to whichwe have made a substantial contribu-tion is female genital mutilation.Fouryears ago the IPU launched a parlia-mentary campaign to combat thisproblem, held various parliamentaryevents on the subject and included onits website a database of all existing in-ternational legislation designed tocombat female genital mutilation(http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/fgm.htm).Recently a regional conference was

held in co-operation with the AfricanParliamentary Union and Unicef. Ihope that we will be able to co-ordi-nate our activities given that femalegenital mutilation has now also spreadto Europe. Spain has already intro-duced a number of measures to dealwith the problem.

Finally, the connection betweenviolence against women and violenceagainst girls is obvious and this is anarea to which the IPU is fully commit-ted, together with UNICEF and otherpartners, and it is concerned that par-liaments should take appropriateaction. We cannot tackle violence ingeneral or violence against womenand girls in particular without havingan overall view of the problem. Parlia-ments and the IPU will do everythingin their power to rise to this challengeand will do so by rallying our forces ininitiatives that are as laudable as theone that is being launched heretoday.


Speech: Mr Ramón Ropero Mancera

Member of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Council of Europe

Greetings.This morning, the President of the

Spanish Government referred to thegovernment’s determination to put astop to, avoid and prevent domesticviolence. In Spain the basic legislationon this subject is the ComprehensiveLaw against Gender Violence. Frommany standpoints, this is also funda-mental for local and regional govern-ments.

Regional governments in Spain, i.e.the Autonomous Communities, havepower to legislate. In a democraticsociety, the different levels of govern-ment must conduct their actionwithin the framework of existing leg-islation. Our laws should have abearing on and promote not only pre-vention but also direct, daily action; inorder to ensure that they are effective,the different institutions concernedmust agree on how they are to be ap-plied.

A substantial amount of fundingmust be made available to the com-munity to help prevent domestic vio-lence. As has already been pointedout, it is the sphere in which publicand private matters are intricatelylinked. It is not easy to draw the linebetween the private affairs of thefamily and matters which flow overinto the public sphere, but the law-makers must define these limitsclearly and firmly.

For a time, which I believe is nowfortunately behind us, violenceagainst women was considered to be aprivate matter, concerning only thefamily. Neither neighbours nor closerelations, not to mention the authori-ties, had anything to say in the matter.The path to recognition of domesticviolence as a social problem and, sub-sequently, its classification as a crimi-nal offence, was long and strewn with

difficulties. Domestic violence wasseen to be shameful and as a personaland private matter that was acceptedin silence; coupled with a certain tacitacknowledgment and the financialvulnerability of women, it was one ofthose affairs that simply “did not exist”.

As we, who have always believed inhard work and fighting as the way tosolve problems, well know, it waswomen’s NGOs and women’s welfaregroups which, through their daily ef-forts, brought this type of violenceagainst women out into the open, withthe result that it is now easier tocondemn and punish.

The time when men and women inSpain did not share the same rightsand duties has virtually been forgot-ten: as a result of women’s gradualaccess to all spheres of society and, inparticular, their presence in institu-tions and public administration, wecan now see that we have all benefitedfrom this co-operation betweenequals.

We need to ask ourselves if thereare any public spheres in which vio-lence against women is not beingtaken seriously. My answer is no.Despite incidents caused by public of-ficials, who were perhaps afraid ofsharing equality, and which are well-known because of the public con-tempt with which they were treated,all the Spanish public authorities havefirmly rejected such behaviour,despite its persistence.

Like Mr Heliodoro Gallego, whomyou had the opportunity to meet thismorning at the launching ceremony, Iam a mayor, and we share the task ofrepresenting all of the local organisa-tions in the Spanish Federation of Mu-nicipalities and Provinces, of which heis the President. From our privilegedposition on the executive board, we


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can see how the municipalities aremaking the effort to use resources andcapacities to prevent violencebetween neighbours. Violence is un-acceptable to mayors and preventingviolence against women is a priority.And it is a priority for us because it isalso a priority for our neighbours.Public statements against domesticviolence are followed up by our daily,local, institutional efforts to preventviolence and by immediate action.

Our commitment in the munici-palities to preventing this type of vio-lence is not new. We have always givena great deal of attention to the ap-proaches taken and the progress madeby the international community, andsome of our female colleagues are par-ticularly committed to this work.Spanish elected representatives havetaken part in the successive worldconferences on women, have dissemi-nated and paid close attention to theresolutions of the UN General Assem-bly, the European Parliament and theCouncil of Europe, and also the Euro-pean programmes and campaigns ofthe Charter of Fundamental Rights ofthe European Union.

All these texts, the guidelines theycontain, the realities they reflect, the

long-term strategies, have resulted ina philosophy and action which havebeen given practical shape in the formof laws and common policies whoseultimate aim is to put a stop to vio-lence against women.

In Spain it is currently the autono-mous authorities which have most re-sponsibility for taking measures toensure equality and combat genderviolence; but it is beyond all doubt thelocal authorities which are best placedto implement such measures becauseof their proximity to the citizens andbecause they are the most appropriateinstrument for ensuring that such pol-icies are effective, reach their target,become more widespread and arefirmly established in society.

There are very few municipalitieswhich do not nowadays have sometype of measure or activity in the formof Plans or Programmes, which are re-flected in local planning, awareness-raising activities, prevention and in-tervention in all Spanish municipali-ties, be they large or small, rural orurban. Teaching our citizens to be so-cially responsible is our starting pointfor guaranteeing that all women whoare ill-treated, receive the attention,protection and help they require.

As we have seen, this is a social sit-uation over which we clearly have ad-ministrative powers, not only at locallevel but also at regional and nationallevel; and also in the different fields forwhich local authorities are responsi-ble, in other words not only the spe-cific fields of equality or women’saffairs but also social services, educa-tion, health, the police, housing oremployment, as well as in those fieldsfor which supra-local authorities areresponsible, such as justice, security,medical care and prevention. Localand regional welfare organisations arealso part of the ever insufficient re-sources for dealing with a problem,which we need to tackle at the roots.

Co-ordinating this wide range ofplayers working in the same field is anorganisational challenge which re-quires the rationalisation and bestpossible use of public and social re-sources. This can only be achieved ifthere is the same responsible co-oper-ation at institutional level. Meetingthis challenge is the key to makingsteady progress towards eradicatingthe violence of which many – indeedtoo many – women are still victims.

Thank you very much.


Speech: Ms Hijran Huseynova

Chairperson of the State Committee for Family, Women and Children’s Issues, Azerbaijan

Ladies and gentlemen, dear partici-pants in the conference,

Let me firstly greet you and expressmy gratitude to the Council of Europe,and especially to Mr Terry Davis, fororganising such an important meetingto hold discussions on such a crucialissue.

If the first half of the 20th century isremembered for wars and politicaltensions, the period after the 1950scoincides with developments in thesphere of international law. It was thesecond half of the 20th century whena number of universal documentswere adopted, human rights werebrought to the forefront and somecrucial steps to protect these rightswere taken. But it has not yet beenpossible to restore justice completely,and violence still continues.

Significant achievements havebeen made in the study of the nature ofviolence at international and nationallevels. The extensive work undertakenat different levels has led to a betterunderstanding of the nature andscope of violence against women andan appreciation of its impact onwomen and on societies. The causesof violence against women have beeninvestigated from diverse perspec-tives, including feminism, criminol-ogy, development, human rights,public health and sociology. Theoret-ical and practical research into thereasons for the emergence of violenceagainst women were carried out andthe conclusion was that violence is aconvergence of negative factors exist-ing at individual, national, regionaland universal levels.

Major achievements were alsomade in the sphere of extension of ca-pacity building for women, increasingtheir participation on the decision-making level, combating against vio-

lence. International legal and politicalstructures have been established andhave been conducting improved mon-itoring of the various forms of vio-lence in society and families. Theactions of women’s movements andorganisations of rights protectiondeserve much respect.

The benefits of the internationalexperience in combating violence andtraditions of implementation of inter-national standards in the national en-vironment is widely used. Some of ourvery important obligations arestrengthening measures on prevent-ing cases of criminals evading frompunishments in order to protectwomen from violence, ensuring supe-riority of law, protecting women in ac-cordance with legal forms. This leadsto more numerous and serious results.When offenders are not charged, im-punity not only creates more victimsof violence, but also gives rise to thenegative opinion in society that vio-lence against women is acceptable andinevitable. Failure to punish thosewho commit violence against womenleads to a tendency to use this methodas a control mechanism over women.

Violence against women is bothuniversal and particular. It is universalin that there is no region of the world,no country and no culture in whichwomen’s freedom from violence hasbeen secured. Progress in the devel-opment of international legal norms,standards and policies has not beenaccompanied by comparable progressin their implementation at the na-tional level. The reason for this is thatthose standards are not adapted tolocal conditions. States have to mobi-lise their energy to combat violenceagainst women in general, as well asspecific forms and manifestations ofsuch violence. These include violence


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against women migrant workers; traf-ficking in women and girls; traditionalor customary practices affecting thehealth of women and girls; crimesagainst women committed in thename of “honour”; and domestic vio-lence against women.

To eliminate all forms of discrimi-nation against women in Azerbaijan isthe priority issue of the policy of theAzerbaijan Government. In particu-lar, great progress has been madetowards the improvement of legisla-tion. Monitoring has been carried outin order to determine the gapsbetween national legislation and in-ternational standards. The draft Lawto Combat Domestic Violence hasalready been prepared and has beenpresented to the President’s Office,the Cabinet of Ministers and Parlia-ment.

A “Complex Programme on thefight against violence in daily life indemocratic society” is being elabo-rated. The objective of the Pro-gramme is to reduce incidents of do-mestic violence by means of specialmeasures in personal and public life ofthe population and prevention ofviolent behaviour.

I consider that promoting and pro-tecting the human rights of women,and creating suitable conditions forwomen to use their ability and toachieve substantive equality betweenwomen and men are the main meansof preventing violence againstwomen. I should like to state that the

adoption of the Law on Gender Equal-ity is the next step towards achievinggender equality in our Republic.

Gender issues feature in the main-stream of the State Programme forPoverty Reduction and SustainableDevelopment for 2006-2015. The“Gender Policy” sector include meas-ures such as establishing a monitoringmechanism on gender-based vio-lence, studying the negative impact ofearly marriages to the future life ofgirls, preparing and implementingsocial rehabilitation programmes forthe victims of violence, and creatingsocial rehabilitation centres for thevictims of violence in different regionsof Azerbaijan.

The draft National Plan of Actionon Family and Women’s Issues (2007-2010) has been prepared. The mainobjective of the Plan is to foster familyand interfamily relations on the basisof gender equality.

The Blueprint of the Council ofEurope Campaign to Combat Violenceagainst Women, including DomesticViolence, adopted by the Committeeof Ministers on 21 June 2006, has beentranslated into the national languageand distributed to state agencies andthe community. The Azerbaijan Gov-ernment gives significant importanceto the recommendations of theCouncil of Europe on protectingwomen against violence and expand-ing their opportunities. The StateCommittee for Family, Women andChildren is always ready for co-opera-

tion with corresponding organisa-tions in order to eradicate violenceagainst women at international, re-gional and national levels.

The elimination of violence againstwomen requires action in differentareas, including: legislation; fair judg-ment; economic and social policies;awareness-raising; and education. Inaddition, Governments have to dem-onstrate political will. Political willcan be demonstrated in differentways, of which the most importantare:

preparing national plans of actionand appropriate legislative acts,and strengthening the control overthe implementation;providing adequate resources tocombat violence against women;achieving the sustained support ofleaders and opinion-makers forefforts to eradicate impunity andimpose fair punishment;creating an environment condu-cive to the effective functioning ofNGOs working on this issue.Violence against women will be

eradicated with political will and com-mitment at the highest levels to makeit a priority locally, nationally, region-ally and internationally.

I should like to express my specialgratitude to the Council of Europe forclose support in combating violenceagainst women and to call all partici-pating states for closer co-operationto achieve our common goals.



Closing session

blank Page

Allocution de clôture : M. Philippe Boillat

Directeur général des droits de l’homme, Conseil de l’Europe

English version: page 113

Monsieur le Ministre, Madame laPrésidente, Excellences, Mesdames etMessieurs,

Nous arrivons au terme de nos tra-vaux. Cette Conférence de lancementde la Campagne du Conseil de l’Eu-rope pour combattre la violence àl’égard des femmes, y compris la vio-lence domestique a été un lieu d’échan-ges et de dialogue, selon la meilleuretradition du Conseil de l’Europe : desdécideurs politiques des gouverne-ments nationaux, régionaux et locaux,des parlementaires, des représen-tant(e)s d’organisations internatio-nales et d’ONG et des expert(e)s sontvenus partager leur savoir, leurs expé-riences et leurs idées sur un piedd’égalité. Nous avons pu constater àquel point la qualité des débats et la ri-chesse des interventions seront utilespour notre travail, au sein du Conseilde l’Europe et au sein de nos Etatsmembres.

La réussite d’un événement decette ampleur dépend aussi grande-ment de son organisation et j’aimeraisremercier ici chaleureusement lePremier Ministre, M. José Luís Rodrí-guez Zapatero, le gouvernement espa-gnol, « Las Cortes Generales », lespouvoirs locaux et tous ceux et toutescelles qui ont contribué à la réussite decet évènement. Au nom du Secrétairegénéral du Conseil de l’Europe et enmon nom, je voudrais vous exprimertoute notre gratitude.

J’aimerais remercier tout particu-lièrement les rapporteuses pour leursremarquables présentations ainsi queles présidents et les panélistes destables rondes. Mes remerciementsvont aussi à mes collègues de la Divi-sion Egalité et à mes autres collèguesdu Conseil de l’Europe qui se sontpleinement engagés dans la prépara-tion de cette Conférence. Sans oublier,

bien sûr, nos collègues du Protocole etnos interprètes.

Mesdames et Messieurs,Je me réjouis de voir que beaucoup

de ceux et celles ici présents étaientégalement présents à la 6e Conférenceministérielle européenne sur l’égalitéentre les femmes et les hommes qui a eulieu à Stockholm, en juin dernier. Lorsde cette Conférence, il avait été cons-taté que la violence à l’égard desfemmes, contrairement à d’autres di-mensions de l’inégalité entre lesfemmes et les hommes, avait été trèslongtemps entourée de silence et dedéni. Les Ministres avaient alors émisle vœu que la Campagne du Conseil del’Europe pour combattre la violence àl’égard des femmes, y compris la vio-lence domestique puisse contribuer àune réelle prise de conscience collec-tive de ce phénomène déplorable etqu’elle rencontre un soutien actif detous nos Etats membres. Votre parti-cipation, nombreuse et active à cetteConférence, montre que l’appel de nosMinistres a été entendu.

Mesdames et Messieurs,Le voile de silence est aujourd’hui

levé. La lutte contre la violence àl’égard des femmes, commencée dès lafin des années 70 par le Conseil del’Europe dans le contexte de la protec-tion des droits humains, est désormaisune priorité politique. Un nombrecroissant de personnes a pris cons-cience que la violence à l’égard desfemmes, et en particulier la violencedomestique – souvent le fait deshommes – mettait en cause l’idée fon-damentale qui est à la base de l’édificedes droits de l’homme, à savoir quetous les êtres humains ont une égalevaleur et une égale dignité et que cetteviolence constituait probablement


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against womenv i o l e n c e Closing session

l’obstacle le plus sérieux à une vérita-ble égalité entre les femmes et leshommes. Nous avons pris consciencequ’il s’agit d’un problème d’ordreglobal, structurel et sociétal, et nond’une affaire privée. La lutte contre cefléau engage la responsabilité de nosEtats. Je voudrais, à cette occasion,rendre hommage à l’action de tousceux et toutes celles qui, dans le cadrede leurs activités, ont alerté les déci-deurs politiques et l’opinion sur cettegrave violation des droits humains etont ainsi incité à l’action.

Le Secrétaire Général, dans sondiscours, a décrit les étapes de l’actiondu Conseil de l’Europe dans ce do-maine. Une nouvelle étape a été fran-chie avec la création de la Task Forcepour combattre la violence à l’égarddes femmes, y compris la violence do-mestique, qui concrétise la volontépolitique des Chefs d’Etat et de gou-vernement, exprimée lors du 3eSommet du Conseil de l’Europe, d’éra-diquer la violence à l’égard desfemmes. Cette Task Force a été char-gée, entre autres, de préparer le pro-gramme de la Campagne européenneque nous venons de lancer.

La lutte contre la violence domesti-que nécessite une action concertéedes pouvoirs publics et de la sociétécivile. C’est pour cette raison que laCampagne du Conseil de l’Europeréunit les représentants desgouvernements, les parlementaires,les autorités locales et régionales, lesorganisations internationales – gou-vernementales et non gouvernemen-tales – afin que toutes et tous tra-vaillent ensemble à la réalisationd’objectifs dans les quatre grands do-maines d’action de la Campagne : lesmesures juridiques, le soutien et laprotection des victimes, la collecte dedonnées et, enfin, la sensibilisation.

Les débats sur ces objectifs lors destables rondes nous ont appris quebeaucoup de nos Etats membresavaient adopté de nouvelles mesureset des pratiques qui se sont révélées ef-ficaces pour combattre la violence àl’égard des femmes. Nous avons déjàpu en tirer quelques conclusions quinous permettront de développer desactions adaptées à nos quatre do-maines d’action.

Tout d’abord, nous avons entenduque l’existence d’un cadre juridiqueapproprié était primordiale pourassurer une protection efficace. Cecadre juridique doit inclure, tout par-ticulièrement, l’incrimination de toutacte de violence à l’égard des femmes,des ordonnances de protection pourtoutes les femmes victimes de vio-lence, des ordonnances d’éloignementde l’auteur des violences et l’aide juri-dique aux victimes.

Ensuite, il a été à juste titre relevéque le soutien et les services aux vic-times doivent leur permettre de re-prendre le contrôle de leur vie et leurprocurer un nouveau bien-être en ga-rantissant leur sécurité physique etleur indépendance économique. Nosdiscussions ont révélé que beaucouprestait à faire dans ce domaine. Lesservices, tels que les lignes téléphoni-ques d’urgence gratuites et disponi-bles 24 heures sur 24, les foyers, lescentres de crise, les agences spéciali-sées, devraient être améliorés danstous les Etats membres du Conseil del’Europe.

Il a également été rappelé qu’unecollecte systématique de données sta-tistiques ventilées par sexe, par typede violence et par relations entreauteurs et victimes, est essentielle afind’évaluer la fréquence et l’incidence dela violence à l’égard des femmes. Acette fin, nous avons besoin d’élaborerune méthodologie globale pour col-

lecter des données fiables et compara-bles au niveau européen pour la plani-fication, le développement et la miseen œuvre de mesures effectives et effi-caces.

Enfin, nous sommes unanimes àdire que la sensibilisation de l’opinionpublique joue un rôle crucial dans laprévention des violences futures etdans le changement des attitudes etdes mentalités.

C’est à l’accomplissement de cesobjectifs que notre Campagne doitservir et le Conseil de l’Europe vousinvite à utiliser le programme de laCampagne comme feuille de routepour évaluer vos situations natio-nales, régionales ou locales, pour dé-velopper des plans d’action et pourmettre en œuvre la campagne. Cettecampagne du Conseil de l’Europe doitégalement vous inviter à lancer à votretour des campagnes nationales paral-lèlement ou en tant que suivi à cetteCampagne profitant ainsi au mieuxdes synergies et des effets multiplica-teurs.

Mesdames et Messieurs,La peur et la honte de femmes vic-

times de la violence me fait penser àcette phrase de Simone de Beauvoirque j’aimerais vous livrer en guise deconclusions « La fatalité triomphe dèsque l’on croit en elle ». Ne laissonsplus la fatalité triompher, ne laissonsplus les femmes seules avec leur peur.Aidons les à retrouver leur dignité etexercer leurs droits. J’exprime lesouhait que notre Campagne marqueune étape importante sur notrechemin pour la protection des droitsdes femmes et vers la réalisation de lapleine égalité entre les femmes et leshommes.



Closing speech: Mr Philippe Boillat

Director General of Human Rights, Council of Europe

Version française : page 111

Ladies and gentlemen,Our work is nearing completion.

This Launching Conference for theCouncil of Europe Campaign toCombat Violence against Women, in-cluding Domestic Violence has been aforum for exchange and dialogue, inkeeping with the Council of Europe’stradition: political decision-makersfrom national, regional and local gov-ernments, members of parliament,representatives of international or-ganisations and NGOs and expertshave gathered together here to sharetheir knowledge, experience and ideason an equal footing. We have seenhow useful the quality of the debatesand the substance of the speeches willbe to us in our work, within theCouncil of Europe and in our memberstates.

The success of an event of this scalealso depends to a large extent on itsorganisation and therefore I wouldlike to thank the Prime Minister, MrJosé Luís Rodríguez Zapatero, theSpanish Government, “Las CortesGenerales”, the local authorities andall the men and women who have con-tributed to this success. Please acceptmy thanks also on behalf of the Secre-tary General of the Council of Europe.

I should like to thank the rappor-teurs in particular, for their remarka-ble presentations, as well as the chairsand panellists of the round table dis-cussions. My thanks also go to my col-leagues from the Equality Divisionand to my other colleagues from theCouncil of Europe who threw them-selves wholeheartedly into the prepa-rations for this Conference, not toforget of course our colleagues fromProtocol and our interpreters.

I am delighted to see that many ofthose present here also attended the6th European Ministerial Conference

on Equality between Women andMen in Stockholm in June last year,where we saw that violence againstwomen, unlike other forms of ine-quality between women and men, hadlong been shrouded in silence anddenial. The Ministers expressed thehope on that occasion that the Councilof Europe Campaign to Combat Vio-lence against Women, including Do-mestic Violence would help to triggerreal collective awareness of this de-plorable problem and be actively sup-ported by all the member states. Theactive participation of so many of youin this Conference is proof that ourMinisters’ appeal was heard.

Today, ladies and gentlemen, theveil of silence has been lifted. Thebattle to end violence against women,which was started in the late 1970s bythe Council of Europe in the context ofits human rights protection activities,has since become a political priority. Agrowing number of people havebecome aware that violence againstwomen, and domestic violence in par-ticular (often perpetrated by men) un-dermines the very foundation stone ofthe human rights edifice, namely theidea that all human beings are equal invalue and in dignity, and that this vio-lence is probably the most serious ob-stacle to genuine equality betweenwomen and men. We realise now thatthis is a problem on a global, societaland institutional scale, not just aprivate matter. It is the responsibilityof our governments to fight thisscourge. I would like to take this op-portunity to pay tribute to the effortsof all those who, through their activi-ties, have alerted political decision-makers and public opinion to thisserious violation of human rights andin so doing, triggered a reaction.


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In his speech the Secretary Generalhighlighted the different phases of theCouncil of Europe’s work in this field.A new stage was reached with the es-tablishment of the Task Force toCombat Violence against Women, in-cluding Domestic Violence, which is atangible result of the political deter-mination of the Heads of State andGovernment, expressed at the ThirdCouncil of Europe Summit, to eradi-cate violence against women. ThisTask Force was given the task, interalia, of preparing the programme forthe European Campaign which wehave just launched.

The battle against domestic vio-lence requires concerted action by thepublic authorities and civil society.This is why the Council of EuropeCampaign unites government repre-sentatives, members of parliament,local and regional authorities and in-ternational organisations (both gov-ernmental and non-governmental),working together to achieve the objec-tives in the Campaign’s four priorityfields of action: legal measures,support and protection of victims,data collection and awareness raising.

The round table discussions onthese objectives taught us that manyof our member states have adoptednew measures and practices whichhave proved effective in combatingviolence against women. We have

already been able to draw a number ofconclusions which will help us todevelop policies adapted to our fourpriority fields of action.

Firstly, we have understood that anappropriate legal framework is essen-tial to ensure effective protection. Inparticular, this framework mustinclude the criminalisation of any actof violence against women, legislationto protect all women who are victimsof violence, restraining orders for of-fenders and legal assistance for theirvictims.

Another point rightly made wasthat support and services for victimsmust help them to take charge of theirlives and live in peace again, as well ashelping them to achieve financial in-dependence. Our discussions demon-strated that much remains to be donein this area. Services such as free 24-hour emergency helplines, shelters,crisis centres and specialised agenciesshould be improved in all the Councilof Europe’s member states.

We have also seen how essentialthe systematic gathering of statisticsis, classified by gender, the type of vio-lence and the relationship between of-fenders and victims, in order to assessthe frequency and effects of violenceagainst women. For this we need todevelop a comprehensive method ofgathering reliable data which can becompared across Europe, in order to

plan, develop and implement effectiveand efficient measures.

Finally, we unanimously agree thatincreased public awareness is funda-mental in preventing future violenceand changing attitudes and mentali-ties.

Our Campaign must work towardsachieving this goal and the Council ofEurope invites you to use the Cam-paign Programme as a road map in as-sessing the national, regional and localsituations in your countries, develop-ing action plans and implementing theCampaign. This Council of EuropeCampaign must in turn encourageyou to launch national campaigns toaccompany it or follow it up, therebycreating synergy and a snowballeffect.

The fear and shame of women whoare victims of violence reminds me ofthese words of Simone de Beauvoir, onwhich I will conclude: “fate triumphs ifone believes in it”. We must no longerallow fate to triumph; we must notleave women alone with their fear. Letus help them recover their dignity andexercise their rights. It is my hope thatour Campaign signals an importantstep on the way to protecting women’srights and achieving true equalitybetween women and men.



Allocution de clôture : Mme Minodora Cliveti

Présidente de la Commission sur l’égalité des chances pour les femmes et les hommes de l’Assemblée parlementaire du Conseil de l’Europe

Monsieur le Ministre, Monsieur le Di-recteur Général, Mesdames, Mes-sieurs, chers collègues,

Permettez-moi, au nom de l’As-semblée parlementaire, de remercierchaleureusement le Conseil de l’Eu-rope et les autorités espagnoles – enparticulier la délégation espagnoleauprès de l’Assemblée parlementaire– pour l’excellente organisation decette Conférence de lancement de laCampagne du Conseil de l’Europepour combattre la violence à l’égarddes femmes, y compris la violencedomestique. Cette conférence a réuniaujourd’hui d’éminents spécialistes dela question de la lutte contre la vio-lence domestique à l’égard desfemmes, mais aussi ceux qui vivent auplus près la réalité subie par les vic-times de la violence domestique.

Tous unis pour combattre la vio-lence domestique contre les femmes :voilà le message que nous entendonslancer solennellement ici à Madrid, aucœur même du Parlement espagnolqui nous a démontré que la volontépolitique est une condition préalableet nécessaire pour faire évoluer lestextes et faire changer les mentalitésprogressivement.

La Campagne du Conseil de l’Eu-rope est une opportunité unique demettre en commun, sur le continenteuropéen, l’expertise qui a été déve-loppée par nos Etats mais aussi deconfronter nos expériences et d’analy-ser les obstacles que nous rencontronspartout : comment lutter contre laviolence subie par les femmes au seinde leur foyer ? Comment promouvoirla protection des droits fondamen-taux des femmes ? Comment pro-mouvoir et consolider l’égalité entreles femmes et les hommes pour cons-truire une société plus juste et plusdémocratique ?

Je me fais l’écho des parlements desquarante-six Etats membres et desparlements qui ont le statut d’observa-teur, pour vous assurer que les parle-mentaires seront engagés dans cetravail de réflexion paneuropéen etdans la mise en œuvre d’actions pourfaire de cette campagne un succès.Nous avons déjà commencé mobilisernos parlements en organisant au coursde ces derniers jours une Journée d’ac-tion parlementaire contre la violencedomestique contre les femmes. AKiev, à Bruxelles, à Bakou, à Andorre,à Rome, à Monaco ou encore à Paris,les parlements nationaux se sont mo-bilisés, tout comme dans mon pays laRoumanie, où la Chambre desDéputés et le Sénat ont adopté une dé-claration jointe dans laquelle nousavons condamné, publiquement etsans réserve, la violence à l’égard desfemmes, y compris la violence fami-liale. Nous nous sommes égalementengagés à faire de la prévention et de lalutte contre la violence à l’égard desfemmes une priorité de notre agendade travail, tant à l’intérieur de notreenceinte parlementaire que sur le ter-rain, dans nos circonscriptions électo-rales.

Je souhaitais également remercierles Présidents de cinq parlements na-tionaux qui ont exprimé, à traversl’Europe, leur soutien à la Campagnedu Conseil de l’Europe. Je vous invitevivement, à l’issue de notre confé-rence, à prendre connaissance desmessages qui nous ont été transmispar les Présidents du Sénat français,du Parlement norvégien, du Parle-ment ukrainien, du Sénat roumain etdu Sénat canadien. Cet engagementfort, au plus niveau parlementaire,nous confortent dans nos efforts etc’est cet élan européen que nous sou-haiterions partager avec vous.


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Mesdames et Messieurs les Ministres,Mesdames et Messieurs les représen-tants des pouvoirs locaux et régio-naux,

Soyez convaincus de la volonté del’Assemblée parlementaire d’appuyervos efforts pour soutenir et concréti-ser la Campagne du Conseil de l’Eu-rope. Le réseau des parlementaires deréférence qui a été créé en octobre parl’Assemblée parlementaire a soulignélors de sa première rencontre savolonté d’établir des passerelles avecles points de contacts gouvernemen-taux, les autorités locales et régiona-les, et bien entendu les organisationsnon gouvernementales dont le travailde proximité est essentiel. C’est en-semble que nous pourrons nous atta-quer aux racines du mal et contribuerà faire évoluer la société.

En notre qualité de parlementaires,nous devons nous engager au cours deces prochains mois pour améliorer leslois et lutter contre ces violences quifrappent les femmes dans leur espacele plus intime. Mais chacun de nous, àson niveau, peut faire une différenceet combattre l’indifférence.

Nous savons que ce combat est delongue haleine, et qu’il nous faudrades années pour combattre un phéno-mène ancré très profondément dansnos sociétés. Nous n’aurons quequelques mois pour concrétiser lessuggestions et propositions qui ontété formulées aujourd’hui dans lecadre de la Campagne. Mais noussavons aussi que la Campagne duConseil de l’Europe ne sera que lepoint de départ d’actions qui nécessi-teront du temps, de la volonté, de ladétermination.

Loin de nous décourager, il nousfaut mobiliser autour des thèmes detravail que nous avons abordésaujourd’hui. Car n’oublions pas degarder, au cœur de nos préoccupa-tions, les femmes victimes de toutesles formes de violence. Notre engage-ment politique, les actions concrètesque nous pourrons développer, notredétermination à combattre toutes lesinégalités entre les femmes et leshommes, contribueront à permettre àces femmes meurtries de vivre ànouveau dans la dignité et dans lerespect de leurs droits humains. Aunom de toutes les femmes qui n’ontplus droit à la parole, unissons nouspour briser le silence.



Closing speech: Mr Jesús Caldera Sánchez-Capitán

Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, Spain

Ladies and gentlemen,The Conference to launch the

Council of Europe Campaign toCombat Violence against Women, in-cluding Domestic Violence, is drawingto an end.

An end which is also a beginning.The beginning of a task that is notnew, but that this Campaign will in-tensify, giving it a new impetus, a newbreath and new means to combat theinsult to humanity, the insult to de-mocracy, that is violence againstwomen, women who make up morethan half of our societies.

Gender violence reflects a deficit ofcitizenship for women, who are de-prived of the basic right to peaceful,democratic coexistence, and in somecases of such fundamental humanrights as the right to life itself, and tophysical and psychological integrity.This deprival is an intolerable insult tosocially minded, democratic, law-abiding states.

No government can remain aloofto the reality that fundamental humanrights are being violated without seri-ously neglecting its constitutionalduty which binds it, as in Spain, to takesteps to foster effective freedom andequality and remove any obstacles tothem.

Accordingly, the State, which is tra-ditionally neutral in what is consid-ered to be the “private” sphere, inter-venes in an attempt to shape a newsocial reality where each and every in-dividual, regardless of their gender,can live in dignity. The Spanish Gov-ernment has passed special legislationagainst gender violence, a law that in-troduces positive action into our legalsystem to correct the inequalities,eliminate discriminatory situations,foster more equality and remedy the

discrimination against women as asocial group.

On 25 June 2004 the SpanishCabinet approved the draft Compre-hensive Law against Gender Violence.With this measure, the President ofthe Government fulfilled a promise hemade to the people of Spain in his in-augural speech.

In its parliamentary stage theproject was enhanced by contribu-tions from various professionals,women’s NGOs, Autonomous Com-munities and so on. These contribu-tions helped to paint a fuller picture ofgender violence and fuelled thedebate. One of the great merits of thisproject was to draw the various polit-ical forces closer together, with theresult that at the end of December2004, almost two years ago now, theSpanish Parliament unanimously ap-proved the Comprehensive Lawagainst Gender Violence.

Throughout this Conference wehave heard about violence againstwomen in the Council of Europe’smember states, we have discussedsupport and protection for the vic-tims, we have examined experiencesconcerning innovative laws and poli-cies for addressing this form of vio-lence, and the need to keep careful sta-tistics and harmonise our criteria inthe battle against this scourge.

Finally, this afternoon, we dis-cussed the responsibility our govern-ments and our societies have tochange attitudes, and the need toachieve a certain unity in the effort toeradicate a situation which puts us allto shame, to say the least.

In this respect Spanish law clearlyopts for what we might call an “un-equal right to equality”, sidesteppingthe other side of gender violence, i.e.that against men, based on the convic-


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tion that the positive effects ofunequal treatment, even in criminallaw, can be decisive in restoring abalance that is skewed from the start.The statistics speak for themselves: aJudicial Council report reveals that in85 out of 91 cases of domestic vio-lence, i.e. 93.4% of the total, the ag-gressor was a man. In 5 cases the ag-gressor was a woman and in 1 it wasboth the man and the woman. Of the72 people who died from violence in-flicted by their partner or former part-ner, 69 were women and 3 were men,i.e. 95.8% compared with 4.2%.

So the law is a pro-equality law. On the one hand because it ad-

dresses the causes of the violence, andgoes on to build up a comprehensivesystem of protection, the mainpurpose of which is to tackle and erad-icate those causes. For that reason theprotection system basically hinges onthree lines of action: awareness andprevention, recognition of the victims’rights, to help them back into thesocial mainstream as full citizens, andpunishment of the offenders.

And on the other hand because itintroduces means of positive actioninto Spanish law aimed directly andexclusively at women.

As a result, the Law and the accom-panying regulations provide a firm re-sponse to gender violence, with itsroots deeply embedded in the convic-tion that there is inequality betweenhuman beings and in particularbetween women and men.

Lastly, the law is based on the con-viction that combating this violenceefficiently and effectively requirescomprehensive, co-ordinated policiesthat address its many causes and ef-fects.

In this respect, I should like to em-phasise the importance of the settingup of the Special Government Delega-tion on Violence against Women,which together with the General Sec-retariat for Equality Policies helps toco-ordinate all the action taken toguarantee the efficacy and efficiencyof the measures adopted in differentfields. It was this co-ordination thatmade it possible for the Cabinet, infourteen meetings, to adopt a numberof important measures on this sub-ject, and for practically all the minis-tries, the Judiciary, the State Prosecu-tor’s Department, the AutonomousCommunities and the municipalitiesto play an active part in this battle.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I cannotconclude without expressing the hopethat this start we have made here inMadrid, what we might define as the“Madrid spirit against gender vio-lence”, will go on to gather momentumin the other member states.

Gender violence is not just a matterfor women. It concerns us all. Anderadicating it is a joint exercise inpublic justice, responsibility and dig-nity. Neither this country nor theother member countries of theCouncil of Europe can rejoice in thecoming of age of our democracieswhile a social blemish of this magni-tude persists.

Any sweeping social change isbound to trigger resistance, as we sawthis afternoon, especially when ittends to do away with privileges. Thisnew century we have entered must bethat of equality, of the eradication ofinequalities and privileges, thecentury when certain groups ofpeople and the societies they live ingradually recover their lost dignity. Itwill not be easy, but it is well worth thetrouble. Blaise Pascal said that “all ourdignity is in our thinking” … perhaps itis time to change the way we think.

Thank you.


ParticipantsList of participants/Liste des participant(e)s

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against womenv i o l e n c e Participants

Member states of the Council of Europe/États membres du Conseil de l’Europe

Albania/Albanie

Ms Marjeta ZaceVice-Minister of Labour, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Tirana

Ms Rajna Kovaci Director, Equal Opportunities Directory, Min-istry of Labour, Social Affairs and Equal Oppor-tunities, Tirana

Andorra/Andorre

Mme Montserrat GilMinistre de la Santé, du Bien-être social et de la Famille, Gouvernement d’Andorre, Andorra la Vella

Ms Marta MonllorHead, Specialised Social Area, Department of Social Welfare and Family, Ministry of Health, Social Welfare and Family, Andorra la Vella

Mr Vicenç Mateu ZamoraAmbassador, Embassy of Andorra, Madrid

Mr Jesús Ramírez PalomoAttaché for Trade and Tourism, Embassy of An-dorra, Madrid

Armenia/Arménie

Austria/Autriche

Ms Maria Rauch-KallatFederal Minister of Health and Women [Apologised/Excusée]

Ms Martina SteinerReferee of the Department of Strategic Com-munication and Basic Politics, Women and Equality Division, Strategic Communication and Basic Politics, Federal Ministry of Health and Women, Vienna

Azerbaijan/Azerbaïdjan

Ms Hijran HuseynovaChairperson, State Committee for Family, Women and Children’s Issues, Baku

Ms Besti AgarzayevaState Committee for Family, Women and Chidl-ren’s Issues, Baku

Mr Anar MaharramovSecond Secretary, Bilateral Legal Affairs, Embassy of Azerbaijan, Madrid

Belgium/Belgique

Mme Christiane VienneMinistre de la Santé, de l’Action sociale et de l’Égalité des chances, Gouvernement wallon[Apologised/Excusée]

Bosnia and Herzegovina/Bosnie-Herzégovine

Bulgaria/Bulgarie

Ms Ivanka HristovaDeputy Minister, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Sofia

Ms Blagorodna VesselinovaHead of Unit, International Relations Unit, Directorate for European Integration and Inter-national Relations, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Sofia

Croatia/Croatie

Ms Jadranka KosorDeputy Prime Minister, Minister of the Family, Veterans’ Affairs and intergenerational Solidar-ity, Zagreb

Mr Vedran BajsićAdvisor to the Deputy Minister of the Republic of Croatia, Government of Croatia, Zagreb

Ms Helena Štimac RadinHead of the Office for Gender Equality, Govern-ment of Croatia, Zagreb

Ms Mihaela JovićProfessional Associate, Office for Gender Equality, Government of Croatia, Zagreb

Mr Filip VučakAmbassador, Embassy of Croatia, Madrid

Mr Berislav ŽivkovićSpokesperson of the Ministry of Family, Veter-ans’ Affairs and Intergenerational SolidarityZagreb

Cyprus/Chypre

Mr Kostas VeisSuperintendent B´, Domestic Violence and Child Abuse Office, Department C´, Cyprus Police Headquarters, Nicosia

Czech Republic/République tchèque

Mr Marian HošekDeputy Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, Prague

Ms Hana ZdražilovaDesk Officer, Gender Equality Unit, Depart-ment of Family Policy and Gender Equality, Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Prague

Denmark/Danemark

Ms Eva Kjer HansenMinister for Social Affairs and Gender Equality[Apologised/Excusée]

Estonia/Estonie

Ms Katri EespereChief Specialist, Gender Equality Department, Ministry of Social Affairs, Tallinn

Finland/Finlande

Ms Tuula HaatainenMinister for Social Affairs and Health, Helsinki

Ms Päivi Yli-PietiläSenior Officer, Gender Equality Unit, Finance and Planning Department, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Helsinki

France

Mme Catherine VautrinMinistre déléguée à la Cohésion sociale et à la Parité, Paris

Mme Elise BérolattiConseillère technique, Ministère délégué à la Cohésion sociale et à la Parité, Paris

Mme Géraldine Dalban-MoreynasConseillère presse, Ministère délégué à la Cohé-sion sociale et à la Parité, Paris

M. Claude BlanchemaisonAmbassadeur, Ambassade de France, Madrid

Mme Blandine LegoutConseillère pour les Affaires sociales, Ambas-sade de France, Madrid

Georgia/Géorgie

Ms Maka MdivaniAdvisor to the State Minister on Reforms Co-ordination, State Chancellery, Tbilisi

Germany/Allemagne

Ms Silvia BerkeDeputy Head of Division, Protection of Women from Violence, Department for Equality Policy, Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Cit-izens, Women and Youth, Bonn

Greece/Grèce

Ms Ifigenia KatsaridouDirector General at the Research Center on Gender Equality Issues, Athens

Hungary/Hongrie

Ms Edit RauhState Secretary for Equal Opportunities, Minis-try of Social Affairs and Labour, Budapest

Ms Ildikó VárkonyiInterpreter, Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour, Budapest


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Iceland/Islande

Ms Pálína RúnarsdóttirAssistant to the Permanent Representative of Iceland to the Council of Europe,Strasbourg, France

Ireland/Irlande

Mr Frank FaheyMinister of State’s Office, Department of Jus-tice, Equality and Law Reform, Dublin [Apologised/Excusé]

Ms Pauline MoreauHead of Division, Gender Equality Division (in-cluding Violence against Women), Equality and Civil Law Reform, Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Dublin

Italy/Italie

Ms Barbara PollastriniMinister for Rights and Equal Opportunities[Apologised/Excusée]

Mme Donatella LinguitiSous-Secrétaire d’Etat, Ministère pour les droits et l’égalité entre hommes et femmes, Rome

Mme Paula Beatriz AmadioConseillère de la Sous-Secrétaire d’Etat, Minis-tère pour les droits et l’égalité entre hommes et femmes, Rome

Mr Gian Franco PallancaPublic Relations Officer, Azienda Sanitaria Locale 2 Savonese, Savona

Ms Fulvia DiottiPresident, IPOTESI Association, Savona

Latvia/Lettonie

Ms Dagnija Staķe Minister of Welfare, Riga

Ms Elīna CelmiņaDeputy Head, Gender Equality Unit, Depart-ment of European and Legal Affairs, Ministry of Welfare, Riga

Liechtenstein

Ms Rita Kieber-BeckMinister of Family Affairs and Equal Opportu-nities[Apologised/Excusée]

Lithuania/Lituanie

Mr Vytautas ŽiukasVice-Minister, Ministry of Social Security and Labour, Vilnius

Luxembourg

Mme Brigitte SchmitzInspectrice Principale 1re en rang, Ministère de l’Egalité des Chances, Luxembourg

Mme Isabelle KleinConseillère de direction 1re classe, Ministère de l’Egalité des Chances, Luxembourg

Malta/Malte

Ms Marceline NaudiMember of the Domestic Violence Commis-sion, Ministry for the Family and Social Solidar-ity, Valletta

Moldova

Ms Maria TarusHead of Mother and Child Health Assistance, Health Department, Ministry of Health and Social Protection, Chişinău

Ms Oxana DomentiAdvisor on Social Issues to the President of Moldova, Administration of the President of the Republic of Moldova, Social Development Issues, Chişinău[Apologised/Excusée]

Monaco

Mme Marina CeyssacSecrétaire générale, Département des Relations extérieures, Ministère d’Etat, Monaco

Netherlands/Pays-Bas

Ms Dineke Mulock-HouwerDirector General, Directorate-General for Pre-vention, Youth and Sanctions, Ministry of Justice[Apologised/Excusée]

Norway/Norvège

Ms Astri Aas-HansenPolitical Adviser, Ministry of Justice and the Police, Oslo

Poland/Pologne

Portugal

Mr Jorge LacãoSecretary of State of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Lisbon[Apologised/Excusé]

Ms Elza PaisPresident of the Commission for Equality and Women’s Rights, Lisbon

Ms Ivone FerreiraGovernmental Body to Combat Domestic Vio-lence, Lisbon

Romania/Roumanie

Ms Maria MotaPresident, National Agency for Equal Opportu-nities between women and men, Ministry of Labour, Social Solidarity and Family, Bucharest

Ms Elena DobreCouncillor of Integration, National Agency for Family Protection, Bucharest

Ms Ana-Maria RusuInspector, National Agency for Equal Opportu-nities between women and men, Department for Strategies, Policies, Programmes and Moni-toring, Ministry of Labour, Social Solidarity and Family, Bucharest

Russian Federation/Fédération de Russie

Ms Tatiana SmirnovaDivision for European Co-operation, Depart-ment for Humanitarian Co-operation and Human Rights, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Moscow

Ms Olesia Chutaeva Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Moscow

Ms Liubov GlebovaState Secretary – Deputy Minister, Ministry of Health and Social Development, Moscow

San Marino/Saint-Marin

M. Guido Bellatti CeccoliAmbassadeur, Représentant Permanent de la République de Saint-Marin auprès du Conseil de l’Europe, Strasbourg, France

M. José Manuel de Mollinedo Mar-tínezMinistre plénipotentiaire, Ambassade de la République de Saint-Marin, Madrid

Mme Federica BigiDirectrice des Affaires politiques, Ministère des Affaires étrangères, Saint-Marin

M. Andrea della BaldaConseiller d’Ambassade, Ambassade de la République de Saint-Marin, Madrid

Mme Joanne Valentini Interprète, Ministère des Affaires étrangèresSaint-Marin

Serbia/Serbie

Ms Dragana Petrović-VlasakVice President, State Gender Equality Council, Government of Serbia, Belgrade

Slovakia/Slovaquie

Mr Peter SikaState Secretary, Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family, Bratislava

Ms Zuzana VranováState Advisor, Social and Family Policy Section, Family and Gender Policy Department, Minis-try of Labour, Social Affairs and Family, Brati-slava


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Mr Pavol ŠvedaInterpreter, International Co-operation and Protocol Department, Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family, Bratislava

Ms Viera TomanováMinister of Labour, Social Affairs and Family Bratislava

Mr Miloslav HettešDirector General, European Union Affairs and International Relations Section, Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family, Bratislava

Ms Viera KusendováDirector General, Social and Family Policy Sec-tion, Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family, Bratislava

Slovenia/Slovénie

Ms Sonja RobnikSenior Advisor, Office for Equal Opportunities of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana

Spain/Espagne

Mr José Luis Rodríguez ZapateroPrime Minister

Mr Juan Fernando López AguilarMinister of Justice

Mr Jesús Caldera Sánchez-Capitán Minister of Labour and Social Affairs

Mr Manuel Marín GonzálezPresident of the Congress of Deputies

Mr Francisco Javier Rojo García President of the Senate

Mr Juan-José LucasSecond Vice-President of the Senate

Sweden/Suède

Ms Katarina SchmidtDeputy Director, Division for Gender EqualityMinistry of Industry, Employment and Com-munications, Stockholm

Mr Anders RönquistAmbassador, Embassy of Sweden, Madrid

Ms Monica BlomstromDesk Officer, Division for Gender Equality, Ministry of Industry, Employment and Com-munications, Stockholm

Switzerland/Suisse[Apologised/Excusée]

“The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”/« L’ex-République yougoslave de Macédoine »

Ms Elena GrozdanovaHead of the Unit for Gender Equality, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Skopje

Turkey/Turquie

Ms Nimet ÇubukçuState Minister for Women and Family Affairs, Ankara

Ms Pinar CengizChief of the Minister’s Cabinet, State Ministry for Women and Family Affairs, Ankara

Ms Rukiye KarcaaltincabaAdvisor to the State Minister for Social ServicesState Ministry for Women and Family AffairsAnkara

Mr Musa Acar Adviser to the Minister, State Ministry for Women and Family Affairs, Ankara

Ms Civelek EsengülGeneral Director, General Directorate on the Status of Women, Ankara

Ms Başak TuğDeputy to the Permanent Representative of Turkey to the Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France

Mr Resul KabataşChief of Security, State Ministry for Women and Family Affairs, Ankara

Ms Elif ErsozluSimultaneous Translator, Hacettepe University, Ankara

Ms Zeynep KaleliFirst Secretary, Embassy of Turkey, Madrid

Mr Yalcin DoganColumnist, Daily Hurriyet, Istanbul

Ukraine

Mr Illia ShevliakFirst Deputy Minister, Ministry of Ukraine for Family, Youth and Sport, Kyiv

Ms Anna GalchenkoSecond Secretary, Consular Affairs, Embassy of Ukraine, Madrid

United Kingdom/Royaume Uni

Ms Meg MunnDeputy Minister for Women and Equality, De-partment for Communities and Local Govern-ment, London

Ms Charlene GordonAssistant Private Secretary to Meg Munn, De-partment for Communities and Local Govern-ment, London

Ms Nichola ColemanPolicy Advisor – Violence against women, Women and Equality Unit, Department for Communities and Local Government, London

Ms Sylvia WalbyProfessor, Institute for Women’s Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Lan-caster University, Lancaster

Mr Bruce BucknellFirst Secretary, Social and Labour Affairs, Embassy of the United Kingdom, Madrid

Ms Barbara-Ann CollinsAssistant Director, Gender and Strategy Team, Department for Communities and Local Gov-ernment London

Council of Europe Bodies/Organes du Conseil de l’Europe

Committee of Ministers/Comité des Ministres

M. Fiorenzo StolfiPrésident du Comité des Ministres du Conseil de l’Europe, Ministre des Affaires étrangères de la République de Saint-Marin, Saint-Marin

Mr Peteris ElfertsAmbassador, Permanent Representative of Latvia to the Council of Europe, Thematic Co-ordinator on Gender Equality of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, Stras-bourg, France

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe/Assemblée parlementaire du Conseil de l’Europe

Mr René Van der Linden

President of the Parliamentary Assembly

Mr Lluís Maria de Puig

Chair of the Spanish Delegation, Senado, Madrid, Spain

Mme Minodora ClivetiChairperson of the Committee on Equal Op-portunities for Women and Men, Bucarest, Romania

Ms Elmira AkhundovaMember of Parliament, Baku, Azerbaijan

Ms Aneliya AtanasovaMember of the National Assembly, Sofia, Bul-garia

Mr John AustinMember of the House of Commons, London, United Kingdom


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Ms Gülsün BilgehanMember of the Grand National Assembly, Ankara, Turkey

Ms Oksana BilozirMember of Parliament, Kyiv, Ukraine

Ms Olena BondarenkoMember of Parliament, Kyiv, Ukraine

Mr Krzysztof BosakMember of the Diet, Warszawa, Poland

Mme Mimount Bousakla Senator, Brussels, Belgium

M. Jean-Guy BrangerSénateur, Paris, France

Mme Cornelia Cazacu Chairperson of the Committee on Equal Op-portunities, Senate, Bucarest, Romania

Ms Ingrida Circene Member of Parliament, Riga, Latvia

Ms Anna ČurdováMember of Parliament, Praha, Czech Republic

Ms Maria DamanakiMember of the House of Parliament, Athens, Greece

M. John DuprazMembre du Parlement, Berne, Suisse

Ms Lydie ErrMembre de la Chambre des Députés, Luxem-bourg

Ms María Emelina Fernández Soriano Senator, Madrid, Spain

Ms Sonia Fertuzinhos Membre du Parlement, Lisboa, Portugal

Ms Urszula GacekSenator, Tarnów, Poland

Mr Piotr GadzinowskiMembre de la Diète, Warszawa, Poland

Ms Carina HäggChairperson of the PACE Sub-committee on violence against women, Stockholm, Sweden

M. Ilie IlaşcuSenator, Bucarest, Romania

Ms Halide IncekaraMember of the Grand National Assembly, Ankara, Turkey

Ms Danuta JazlowieckaMember of the Diet, Warszawa, Poland

Ms Eleonora KatseliMember of the House of Parliament, Athens, Greece

Mr Tomasz MarkowskiMember of the Diet, Warszawa, Poland

Mr José Mendes BotaMembre du Parlement, Lisboa, Portugal

Ms Danguté MikutienėMember of Parliament, Vilnius, Lithuania

Ms Ilinka MitrevaMember of the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia, Skopje, “The former Yugoslav Re-public of Macedonia”

Mr Burkhardt Müller-SönksenMember of Parliament, Berlin, Germany

Mr Ibrahim ÖzalMember of the Grand National Assembly, Ankara, Turkey

Mme Fatma PehlivanSenator, Brussels, Belgium

Mr Ivan PopescuMember of Parliament, Kyiv, Ukraine

Ms Marlene Rupprecht Member of Parliament, Berlin, Germany

Ms Klára SándorMember of the National Assembly, Budapest, Hungary

Ms Svetlana SmirnovaMember of the State Duma, Moscow, Russian Federation

Mme Rodica StanoiuSenator, Bucarest, Romania

Ms Darinka Stantcheva Member of the National Assembly, Sofia, Bul-garia

Mme Ruth Gaby Vermot-MangoldConseiller national, Bern, Suisse

Ms Gisela WurmMember of Parliament, Wien, Austria

Mme Rosmarie Zapfl-HelblingConseiller national, Dübendorf, Suisse

Ms Krinio KanellopoulouMember of the House of Parliament, Athens, Greece

Spanish Delegation to the Parliamen-tary Assembly of the Council of Europe/Délégation espagnole auprès de l’Assemblée parlementaire du Conseil de l’Europe

Mr Lluís María de PuigChairperson

Members

Ms María Rosario Fátima Aburto

Ms Elvira Cortajarena

Mr Ignacio Cosidó

Mr Adolfo Fernández Aguilar

Ms María Emelina Fernández Soriano

Ms María Josefa Porteiro García

Ms Adoración Quesada

Permanent Secretariat

Mr Jorge Villarino

Ms María Teresa Gómez-Bernardo

Contact parliamentarians and others/Parlementaires de référence et autres

Ms Gular Ahmadova Member of the Committee on Foreign and Interparliamentary Relations, Baku, Azerbaijan

Ms Blanca Judith Díaz DelgadoMember of the Senate, Mexico D.F

Ms Ketevan MakharashviliMember of the Committee on Legal Affairs, Parliament of Georgia, Tbilisi [Apologised/Excusée]

Ms Carmen QuintanillaMember of the Chamber of Deputies, Repre-sentative of the Committee on Women’s Issues, Madrid, Spain

Mr Gideon Sa’arChairman of the Committee on the Status of Women, Knesset, Jerusalem, Israel

Ms Franca BimbiChairperson of the Committee on EU Policies, Chamber of Deputies, Rome, Italy

Ms Claudia Corichi Garcia Member of the Senate, Mexico D.F.

Ms Azucena Reyes MirandaSubstitute to Senator Claudia Corichi, Mexico D.F.

Ms Mirna Cecilia Rincón VargasDeputy of the Mexican Congress, Mexico D.F.

Delegation secretaries/Secrétaires de délégationsMs Aleksandra Daniluyk, Interparliamentary Relations Department, State Duma, Moscow, Russian Federation

Ms Zlatina Khristova Advisor, International Relations and Protocol Directorate, National Assembly, Sofia, Bulgaria


Stop domestic


Ms Kirsti Pulkka-EricsonInternational Secretary, Parliament, Stock-holm, Sweden

Mr Volodymyr RozputenkoChief Consultant of the Inter-Parliamentary Relations Department, Kyiv, Ukraine

Mme Claire Dossier-CarzouConseiller, Service des affaires européennes, Sénat, Paris, France

Ms Alona Fischer-KammMinister Counsellor, Knesset, Israel

Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe/Congrès des Pouvoirs locaux et régionaux du Conseil de l’Europe

Mr Ian MicallefPresident of the Chamber of Local Authorities, Councillor of Gzira, Gzira Local Council, Gzira, Malta

Mr Valerio PrignachiHead of Transport for the Province of Brescia, Deputy Mayor of Treviso Bresciano, Brescia, Italy

Ms Maddalena DaminiAssistant to Mr Valerio Prignachi, Brescia, Italy

Ms Sandra BarnesMember of the Committee on Social Cohesion,

Leader, South Northants District Council, South Northamptonshire Council, Spring-fields, Towcester, United Kingdom

Mr Ramon Ropero ManceraMember of the Committee on Social Cohesion, Mayor of Villafranca de los Barros, Villafranca de los Barros, Spain

Commissioner of Human Rights Office/Bureau du Commissaire aux Droits de l’Homme

Mr Thomas HammarbergCommissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe

Council of Europe Committees/Comités du Conseil de l’Europe

Task Force to Combat Violence against Women, including domestic violence/Task Force pour combattre la violence à l’égard des femmes, y compris la vio-lence domestique (EG-TFV)

Ms Dubravka ŠimonovićChair of the Task Force, Head of Human Rights Department, Directorate for International Organisations and Security, Department for Human Rights, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, Zagreb, Croatia

Ms Hilary FisherVice-Chair of the Task Force, London, United Kingdom

Ms Feride AcarProfessor, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Middle East Technical University, Inonü Bulvari, Ankara, Turkey

Ms Dagmara BaraniewskaClinical Psychologist, Culture Anthropologist, Warsaw, Poland

Ms Helena EwaldsSenior Officer, Department for Family and Social Affairs, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Helsinki

Mr Christopher GreenExecutive Director, White Ribbon Campaign, Knott Hall, Charlestown, Hebden Bridge, United Kingdom

M. Manuel LisboaProfesseur, Département de sociologie, Faculté des Sciences humaines et sociales, Université Nova de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal

Ms Rosa LogarDirector, Domestic Abuse Intervention Centre, Vienna, Austria

Steering Committee for Equality between Women and Men (CDEG)/Comité directeur pour l’Égalité entre les Femmes et les Hommes (CDEG)

Mme Isabel RomãoPrésidente du CDEG, Chef de la Division Etudes et Formation, Commission pour l’Éga-lité et les Droits des Femmes, Lisboa, Portugal

States having Observer Status with the Council of Europe/États ayant le statut d’observateur auprès du Conseil de l’Europe

Canada

Ms Mylène ParadisAgente politique, Ambassade du Canada, Madrid

Holy See/Saint Siège

Mme Maria Lourdes Azorin OrtegaSecrétaire Générale de la Fédération des Mou-vements de l’Action Catholique espagnole, Saint-Siège, Madrid, Spain

Japan/Japon

Mexico/Mexique

Mr Ernesto SosaAdvisor on Political Affairs, Embassy of Mexico, Madrid

United States of America/États-Unis d’Amérique

International organisations and institutions/Organisations et institutions internationales

Commission of the European Communities/Commission des Communautés européennes

Mr Vicente NietoPrincipal Administrator, Gender Equality Co-ordinator, Citizenship and Fundamental Rights

Unit, DG Justice, Freedom and Security, Euro-pean Commission, Brussels

Council of the European Union/Conseil de l’Union européenne

[Apologised/Excusé]

European Parliament/Parlement Européen

Mr Raül Romeva i RuedaMember of the European Parliament, Brussels


Stop à la violence


Ms Anna ZáborskáChairperson of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, European Parlia-ment, Brussels

United Nations/Nations Unies

United Nations Division for the Ad-vancement of Women (DAW)/Divi-sion pour l’avancement de la femme des Nations Unies (DAW)

Ms Christine BrautigamChief of Women’s Rights Section, Division for the Advancement of Women, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations, New York

United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)/Le Fonds de développement des Nations Unies pour la femme (UNIFEM)[Apologised/Excusé]

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights/Haut commissariat aux droits de l’homme [Apologised/Excusé]

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)/Fonds des Nations Unies pour la population (UNFPA)

Ms Karin HeiseckeProgramme Co-ordination Officer, United Nations Population Fund, Brussels Office, Brussels, Belgium

Organisation for Security and Co- operation in Europe (OSCE)/Orga-nisation pour la sécurité et la coopération en Europe (OSCE)

Parliamentary Assembly/Assemblée parlementaire

Ms Tone TingsgårdMember of Parliament of Sweden, Vice-Presi-dent of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Special Representative on Gender, OSCE Par-liamentary Assembly, Copenhagen, Denmark

World Health Organization (WHO)/Organisation Mondiale de la Santé (OMS)

Mr Anders NordströmGeneva, Switzerland[Apologised/Excusé]

Ms Isabel Yordi AguirreTechnical Officer, Gender and Health Pro-gramme, Family and Community Health, WHO Regional Office for Europe, WHO Centre for Health Policy, Brussels, Belgium

Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe/Pacte de stabilité pour l’Europe du Sud-Est

Mr Erhard BusekSpecial Co-ordinator, Brussels, Belgium[Apologised/Excusé]

Gender Task Force of the Stability Pact/Groupe d’action sur le genre du Pacte de Stabilité

Ms Sonja Lokar SP GTF Chair, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Conference of INGOs enjoying Participatory Status with the Council of Europe/Conférence des OING dotées du statut participatif auprès du Conseil de l’Europe

Gender Equality Grouping/Regroupement « égalité-parité hommes-femmes »

Ms Karine Henrotte ForsbergChair of the Gender Equality Grouping, Heusy, Belgium

NGOs active in preventing and combating domestic violence/ONG qui travaillent afin de prévenir et combattre la violence domestique

Fédération des femmes progressistes

Mme Enriqueta Chicano

Présidente et Vice-présidente de l’Observatoire national de la violence à l’égard des femmes

Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation

Ms Genoveva Tisheva

Managing Director, Sofia, Bulgaria

Amnesty International

Ms Widney BrownSenior Director, International Law, Policy and Campaigns, International Secretariat, London, United Kingdom

Ms Jill HeineLegal Advisor for Europe and Central Asia, London, United Kingdom

Ms Jezerka TiganiRegional Campaign Co-ordinator for Europe and Central Asia, London, United Kingdom

Ms Eva María Aguilera GonzálezCampaigning Co-ordinator, Amnesty Interna-tional Spain

Ms Monica CostaForeign Affairs Co-ordinator, Amnesty Interna-tional Spain

European Women’s LobbyMs Tanja Auvinen, Executive Member, Euro-pean Women’s Lobby, Brussels, Belgium

Femmes en Détresse

Mme Joëlle SchranckChargée de direction, Luxembourg


Stop domestic


Violence against Women Monitoring Programme Open Society Institute

Ms Eva Foldvari Director, Budapest, Hungary

Ms Eniko PapOfficer, Budapest, Hungary

Women Against Violence Europe

Ms Alina ZacharProject co-ordinator, Wien, Austria

Ms Paula BolyosAssistant, WAVE – Network and Domestic Abuse Intervention Centre Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Women’s Human Rights Group B.a.B.e

Ms Ines Bojić

Legal expert, Zagreb, Croatia

Women’s Rights Center

Ms Susanna Vardanyan

President, Yerevan, Armenia

Vilnius Women’s House

Ms Lilija Vasiliauskiene

Director, Vilnius, Lithuania

Autonomous Women’s Center

Ms Tanja IgnjatovicProgramme co-ordinator, Good practice devel-opment programme in the field of domestic vio-lence, Belgrade, Serbia

Women’s Aid Federation of England

Ms Nicola HarwinChief Executive, Bristol[Apologised/Excusée]

Women’s Forum Elbasan

Ms Shpresa BanjaCo-ordinator in the counselling centre for abused women and girls in Elbasan District, Women Forum of Elbasan, Elbasan, Albania[Apologised/Excusée]

Keynote speakers Ms Carol Hagemann-WhiteProfessor, Department of Education, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany

Mr Thomas HammarbergCommissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe

Ms Tuula HaatainenMinister for Social Affairs and Health, Helsinki

Ms Yakin ErtürkProfessor of Sociology, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

Ms Widney BrownSenior Director, International Law, Policy and Campaigns, International Secretariat, Amnesty International, Peter Benenson House, London, United Kingdom

Guests of the Spanish authorities/Invité(e)s des Autorités espagnolesMinistry of Justice/Ministère de la Justice

Raquel CastillejoAsesora del Gabinete del Ministro

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation/Ministère des Affaires étrangères et de la coopération

Fernando Fernández-Arias MinuesaSubdirector de la Oficina de Derechos Humanos

José Luis Lozano GarcíaVocal Asesor para Asuntos Multilaterales y la OSCE

Pilar Ortiz GonzálezJefa del Cuerpo de Subinspectores de Empleo y SS, Servicio del Consejo de Europa, División de Asuntos Multilaterales y OSCE

Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs/Ministère du Travail et des Affaires sociales

Soledad Murillo de la Vega Secretaria General de Políticas de Igualdad

Encarnación Orozco Corpas Delegada Especial del Gobierno contra la Vio-lencia sobre la Mujer

Rosa María Peris Cervera Directora del Instituto de la Mujer

Concepción Gisbert JordáDirectora de Gabinete de la Secretaría General de Políticas de Igualdad

Félix Albertos CarriónDirector de Comunicación

Eva Ferrús García Vocal Asesora , Delegación Especial del Gobi-erno contra la Violencia sobre la Mujer

María Pilar Moreno Fernández Consejera Técnica, Delegación Especial del Go-bierno contra la Violencia sobre la Mujer

Raquel Presa García-LópezConsejera Técnica, Delegación Especial del Go-bierno contra la Violencia sobre la Mujer

Beatriz Martínez Cano-CortésDelegación Especial del Gobierno contra la Vio-lencia sobre la Mujer

Carmen Cánovas VidalDelegación Especial del Gobierno contra la Vio-lencia sobre la Mujer

Rosana Arriola Algara Delegación Especial del Gobierno contra la Vio-lencia sobre la Mujer

Josefa Valdemoro PascualDelegación Especial del Gobierno contra la Vio-lencia sobre la Mujer

Elena PeñafielJefa de Área, Secretaría General de Políticas de Igualdad

Elena PerelaJefa de Servicio, Secretaría General de Políticas de Igualdad

Beatriz Belenda JustoDelegación Especial del Gobierno contra la Vio-lencia sobre la Mujer

Alejandra Lato MeilanDelegación Especial del Gobierno contra la Vio-lencia sobre la Mujer

Gemma Ayuso AragonésDelegación Especial del Gobierno contra la Vio-lencia sobre la Mujer

María Jesús Ortiz Instituto de la Mujer

Hortensia Moriones AlmarazInstituto de la Mujer


Stop à la violence


Cecilia Payno De OriveSecretaría General de políticas de Igualdad

Mariano Alvaro

Isabel Herranz

Senate and Congress of Deputies/Sénat et Chambre des Députés

Composición de la Mesa del Senado

Francisco Javier Rojo GarcíaPresidente

Composición de la Mesa del Congreso

Manuel Marín González Presidente

Carme Chacón Piqueras Vicepresidenta Primera

Gabriel Cisneros LabordaVicepresidente Tercero

Isaura Navarro CasillasSecretaria Cuarta

Composición de la Junta de Portavoces

Manuel Marín González Presidente

Composición de la Comisión Mixta de los Derechos de la Mujer y de Igualdad Oportunidades

Carmen Alborch Bataller Presidenta

María Antonia Martínez García Vicepresidenta Primera

María del Carmen Quintanilla Barba Vicepresidenta Segunda

Portavoces

María Assumpta Baig i Torras

Susana Camarero Benítez

Inmaculada Loroño Ormaechea

María Virtudes Monteserín Rodrí-guez

Portavoces Adjuntos

María Dolores Pérez Anguita

Vocales

Joaquín Antonio Bellón Martínez

José María Burgos García

Belén María Do Campo Piñeiro

María Isabel Flores Fernández

Francisco Orengo GarcíaMédico psiquiatra

Autonomous Communities/Communautés autonomes

Josefa María Caraballo SaavedraDirectora General del Instituto de la Mujer de Extremadura, Junta de Extremadura, Mérida, Badajoz

Celsa Malanda GarridoInstituto de la Mujer de Extremadura, Junta de Extremadura, Mérida, Badajoz

Ana Luisa Bouza SantiagoDirectora Servizio Galego de Igualdade, San-tiago de Compostela, A Coruña

Paloma Recio BernárdezDirectora Instituto de la Mujer de Murcia, Murcia

Teresa Aranaz JiménezDir. Gerente Instituto Navarro Mujer, Pam-plona

Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP)/Fédération des municipalités et provinces (FEMP)

Heliodoro Gallego CuestaPresidente

Gabriel Álvarez Fernández Secretario General

Antonina Mielgo Casado Directora de Área de Igualdad

Jesús Turbidí PérezDirector Departamento Relaciones Interna-cionales

María Dolores Agudo Masa

Carmen González Lahidalga

Rosario Soto Rico

Victoria Martínez Ocón

Encarnación Ocaña Pérez

Josep MarinéAlcalde de la Alforja

Encarnación Mihi Tenedor Diputada Cortes de Aragón

Antonio Clemente Olivert Diputado Cortes Valencianas

Antonia Parrado Rojas Delegada Igualdad Ayuntamiento Córdoba

María José Nicolás Martínez Diputada Asamblea Regional de Murcia

María Pilar Collado Capilla Directora Delegación Comunitat Valenciana en Madrid

María Luisa Castejón Pinilla Técnico de Igualdad del Ayuntamiento de Villalbilla, Madrid

Gema del CorralDirectora del Instituto de la Mujer, Ayunta-miento de Málaga

State Observatory on Violence against Women/Observatoire national sur la violence à l’égard des femmes

Adela Abarrategui PastorJefa del Gabinete de Estudios y Programas, In-stituto Andaluz de la Mujer, Sevilla

Eva Martínez BlascoDtra. Inst. Aragonés de la Mujer, Gobierno de Aragón, Zaragoza

Isabel Llinás Warthmann Directora Inst. Balear de la Mujer, Govern de les Illes Balears, Palma, Mallorca

Ana Barceló ChicoPresidenta de la Comisión de Igualdad de la Femp., Federación Española de Municipios y Provincias, Madrid

Montserrat Comas d’Argemir i CendráVocal Del Consejo GPJ, Consejo Gral. Poder Ju-dicial, Madrid

Almudena FontechaSindicato UGT, Madrid

Angeles Brunel ArandaSecretaría de la Mujer, Sindicato CCOO, Madrid

Dora Anadela Aguirre HidalgoPresidenta de la Asociación Rumiñahui y Vocal del Foro S.D.L.Im., S.E. Inmigración y Emi-gración (Foro Integración Social de los Inmi-grantes), Madrid

Angela AlemaniAsociación de Mujeres Juristas Themis, Madrid

Enriqueta Chicano Jávega Federación de Mujeres Progresistas, Madrid

Ana María Pérez Del Campo Noriega Federación Nacional de Asociaciones de Mujeres Separadas y Divorciadas, Madrid

Marisa SoletoFundación Mujeres, Madrid

Elsa Orozco Kaiser Coordinadora Programa de Atención Integral de la Mujer con Discapacidad en Andalucía, Sevilla

Encarnación Talavera MuñozVicepresidenta de la Asociación y Vocal de la Confederación, Asociación para la Promoción de la Mujer con Discapacidad LUNA de Anda-


Stop domestic


lucía, Confederación Andaluza de personas con discapacidad Física y Orgánica, Sevilla

Isabel CaballeroConfederación Andaluza de personas con dis-capacidad Física y Orgánica, Sevilla

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs)/Organisations non gouvernementales (ONG)Montserrat BoixMujeres en Red, Madrid

Marta Ortiz DíazPresidenta, Coordinadora Española para el Lobby Europeo de Mujeres, Madrid

Astrid Ruiz Thierry Board Member, Madrid

María Soledad Muruaga López de GuereñuPresidenta, Asociación de Mujeres para la Salud, Madrid

Pilar Pascual Pastor Coordinadora, Madrid

Sara Añino VillabaFundación Secretariado Gitano, Madrid

Francisca SauquilloMovimiento por la Paz, el Desarme y la Liber-tad, Madrid

Rocío Nieto RubioAsociación para la Prevención, Reinserción y Atención de la Mujer Prostituida, Madrid

Sara Lucía Díaz MartínVocal, Federación Mujeres Jovenes, Madrid

Consuelo Abril GonzálezPresidenta, Comisión para la Investigación de Malos Tratos a la Mujer, Madrid

Milagro Rodríguez MarinDelegada, Sevilla

María Francisca Fernández ReyeroAsociación Española de Mujeres Separadas y Divorciadas “Carmen Garcia Castellón”, Madrid

Ana María García Fernández Abogada, Madrid

Esperanza Rodríguez Saavedra Abogada, Madrid

María Teresa González GalianaMédicos del Mundo, Madrid

Others/AutresMs Maria BusteloAssociate Professor, MAGEEQ and QUING re-search projects, Political Science and Public Administration, Complutense University at Madrid, Pozuelo de Alarcon, Madrid

Ms Mireia Espiau Responsible for Gender Equality, EUDEL, As-sociation of Basque Municipalities, Bilbao

Ms Emanuela LombardaDirector, Department of Political Science and Administration, Faculty of Political Science and Sociology, European Projects MAGEEQ and QUING, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid

Ms Silvia LópezResearcher, Department of Political Science, Complutense University at Madrid, Madrid

Ms Reyes SelviDirector, Foundation of the Community of Va-lencia against Domestic Violence, Valencia

Mr Jesús Solá SevillaPresident of the Liedra Network Association, President of the Aragonese Association of Local Authorities (ASAEL), Mayor of Herrera, Coun-cilman of Daroca Region, Presidency, ASAEL, Zaragoza

Adela PratResponsable del departamento de difusión, Difusión medio rural, Asociación Liedra, Zaragoza

Mercedes LópezDirectora del Gabinete del Director del Gabi-nete de la Presidencia del Gobierno, Madrid

María Luisa Revilla BlancoVocal Asesora del Gabinete de la Presidencia del Gobierno, Madrid

Isabel Martínez Lozano Vocal Asesora del Gabinete de la Vicepresi-denta del Gobierno, Madrid

Juan López Subdirector General de Ordenación Académica

Balbina Del Carmen Cortijo CadenasAsesora Técnica docente en la Secretaría General de Ordenación Académica

Juan Antonio Redondo Parral Subdirector General de Coordinación, Admin-istración Periférica

Paloma Marín Letrada del Consejo General del Poder Judicial

Anabel VargasFiscal Adjunta del Tribunal Supremo

Maribel Montaño RequenaResponsable de la Secretaría Federal de Igual-dad del PSOE

Rosalina Curras Novas

Montserrat Santos Velasco

Reyes Navarro RiberaConcejal de Asuntos Sociales, Salud y Con-sumo, Mujer y Festejos, Ayuntamiento de Villalbilla, Madrid

Isabel Antunez NietoDiputada provincial de Badajoz, Grupo Social-ista, Diputación de Badajoz, Badajoz

Carmen Hermosín BonoDiputada por Sevilla, Grupo parlamentario Socialista, Congreso de los Diputados, Madrid

Sandra Figaredo GutiérrezAsistente de Carmen Hermosín, Madrid

Pilar Requena Marco Técnico de Programas, Comisión de la Mujer (Federación COAMIFICOA), Madrid

Susana Martín PoloGerente, ASPAYM, Madrid

María Teresa Gallego Ergueta Responsable Área de la Mujer, Madrid

Dolores CarrionSubsecretaria, Ministerio de Administraciones Públicas, Madrid

Pilar Ramiro Collar

Concha Hernández

María Fernanda Bolaño

Luís Martín

María Florentina Alarcón Hita

Penélope Poblete Pérez

Luisa LópezAdvertising Agency Gisbert


Stop à la violence


Isabel Abella

Claudia Monzo

Juana María Santana Hernández

Sign language interpreters/Interprètes en langue des signes

Natalia Iglesias SantabarbaraSpain

Natividad Moreno SantanaSpain

Ana Rioz MateosSpain

Secretariat of the Council of Europe/Secrétariat du Conseil de l’EuropeSecretary General of the Council of Europe/Secrétaire Général du Conseil de l’Europe

Mr Terry Davis

Private Office of the Secretary General/Cabinet du Secrétaire Général

Mr Gianluca EspositoAdvisor/Conseiller

Protocol/Protocole

Mr Muammer TopaloğluDirector of Protocol

Mme Isabelle FlecksteinerAssistante au Directeur du Protocole

Parliamentary Assembly/Assemblée parlementaire

Mr Mateo SorinasSecretary General of the Parliamentary Assem-bly/Secrétaire Général de l’Assemblée Parle-mentaire

Ms Liri Kopaçi-Di MicheleDeputy-Head of the Private Office of the Presi-dent of the Parliamentary Assembly/Chef Adjoint du Cabinet du Président de l’Assemblée Parlementaire

Mr Francesc Ferrer Administrative Officer, Communication Unit/Administrateur, Unité de Communication

Ms Tanja KleinsorgeHead of the Secretariat of the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men/Chef du Secrétariat de la Commission sur l’égalité des chances pour les femmes et les hommes

Ms Sylvie Affholder Deputy Secretary to the Committee/Secrétaire adjointe de la commission

Mr Lamine DialloDeputy Secretary to the Committee/Secrétaire adjoint de la commission

Ms Jannick DevauxDeputy Secretary to the Committee/Secrétaire adjointe de la commission

Ms Anne MullerAdministrative assistant to the Committee/As-sistante administrative de la commission

Ms Beejul TannaAdministrative Assistant to the Committee/As-sistante administrative de la commission

Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe/Congrès des pouvoirs locaux et régionaux du Conseil de l’Europe

Ms Dolores RíosSecretary of the Committee on Social Cohesion

Directorate General of Human Rights/Direction générale des droits de l’homme

M. Philippe BoillatDirector General of Human Rights/Directeur général des droits de l’homme

Ms Marta RequenaHead of the Equality Division/Chef de la Divi-sion Égalité

Ms Renate ZikmundPrincipal Administrator, Equality Division/Ad-ministratrice principale, Division Egalité

Ms Johanna NellesAdministrator, Equality Division/Administra-trice, Division Egalité

Ms Taina RiskiAdvisor, Equality Division/Conseillère, Divi-sion Egalité

Mme Yvette SchillerAdministrative Assistant, Equality Division/Assistante administrative, Division Egalité

Ms Louise Everts Administrative Assistant, Equality Division/Assistante administrative, Division Egalité

Ms Sandra DoñaStudy visitor/Visiteuse d’études, Equality Divi-sion/Division Egalité

Commissioner of Human Rights Office/Bureau du Commissaire aux Droits de l’Homme

Mr Manuel LezertuaDirector of the Office/Directeur du Bureau

Directorate of Communication/Direction de la Communication

Ms Seda PumpyanskayaDirector of Communciation/Directrice de la Communication

Ms Louise AnsariDeputy Director of Communication/Directrice adjointe de la Communication

Ms Cathie BurtonPress Officer/Attachée de Presse

Mr Pierre Kaerle Cameraman

Mr Sandro WeltinPhotographer/Photographe

Interpreters/Interprètes

Ms Sally Bailey-RavetHead of the Team of Interpreters/Chef d’equipe d’interprètes, Interpretation Department of the Council of Europe/Service de l’Interprétation du Conseil de l’Europe

Ms Fausta LibardiMadrid, Spain

Mr Massimo CampagnolaParis, France

Mr Paul BelopolskyParis, France

Ms Jolyn Jeelof-WuhrmannMadrid, Spain

Mr Vladislav GlasunovParis, France

Ms Astrid BorgSceaux, France


Ms Ariane Corbin-FavierParis, France

Ms Catherine Hess-RotheyParis, France

Ms Maria Sánchez PuigMadrid, Spain

Ms Grita Loebsack de SáenzMadrid, Spain

Ms Elsa YndurainMadrid, Spain

Ms Elena Cisneros CristóbalMadrid, Spain

Blueprint of the Council

of Europe Campaign

blank Page

Blueprint of the Campaign to Combat Violence against Women, including Domestic Violence

prepared by the Task Force to Combat Violence against Women, including domestic violence (EG-TFV) and adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 21 June 2006

Outline of the Campaign

I. IntroductionViolence against women is the

result of an imbalance of powerbetween women and men, leading toserious discrimination againstwomen, both within society and thefamily. Violence in the family or do-mestic unit occurs in every Council ofEurope member state despite positivedevelopments in law, policies andpractices. Violence against women is aviolation of human rights, the verynature of which deprives women oftheir ability to enjoy fundamentalfreedoms. It often leaves women vul-nerable to further abuse and is a majorobstacle to overcoming inequalitybetween women and men in society.Violence against women is a detri-ment to peace, security and democ-racy in Europe.

States have a responsibility to re-spect, protect and fulfil the humanrights of all their citizens. Therefore,states must ensure that they havetaken all reasonable measures to pre-vent, investigate and punish all formsof violence against women, includingin the family and domestic unit. Vio-lence against women is a complexissue, particularly when it occurswithin the home, which can be com-pounded by the response of authori-ties to whom women turn for help.

While the specific approaches ofgovernments to violence againstwomen will vary depending on partic-ular country situations, all require amultifaceted response. This needs toaddress both the root causes of vio-lence and its consequences, as well aschallenge attitudes and behavioursand extend to legal, policy and practi-cal measures.

A recent Stocktaking Study pre-pared by the Council of Europe1

pointed out that not all member statesprovide adequate resources forvictims of violence, collect nationaldata on the number of cases of vio-lence occurring in the family or do-mestic unit that come to the attentionof the police and/or health servicesand track neither referral nor judicialoutcomes in a systematic process.Thus, there is no baseline from whichthe effectiveness of legal and othermeasures for combating violenceagainst women can be measured.

To this end, member states of theCouncil of Europe are urged to prior-itise preventing and combating vio-lence against women, including vio-lence in the family or domestic unitand are encouraged to become ac-tively involved in implementing thisCouncil of Europe Campaign thatcalls for strong commitment at the na-tional level.

II. DefinitionIn accordance with the definition

contained in the appendix to Recom-mendation Rec (2002) 5 of the Com-mittee of Ministers to member stateson the protection of women againstviolence, the term “violence againstwomen” is to be understood as any actof gender-based violence, whichresults in, or is likely to result in, phys-ical, sexual or psychological harm orsuffering to women, including threatsof such acts, coercion, or arbitrarydeprivation of liberty, whether occur-ring in public or private life. This in-cludes:

1. Stocktaking Study on the measures andactions taken in the Council of Europe mem-ber states to combat violence against women,2006.


Stop domestic

against womenv i o l e n c e Blueprint of the Council of Europe Campaign

“violence occurring in the family ordomestic unit”, including, inter alia,physical and mental aggression, emo-tional and psychological abuse, rapeand sexual abuse, incest, rape betweenspouses, regular or occasional part-ners and cohabitants, crimes commit-ted in the name of honour, femalegenital and sexual mutilation andother traditional practices harmful towomen, such as forced marriages.This definition is used for the purpose of the Council of Europe Campaign to Combat Violence against Women, including Domestic Violence.

III. Main themeBearing in mind the Action Plan

adopted during the 3rd Summit of theCouncil of Europe and Recommenda-tion Rec (2002) 5 of the Committee ofMinisters, the theme of the Campaignwill be: Prevent and combat violenceagainst women occurring in the familyor domestic unit (domestic violence).

IV. Aims of the CampaignThe aims of the Council of Europe

Campaign to Combat Violenceagainst Women, including DomesticViolence are:

to raise awareness across theCouncil of Europe member statesthat violence against women is ahuman rights violation and en-courage every citizen to challengeit;to urge states to demonstrate polit-ical will by providing adequate re-sources to deliver concrete resultsin ending violence against women;to promote the implementation ofeffective measures for preventingand combating violence againstwomen, through legislation andnational action plans for the imple-mentation of RecommendationRec (2002) 5 of the Committee ofMinisters and to regularly monitorthe progress achieved;

V. ObjectivesProtection of women against vio-

lence in the family or domestic unitshould be placed at the highest politi-cal level in all Council of Europemember states, and should conse-

quently be allocated the necessary fi-nancial resources. All member statesshould be committed to preventingthis type of violence, to protect itsvictims and provide adequate serv-ices, legal redress and compensationas well as to prosecute, punish andprovide treatment to the perpetrators.In addition, member states shouldraise awareness of this problem withall available means, in particularthrough the media and educationalcurricula.

Patriarchal culture is an importantforce in legitimising power inequali-ties between women and men. It istherefore essential that member statesaddress discriminatory traditions andattitudes as well as gender stereotypesas root causes of violence againstwomen.

Low income, unemployment andpoverty are major risk factors for vio-lence against women in the family ordomestic unit. Therefore, statesshould take effective measures topromote economic independence ofwomen.

Member states should committhemselves to elaborate and imple-ment concrete and effective measuresfor preventing and combating violenceagainst women as contained in Recom-mendation Rec (2002) 5 through legis-lation and national plans of action and,at the end of this Campaign, to reporton progress achieved.

All measures contained in this Rec-ommendation are equally importantand should be fully implemented.Recognising the different stages ofmember states in implementing thisRecommendation, member states areurged to make significant progressduring the Campaign in the followingareas:

a. Legal and policy measuresreview and amend, where neces-sary, national legislation in order toidentify and fill gaps in the protec-tion of women from all forms ofviolence occurring in the family ordomestic unit, repeal laws that dis-criminate against women andcriminalise any act of such violenceagainst women including rapebetween spouses;

establish effective legal protection,including protection orders, for allwomen victims of violence, andregularly monitor and evaluate itseffective implementation;ensure that immigration laws andadministrative procedures do notprevent women from leavingviolent relationships due to fear ofdeportation, loss of legal status orrevoked custody over the children;identify and put in place measuresto increase the rate of reporting,prosecution and sanctions of per-petrators of violence againstwomen occurring in the family ordomestic unit;provide victims with legal aid,psycho-social support and guaran-tee protection for witnesses;develop risk assessment and safetyplanning as standard procedure incrime prevention to prevent vio-lence against women, and ensurespecial attention is given to highrisk victims who face repeated inci-dents of violence.

b. Support and protection for victimsprovide the necessary resources forfree 24-hour helplines staffed byadequately trained personnel andother emergency services for allwomen victims of violence;provide adequate support and ad-vocacy services, that meet qualitystandards, to all victims of violenceand empower women and ensurethat services are accessible to allwomen, including socially ex-cluded women and recent mi-grants, refugees, women fromethnic minority groups and thosewith disabilities;provide resources for an adequatenumber of safe shelters for womenvictims of violence who have to fleefrom violence (one place in awomen’s shelter per 7 500 inhabit-ants) as well as for women’s advo-cacy services and crisis centres inall regions of the country andprovide these services with thenecessary human and financial re-sources;develop a co-ordinated, well-resourced multidisciplinary spe-cialist sector to increase capacitybuilding across core national and


Stop à la violence

faite aux femmesdomestiqueBlueprint of the Campaign to Combat Violence against Women, including Domestic Violence

local agencies such as health, jus-tice, social welfare and education,in order to provide women victimsof violence with immediate, com-prehensive and coordinated sup-port;organise integrated training on thecontinuum of violence againstwomen for professionals who dealwith women victims of violence oc-curring in the family or domesticunit (e.g. police, medical profes-sionals, judicial officials, etc.);include the issue of violenceagainst women as a violation ofwomen’s human rights and a publichealth issue in the education cur-ricula of all studies and training forjudicial and security personnel,health care professionals, socialworkers, teachers and others;encourage at all levels the work ofNGOs involved in combating vio-lence against women, and establishactive co-operation with theseNGOs, including appropriate lo-gistic and financial support;provide financial support, housing,independent rights to residence aswell as training and employment towomen victims of violence toenable them to freely decidewhether or not to leave theirviolent partner;encourage the establishment of na-tionally co-ordinated and locallybased programmes for perpetra-tors. These programmes must haveat their core the need for women’ssafety and be organised in close co-operation with services for womenvictims.

c. Data collectionensure the systematic collection ofstatistical data disaggregated bysex, by type of violence as well as bythe relationship of the perpetratorto the victim in all fields. This col-lection should be carried out by na-tional statistics offices or otherbodies (e.g. national observatorieson domestic violence);develop and use a methodologythat allows for gender analysis andcomparison with other memberstates of the Council of Europe;collect and disseminate good prac-tices for preventing violence occur-

ring in the family or domestic unit,protecting its victims and prose-cuting the perpetrators at national,regional and local level.

d. Awareness-raisingpublicly denounce violence againstwomen occurring in the family ordomestic unit as a violation ofwomen’s human rights and committo taking action against it at thehighest political level;raise awareness on violence againstwomen occurring in the family ordomestic unit using all availablemeans, in particular through themedia and educational curricula tochallenge prevailing gender stereo-types, and discriminatory culturalnorms and public opinion about itsacceptability;encourage national and commu-nity leaders and opinion formers topublicly acknowledge the gravity ofviolence against women occurringin the family or domestic unit, tocondemn its perpetration and theuse of custom, tradition or religionto excuse it;translate, if they have not done so,into their national language(s) anddisseminate Recommendation Rec(2002) 5 and its Explanatory Mem-orandum;support specific awareness raisinginitiatives aimed at men in order tomobilise them to take an active partin eliminating all forms of violenceagainst women, including violencein the family or domestic unit.

VI. Messages

Combating domestic violence calls for joint public action

Violence against women occurringin the family or domestic unit (domes-tic violence) continues to be a seriousproblem that extends to all Council ofEurope member states, regardless ofculture, religion, times of peace, con-flict or disaster. It takes on many formsand is too frequently tolerated. There-fore, urgent action is required by gov-ernments, parliaments, local and re-gional authorities and internationalgovernmental organisations as well ascivil society to stop violence against

women occurring in the family or do-mestic unit.

Domestic violence is a human rights violation

Violence against women occurringin the family or domestic unit shouldnot be regarded as a private matter.Violence against women both violatesand impairs or nullifies the enjoymentof their human rights and fundamen-tal freedoms. Therefore, states havethe responsibility to act with due dili-gence to prevent this type of violence,to protect its victims, to award themcompensation and to prosecute andpunish the perpetrators. Conse-quently, states have an obligation totake all reasonable measures to ensurethat women are not exposed to vio-lence and provide protection for thoseat risk as well as redress for victims.Culture, custom, family or religionshould never be used as an excuse forturning a blind eye to human rights vi-olations against women in the home.

Domestic violence seriously injures women and damages the whole of society, including future generations

Many women in many countriesdie as a result of violence occurring inthe family or domestic unit. Further-more, the physical and psychologicalhealth of the surviving victims is seri-ously affected. This type of violencealso has serious consequences for thefamilies as well as society as a wholeand is often perpetuated from onegeneration to another. Violenceagainst women, over and above thepersonal and social consequences, hasa high economic cost (medical care,psychological treatment, absentee-ism, less productivity at work etc.).Ending violence against women in thefamily or domestic unit is the respon-sibility of everyone. Being silentmeans complicity.

Domestic violence calls for men’s active participation to combat violence against women

During this campaign, active par-ticipation of men in activities aimed atcombating violence against womenshould be encouraged. Men have theresponsibility to stand up and chal-lenge violence occurring in the familyor domestic unit. To this end, they


Stop domestic


have an important role to play and canbridge the gap to other men as well asencourage them to speak out againstsuch violence.

VII. Target groupsThe Council of Europe will work

with a variety of partners and targetgroups to deliver the Campaign toCombat Violence against Women, in-cluding Domestic Violence. These in-clude:

Heads of StateHeads of GovernmentMinisters of national governmentsPresidents of parliamentsMembers of parliamentMembers of regional and localauthoritiesInternational intergovernmentalorganisationsInternational and regionalwomen’s and human rights non-governmental organisations National opinion formersLocal community leadersRegional and national businessleadersLaw-enforcement officialsMembers of the judiciary

Social and health-care workers andstate-run social services organisa-tionsNational women’s NGOs provid-ing support services to womenEducation professionals andgroupsTrade unionsAll womenWomen victims and survivorsMen as agents of changeYouth audienceYouth workers

VIII. SloganThe slogan of the Council of

Europe Campaign is “Stop domesticviolence against women”.

IX. DurationPreparations for the Council of

Europe Campaign began at the begin-ning of 2006. A high-level conferenceto launch the Campaign, with partici-pants from governments, parlia-ments, local and regional authorities,international intergovernmental or-ganisations and NGOs was organisedin the Spanish Senate in Madrid,

Spain, in November 2006 (around In-ternational Day for the Elimination ofViolence against Women on 25 Nov-ember and marking the beginning ofthe 16 Days of Activism againstGender Violence). The Campaign willend in the first half of 2008.

X. Division of responsibilitiesThe implementation of the Cam-

paign is carried out involving theCommittee of Ministers through theDirectorate General of Human Rights– DG II (Equality Division) for theintergovernmental dimension of theCampaign, the Parliamentary Assem-bly of the Council of Europe for theparliamentary dimension and theCongress of Regional and Local Au-thorities of the Council of Europe forthe local and regional dimension. Fur-thermore, this Campaign is carriedout in partnership with governmentsand parliaments of the member states,international intergovernmental or-ganisations as well as NGOs involvedin the protection of women againstviolence.

Action to be carried out in the framework of the Council of Europe CampaignThe Council of Europe Campaign

includes two implementation levelsthrough which the Campaign iscarried out. The first level includes ac-tivities directly carried out by theCouncil of Europe, reflecting its inter-governmental, parliamentary andlocal and regional dimensions. Thesecond level consists of national cam-paigns and national activities carriedout by the member states of theCouncil of Europe at national, localand regional level.

I. Council of Europe activities

a. A launching conference A high-level conference to launch

the Council of Europe Campaign toCombat Violence against Women, in-cluding Domestic Violence with par-ticipants from governments, parlia-ments, local and regional authorities,international intergovernmental or-ganisations and NGOs was organised

on 27 November 2006 in the SpanishSenate in Madrid, Spain.

The Task Force to Combat Violenceagainst Women, including DomesticViolence had recommended that thelaunching conference of the Councilof Europe Campaign be organised atthe highest political level and withwide participation of NGOs workingin this field.

b. Media and campaign activities

The launching Conference of theCampaign was given wide media cov-erage throughout Council of Europemember states.

c. Regional seminars

Five high-level seminars will be or-ganised in the requesting Council ofEurope member states highlightingthe different objectives of the Cam-paign. Member states are encouragedto undertake this activity.

d. Activities to be carried out by the Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) and Congress of Local and Regional Authorities

The Parliamentary Assembly of theCouncil of Europe will implement theparliamentary dimension of the Cam-paign. Similarly, the Congress of Localand Regional Authorities will imple-ment the local and regional dimensionof the Campaign.

e. Setting up a special Campaign website

A special Web site devoted to theCouncil of Europe Campaign toCombat Violence against Women, in-cluding Domestic Violence wascreated at http://www.coe.int/

stopviolence/, providing detailed in-formation on the campaign and its ac-tivities. The Web site also provides in-formation on national activities andcampaigns and provides a link to na-tional campaign websites. In addition,it serves as an interactive forum for


Stop à la violence

faite aux femmesdomestiqueBlueprint of the Campaign to Combat Violence against Women, including Domestic Violence

exchanging information and goodpractices.

f. Dissemination of Campaign mater-ial for member states and Council of Europe Information and Field offices

Campaign material was distributedto participants at the Council ofEurope’s launching Conferenceand will be further distributed toparticipants at regional seminars aswell as to the Council of Europe’sInformation and Field Offices.Campaign material will be distrib-uted to NGOs and the generalpublic by the Council of EuropeSecretariat.

II. Activities organised by the member statesa. Setting up Focal Points

Each member state will appoint ahigh-level official and a focal point forthe purpose of the Council of EuropeCampaign as well as for national cam-paigns. The high-level official willchampion the Council of Europe Cam-paign to Combat Violence againstWomen, including Domestic Violence,with the support of a Focal Point.Focal Points should be supported by anational Task Force on violenceagainst women occurring in thefamily or domestic unit which shouldinclude women’s NGOs and othersworking to combat violence againstwomen. The role of the national TaskForce is to support the delivery ofmember states’ national campaigns tocombat violence against women, in-cluding violence in the family or do-mestic unit.

It should be advisable that thisFocal Point appointed by nationalauthorities would be a person holdingresponsibilities at national level in thefield of combating violence againstwomen. National Focal Points willcontribute to the Council of EuropeCampaign by providing informationand making available national goodpractices to combat violence againstwomen which will be published on theCouncil of Europe website. The

Council of Europe will encouragemember states with experience andexpertise in legislative, policy andother measures to share their knowl-edge with other member states tosupport the national campaigns.

Focal Points are encouraged to dis-seminate campaign material as widelyas possible for all requesting actors atnational level, in particular social andhealth care workers, the police, the ju-diciary, policy makers and NGOsworking to combat violence againstwomen.

Each member state will inform theCouncil of Europe Secretariat aboutthe appointment of a national FocalPoint. Subsequently, information con-cerning all 46 national Focal Pointswill be published on the Council ofEurope’s Web site.

b. Campaign Action PlansNational Task Forces are encour-

aged to develop their own NationalCampaign Action Plan based on theBlueprint. The following steps shouldbe included:

Analysis of the country situation toidentify success and gaps in com-bating violence against women.Collection and/or organisation ofexisting data to develop a baselinenational information sheet.Define concrete activities based onthe objectives in the Blueprint tofill the gaps.Earmark appropriate resources,identify time-frame, etc.Campaign Action Plans should beshared with the Council of Europefor information and exchange.Member states are invited to

submit to the Council of Europe Sec-retariat an interim report by 2 July2007 and a final report on activitiesand concrete results of their nationalcampaigns in 2008 for considerationby the Task Force. In accordance withits mandate, the Task Force will evalu-ate progress at national level and es-tablish instruments for quantifyingdevelopments at pan-European levelwith a view to drawing up proposalsfor action.

c. Key Opportunities for Campaigning

Date: 8 March. Significance: Inter-national Women’s DayInternational Women’s Day is a key

opportunity to organise public eventsand carry out media work in partner-ship with women’s organisations inthe field of violence against womenoccurring in the family or domesticunit. All member states participatingin the Council of Europe Campaignare invited to prioritise this type ofviolence as their theme for Interna-tional Women’s Day 2007 and 2008and to promote the messages of theCampaign.

Date: 15 May. Significance: Inter-national Day of the FamilyInternational Day of the Family

provides an important opportunity tohighlight violence against women inthe family or domestic unit. Memberstates are invited to organise publiccampaigning and media activities tospeak out against such violence.

Date: 25 November-10 December.Significance: International Day forthe Elimination of Violence againstWomen and 16 Days of ActivismAgainst Gender ViolenceInternational Day for the Elimina-

tion of Violence against Women andthe 16 Days of Activism campaignprovide an opportunity for mediaaction and campaigning. Memberstates participating in the Council ofEurope campaign are invited to speakout publicly on violence againstwomen occurring in the family or do-mestic unit and join women’s non gov-ernmental organisations and others atthe national level that are participat-ing in the 16 Days of Activism to cam-paign together on ending violenceagainst women.

Member states are also invited touse key national dates to publiclyhighlight the Campaign and to issuejoint statements during Committee ofMinisters’ meetings over the course ofthe Campaign.


Stop domestic


Campaign material

Printed material producedpostersfactsheetsbookmarks foldersbookletsstickerscalendars

Audiovisual material to be produced subject to the availability of funds

television and radio spots public service announcementsvideo packagesphotographic exhibitionvideo

web animationweb viralThe Campaign material produced

is available at the Council of Europewebsite devoted to the Campaign athttp://www.coe.int/stopviolence/.

Timetable

Year 2006The blueprint for the Council ofEurope Campaign to Combat Vio-lence against Women, includingDomestic Violence was finalised bythe Task Force during its secondmeeting on 25-27 April andadopted by the Committee of Min-isters on 21 June.The Launching conference tookplace in the Spanish Senate inMadrid, Spain, on 27 November. A special Council of Europewebsite devoted to the Campaignwas set up at http://www.coe.int/stopviolence/.

Council of Europe member stateshave been requested to appointhigh-level officials and nationalfocal points and to launch nationalcampaigns as far as possible in2006.

Year 2007Regional seminars will be organ-ised in the Council of Europemember states.National campaigns will continueto be carried out and launched bythose member states which havenot yet done so.

Interim national reports on Cam-paign activities will be submitted tothe Task Force for consideration.

Year 2008Closing conference of the Cam-paign will be organised.

Final national reports on Cam-paign activities will be submitted tothe Task Force for consideration.

Final activity report of the TaskForce (including evaluation of theCouncil of Europe Campaign) willbe adopted.


Programme de la Campagne pour combattre la violence à l’égard des femmes, y compris la violence domestique

préparé par la Task Force pour combattre la violence à l’égard des femmes, y compris la violence domestique (EG-TFV) et adopté par le Comité des Ministres le 21 juin 2006

Cadre général de la campagne

I. IntroductionLa violence à l’égard des femmes

découle de rapports de forces inégauxentre femmes et hommes et aboutit àune grave discrimination envers lesexe féminin tant au sein de la sociétéque de la famille. La violence au seinde la famille ou du foyer existe danstous les États membres du Conseil del’Europe, malgré les progrès interve-nus en droit ainsi que dans les poli-tiques et les pratiques. La violence àl’égard des femmes est une violationdes droits de la personne humaine,dont la nature même prive les femmesde leur capacité de jouir des libertésfondamentales. Elle rend souvent lesfemmes plus vulnérables à de nou-veaux sévices et fait sérieusementobstacle à la possibilité de surmonterles inégalités entre les hommes et lesfemmes dans la société. La violence àl’égard des femmes porte préjudice à lapaix, à la sécurité et à la démocratie enEurope.

Il incombe aux États de respecter,de protéger et de réaliser les droits dela personne humaine de tous leurs ci-toyens. En conséquence, les Étatsdoivent veiller à prendre toutes lesmesures raisonnables visant à préve-nir, instruire et sanctionner toutes lesformes de violence à l’égard desfemmes, y compris au sein de lafamille et du foyer. La violence à l’en-contre des femmes, notammentlorsqu’elle s’exerce au sein du foyer, estun problème complexe, qui peutencore être aggravé par la réaction desautorités auxquelles les femmes de-mandent de l’aide.

Chaque gouvernement a une ap-proche spécifique de la violence àl’égard des femmes en fonction de la

situation particulière de son pays,mais toutes les approches doiventcomporter plusieurs aspects : il fauts’attaquer à la fois aux causes pro-fondes de la violence et à ses consé-quences, essayer de faire évoluer lesmentalités et les comportements etprendre des mesures juridiques, poli-tiques et pratiques.

Un bilan dressé récemment par leConseil de l’Europe2 montre que lesÉtats membres ne fournissent pastous des ressources suffisantes pourles victimes de violences, ne re-cueillent pas tous des données natio-nales sur le nombre de cas de violenceau sein de la famille ou du foyer signa-lés à la police et/ou aux services desanté et ne recherchent pas tous defaçon systématique les résultats desrenvois devant les tribunaux ni les dé-cisions judiciaires rendues. L’on nedispose donc pas d’une base de départà partir de laquelle il serait possible demesurer l’efficacité des mesures juri-diques et autres prises pour combattrela violence à l’égard des femmes.

Les États membres du Conseil del’Europe sont appelés à donner la prio-rité à la prévention et à la lutte contrela violence à l’égard des femmes, ycompris la violence au sein de lafamille ou du foyer, et sont encouragésà participer activement à la mise enœuvre de la Campagne du Conseil del’Europe qui demande un engagementfort au niveau national.

II. DéfinitionConformément à la définition figu-

rant dans l’annexe à la Recommanda-tion Rec (2002) 5 du Comité des Mi-nistres aux États membres sur la

2. Étude du bilan des mesures et actions prises pourcombattre la violence à l’égard des femmes dans lesEtats membres du Conseil de l’Europe, 2006.


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protection des femmes contre la vio-lence, le terme de « violence envers lesfemmes » désigne tout acte de vio-lence fondé sur l’appartenancesexuelle qui entraîne ou est suscep-tible d’entraîner pour les femmes quien sont la cible des dommages ousouffrances de nature physique,sexuelle ou psychologique, y comprisla menace de se livrer à de tels actes, lacontrainte, la privation arbitraire de li-berté, que ce soit dans la vie publiqueou dans la vie privée.

Cette définition s’applique, notam-ment, à :

« la violence perpétrée au sein de lafamille ou du foyer », et notammentles agressions de nature physique oupsychique, les abus de nature émotiveet psychologique, le viol et l’abussexuel, l’inceste, le viol entre époux,partenaires habituels, partenaires oc-casionnels ou cohabitants, les crimescommis au nom de l’honneur, la muti-lation d’organes génitaux ou sexuelsféminins, ainsi que les autres prati-ques traditionnelles préjudiciablesaux femmes, telles que les mariagesforcés.

Cette définition est utilisée aux finsde la Campagne du Conseil de l’Eu-rope pour combattre la violence àl’égard des femmes, y compris la vio-lence domestique.

III. Thème principalAyant à l’esprit le Plan d’action

adopté lors du 3e Sommet du Conseilde l’Europe et la RecommandationRec (2002) 5 du Comité des Mi-nistres, la campagne aura pourthème : Prévenir et combattre la vio-lence à l’égard des femmes au sein de lafamille ou du foyer (violence domesti-que).

IV. Buts de la campagneLa Campagne du Conseil de l’Eu-

rope pour combattre la violence àl’égard des femmes, y compris la vio-lence domestique, a pour but de :

sensibiliser l’opinion publique dansles États membres du Conseil del’Europe au fait que la violence àl’égard des femmes est une viola-tion des droits de la personne hu-maine et encourager tout citoyen àla combattre ;

presser les gouvernements à mani-fester leur volonté politique en of-frant les ressources nécessairespour pouvoir présenter des progrèstangibles vers l’élimination de laviolence à l’égard des femmes ;promouvoir l’application de me-sures efficaces de prévention et delutte contre la violence à l’égard desfemmes au moyen de la législationet de plans d’action nationaux pourmettre en œuvre la Recommanda-tion Rec (2002) 5 du Comité desMinistres et évaluer régulièrementles progrès accomplis.

V. ObjectifsLa protection des femmes contre la

violence au sein de la famille ou dufoyer devrait être placée au plus hautniveau politique dans tous les Étatsmembres de Conseil de l’Europe et de-vrait, en conséquence, bénéficier desressources financières nécessaires.Tous les États membres devraients’engager à prévenir ce type de vio-lence, à en protéger les victimes, àprévoir des services adaptés, desrecours juridiques et des réparations ;ils devraient également s’engager àpoursuivre et sanctionner les auteursde violences et à leur procurer un trai-tement. Les États devraient en outresensibiliser le public à ce problème partous les moyens disponibles, notam-ment les médias et les programmesd’enseignement.

La culture patriarcale contribuebeaucoup à légitimer les inégalités depouvoirs entre les femmes et leshommes. Il est donc essentiel que lesÉtats membres s’attaquent aux tradi-tions et attitudes discriminatoiresainsi qu’aux stéréotypes de genre entant que causes profondes de la vio-lence à l’égard des femmes.

Un faible revenu, le chômage et lapauvreté sont des facteurs importantsde risque de violences à l’égard desfemmes au sein de la famille ou dufoyer. C’est pourquoi les gouverne-ments devraient prendre des mesuresefficaces pour promouvoir l’indépen-dance économique des femmes.

Les États membres devraient s’en-gager à préparer et mettre en œuvredes mesures concrètes et efficacespour prévenir et combattre la violence

à l’égard des femmes, telles que cellescontenues dans la RecommandationRec (2002) 5, au moyen de disposi-tions législatives et de plans d’actionnationaux, et à la fin de la campagneils devraient rendre compte des résul-tats obtenus.

Toutes les mesures figurant dans laRecommandation Rec (2002) 5 sontd’égale importance et devraient êtrepleinement mises en œuvre. Les Étatsmembres se trouvent à des stades dif-férents de la mise en œuvre de la Re-commandation, mais chacun est vive-ment encouragé à accomplir, pendantla campagne, des progrès réels dansles domaines suivants :

Mesures juridiques et politiquesrevoir et modifier, si nécessaire, lalégislation nationale, pour déceleret combler ses lacunes en matièrede protection des femmes contretoutes les formes de violence ausein de la famille et du foyer, abro-ger les lois discriminatoires àl’égard des femmes et incriminertout acte de cette violence à l’égarddes femmes, y compris le viol entreépoux ;mettre en place une protection ju-ridique efficace, incluant notam-ment des ordonnances de protec-tion pour toutes les femmesvictimes de violences, et suivre etévaluer régulièrement sa mise enœuvre effective ;veiller à ce que les lois sur l’immi-gration et les procédures adminis-tratives n’empêchent pas lesfemmes de mettre fin à une relationviolente par crainte d’être expul-sées, de perdre leur statut juridiqueou de se voir retirer la garde deleurs enfants ;préparer et mettre en œuvre desmesures destinées à faire augmen-ter la proportion des cas de vio-lence au sein de la famille ou dufoyer qui font l’objet d’un signale-ment, donnent lieu à des poursui-tes contre l’auteur et aboutissent àsa condamnation ;procurer aux victimes une aide ju-ridique et un soutien psychosocialet garantir la protection destémoins ;développer l’évaluation des risqueset l’organisation de la sécurité en


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faite aux femmesdomestiqueProgramme de la Campagne pour combattre la violence à l’égard des femmes, y compris la violence domestique

tant que procédure standard de laprévention de la criminalité pourprévenir la violence à l’égard desfemmes et garantir qu’une atten-tion particulière est portée aux vic-times à haut risque qui sont expo-sées à des actes de violence répétés.

Soutien et protection des victimesfournir les ressources nécessairesau fonctionnement de lignes télé-phoniques d’urgence gratuites etdisponibles 24 heures sur 24 avecdu personnel spécialement forméainsi qu’au fonctionnementd’autres services d’urgence pourtoutes les femmes victimes deviolences ;fournir un soutien approprié et desservices de défense des droits desfemmes, qui répondent à des nor-mes de qualité et donnent auxfemmes la capacité d’agir, et veillerà ce que ces services soient accessi-bles à toutes les femmes, y comprisaux femmes en situation d’exclu-sion sociale, aux femmes migrantesrécemment arrivées, aux femmesréfugiées, aux femmes de minori-tés ethniques et aux femmeshandicapées ;fournir les ressources permettantde disposer d’un nombre suffisantde foyers sûrs pour les femmes vic-times de violences qui doivent lesfuir (une place en foyer pour 7 500habitants) ainsi que de services dedéfense des droits des femmes et decentres de crise dans toutes les ré-gions du pays et doter ces servicesdu personnel et du budgetnécessaires ;mettre en place un secteur spécia-lisé multidisciplinaire coordonné,pourvu des ressources nécessaires,pour créer des moyens renforcés,aux niveaux national et local, dansdes services clés tels que la santé, lajustice, la protection sociale etl’éducation, afin que les femmesvictimes de violences bénéficientd’un soutien immédiat, complet etcoordonné ;organiser une formation intégréesur la gamme complète des vio-lences à l’égard des femmes, à l’in-tention des professionnels qui s’oc-cupent de femmes victimes deviolences au sein de la famille ou du

foyer (par exemple, police, profes-sionnels des soins de santé, servicesjudiciaires, etc.) ;faire figurer la question de la vio-lence à l’égard des femmes en tantque violation des droits de la per-sonne humaine et question desanté publique dans les pro-grammes d’enseignement detoutes les études et formations dupersonnel judiciaire, des forces desécurité, des professionnels dessoins de santé, des travailleurs so-ciaux, des enseignants, etc. ;encourager à tous les niveaux l’ac-tion des ONG qui luttent contre lesviolences à l’égard des femmes etinstaurer avec ces ONG une coopé-ration active comprenant un sou-tien financier et logistiqueapproprié ;fournir un soutien financier, un hé-bergement, un droit de séjour indé-pendant ainsi qu’une formation etun emploi aux femmes victimes deviolences, afin qu’elles puissent dé-cider librement de quitter ou nonleur partenaire violent ;encourager la mise en place de pro-grammes pour les auteurs de vio-lences, coordonnés au niveau na-tional et répartis au niveau local.Ces programmes doivent être cen-trés sur la nécessité de garantir lasécurité des femmes et être organi-sés en étroite collaboration avec lesservices d’aide aux femmes vic-times.

Collecte de donnéesassurer la collecte systématique dedonnées statistiques ventilées parsexe, type de violence et relationentre l’auteur et la victime danstous les domaines. Cette collectedevrait être faite par le Bureau na-tional des statistiques ou d’autresorganismes (un observatoire natio-nal de la violence domestique, parexemple) ;développer et utiliser une métho-dologie permettant une analyse degenre et une comparaison avec lesautres États membres du Conseilde l’Europe ;collecter et diffuser les bonnes pra-tiques en matière de prévention dela violence au sein de la famille oudu foyer, de protection des victimes

et de poursuite des auteurs, aux ni-veaux national, régional et local.

Sensibilisationdénoncer publiquement la vio-lence à l’égard des femmes au seinde la famille ou du foyer en tant queviolation des droits humains desfemmes et s’engager à la combattreau plus haut niveau politique ;sensibiliser le public à la violence àl’égard des femmes au sein de la fa-mille ou du foyer en utilisant tousles moyens disponibles, notam-ment les médias et les programmesd’enseignement, afin de renverserles stéréotypes de genre actuelle-ment répandus, les normes cultu-relles discriminatoires et la tolé-rance de cette violence parl’opinion publique ;encourager les dirigeants natio-naux et locaux et les faiseurs d’opi-nion à reconnaître publiquement lagravité de la violence à l’égard desfemmes au sein de la famille ou dufoyer et à condamner sa perpétra-tion ainsi que le recours à la cou-tume, la tradition ou de la religionpour la justifier ;faire traduire, si ce n’est déjà fait,dans la ou les langues nationales etdiffuser la RecommandationRec (2002) 5 et son exposé desmotifs ;soutenir des actions de sensibilisa-tion spécialement destinées auxhommes, afin de les inciter à parti-ciper activement à l’élimination detoutes les formes de violence àl’égard des femmes, y compris laviolence au sein de la famille ou dufoyer.

VI. Messages

La lutte contre la violence domestique nécessite une action concertée des pouvoirs publics

La violence à l’égard des femmes ausein de la famille ou du foyer (violencedomestique) continue d’être un pro-blème grave qui concerne tous lesÉtats membres du Conseil de l’Eu-rope, indépendamment de la cultureet de la religion, de la paix, des conflitsou des catastrophes. Elle se manifestesous de nombreuses formes et est tropsouvent tolérée. Les gouvernements,


Stop domestic


les parlements, les autorités locales etrégionales et les organisations inter-nationales intergouvernementalesainsi que la société civile doivent doncse mobiliser d’urgence pour mettre finà la violence domestique.

La violence domestique est une violation des droits de la personne humaine

La violence à l’égard des femmes ausein de la famille ou du foyer ne doitpas être considérée comme une affaireprivée. Elle porte atteinte à leurs droitsde la personne humaine et à leurs li-bertés fondamentales et les empêche,partiellement ou totalement, de lesexercer. Il incombe par conséquentaux États d’agir avec la diligencevoulue pour prévenir ce type de vio-lence, protéger les victimes, les in-demniser et poursuivre et sanctionnerles auteurs. Les États sont donc tenusde prendre toutes les mesures raison-nables pour garantir que les femmesne sont pas exposées à la violence etassurer la protection de celles qui sonten danger ainsi que l’indemnisationdes victimes. La culture, la coutume,la famille et la religion ne doiventjamais servir de prétexte pour fermerles yeux sur les violations des droitshumains des femmes à la maison.

La violence domestique blesse gravement les femmes et nuit à la société tout entière, y compris aux générations futures

De nombreuses femmes, dans denombreux pays, meurent des suites dela violence au sein de la famille ou dufoyer. En outre, la santé physique etpsychologique des victimes survivan-tes est gravement compromise. Cetype de violence a aussi des répercus-sions importantes sur les familles etsur la société dans son ensemble et seperpétue souvent d’une génération àl’autre. La violence à l’égard desfemmes, en plus et au-delà des consé-quences personnelles et sociales, aégalement un coût économique élevé(soins médicaux, traitement psycho-logique, absentéisme, baisse de la pro-ductivité au travail, etc.). Mettre fin à

la violence à l’égard des femmes ausein de la famille ou du foyer est l’af-faire de tous. Le silence est un acte decomplicité.

La violence domestique nécessitela participation active des hommespour lutter contre la violence à l’égarddes femmes

Pendant la campagne, il convientd’encourager la participation activedes hommes aux activités destinées àcombattre la violence à l’égard desfemmes. Les hommes doivent se mo-biliser et combattre la violence au seinde la famille ou du foyer. Ils ont un rôleimportant à jouer dans cette perspec-tive et ils peuvent faire le lien avecd’autres hommes et les encourager às’élever contre cette violence.

VII. Groupes ciblesLe Conseil de l’Europe mènera sa

Campagne pour combattre la violenceà l’égard des femmes, y compris la vio-lence domestique, en collaborationavec divers partenaires et groupescibles :

les chefs d’État,les chefs de gouvernement,les ministres des gouvernementsnationaux,les présidents de parlements,les parlementaires,les élus locaux,les organisations internationalesintergouvernementales,les organisations non gouverne-mentales internationales et régio-nales de femmes et de défense desdroits de la personne humaine,les faiseurs d’opinion nationaux,les dirigeants locaux,les chefs d’entreprises régionales etnationales,les membres des forces de l’ordre,le personnel des services judici-aires,les travailleurs sociaux, les profes-sionnels de santé et les organisa-tions de services sociaux gérées parl’État,

les ONG nationales de femmesfournissant des services de soutienaux femmes,les professionnels et groupes dusecteur de l’éducation,les syndicats,toutes les femmes,les femmes victimes et survivantes,les hommes en tant qu’acteurs duchangement,les jeunes,les éducateurs.

VIII. SloganLe slogan pour la campagne du

Conseil de l’Europe est « Stop à la vio-lence domestique faite aux femmes ».

IX. DuréeLa préparation de la Campagne du

Conseil de l’Europe a commencé audébut de l’année 2006. Une conférencede haut niveau a été organisée pourlancer la campagne, avec des partici-pant(e)s des gouvernements, des par-lements, des autorités locales et régio-nales, d’organisations internationalesintergouvernementales et d’ONG.Elle s’est tenue au Sénat espagnol deMadrid en novembre 2006. La campa-gne se terminera à la fin du premier se-mestre 2008.

X. Partage des responsabilitésLa mise en œuvre de la campagne

est assurée par le Comité des Mi-nistres, par l’intermédiaire de la Di-rection générale des droits del’homme – DG II (Division Égalité),pour la dimension intergouverne-mentale de la campagne, par l’Assem-blée parlementaire du Conseil de l’Eu-rope pour la dimension parlementaireet par le Congrès des pouvoirs locauxet régionaux du Conseil de l’Europepour la dimension locale et régionale.Cette campagne est en outre menéeen partenariat avec les gouverne-ments et les parlements des Étatsmembres, des organisations interna-tionales intergouvernementales et desONG œuvrant pour la protection desfemmes contre la violence.

Actions à mener dans le cadre de la Campagne du Conseil de l’EuropeLa Campagne du Conseil de l’Eu-

rope comportera deux niveaux demise en œuvre qui sont ceux auxquelsla campagne sera menée. Le premier

niveau comporte les activités directe-ment menées par le Conseil de l’Eu-


Stop à la violence


rope, reflétant ses dimensions inter-gouvernementale, parlementaire ainsique locale et régionale. Le secondniveau consiste en campagnes et acti-vités nationales organisées par lesEtats membres du Conseil de l’Europeaux niveaux national, local et régional.

I. Les activités du Conseil de l’Europea. Conférence de lancement

Une conférence de haut niveau aété organisée pour lancer la Cam-pagne du Conseil de l’Europe pourcombattre la violence à l’égard desfemmes, y compris la violence domes-tique, avec des participant(e)s desgouvernements, des parlements, desautorités locales et régionales, d’orga-nisations internationales intergouver-nementales et d’ONG. Elle s’est tenueau Sénat espagnol de Madrid en no-vembre 2006.

La Task Force pour combattre laviolence à l’égard des femmes, ycompris la violence domestique, avaitrecommandé d’organiser la confé-rence de lancement de la Campagnedu Conseil de l’Europe au niveau poli-tique le plus élevé et d’y associer large-ment les ONG travaillant dans ce do-maine.

b. Médias et campagnesLa conférence de lancement de la

Campagne a bénéficié d’une largecouverture médiatique au sein desEtats membres du Conseil de l’Eu-rope.

c. Séminaires régionauxCinq séminaires de haut niveau

seront organisés dans les Étatsmembres qui en feront la demandepour mettre en lumière les différentsobjectifs de la campagne. Les Étatsmembres sont encouragés à participerà cette activité.

d. Activités à organiser par l’Assemblée parlementaire (APCE) et le Congrès des pouvoirs locaux et régionaux

L’Assemblée parlementaire duConseil de l’Europe mettra en œuvrela dimension parlementaire de la cam-pagne. De même, le Congrès des pou-voirs locaux et régionaux s’occuperade sa dimension locale et régionale.

e. Création d’un site Web spécialement consacré à la campagne

Un site Web spécialement consa-cré à la Campagne du Conseil de l’Eu-rope pour combattre la violence àl’égard des femmes, y compris la vio-lence domestique, a été créé pourdonner des informations détailléessur la campagne et ses activités. Ilpermet également de se renseignersur les activités et les campagnesnationales et comporte des liens versles sites Web des campagnes natio-nales. De plus, il sert de forum interac-tif pour échanger des informations etdes bonnes pratiques. Ce site peut êtreconsulté à l’adresse http://

www.coe.int/stopviolence/.

f. Diffusion des documents de la campagne auprès des États membres, des Bureaux d’information et des Bureaux extérieurs du Conseil de l’Europe

Les documents de la campagne ontété distribués aux participants lors dela conférence de lancement et lors desséminaires régionaux ainsi qu’auxBureaux d’information du Conseil del’Europe et à ses Bureaux extérieurs.

Les documents de la campagneseront distribués aux ONG et augrand public par le Secrétariat duConseil de l’Europe.

II. Activités organisées par les États membres

a. Création de points de contactChaque État membre désignera

un(e) fonctionnaire de haut niveau etun point de contact aux fins de la cam-pagne du Conseil de l’Europe et descampagnes nationales. Le/la haut(e)fonctionnaire se fera le champion de laCampagne du Conseil de l’Europepour combattre la violence à l’égarddes femmes, y compris la violence do-mestique, avec l’aide d’un point decontact. Les points de contact de-vraient être soutenus par une TaskForce nationale sur la violence àl’égard des femmes au sein de lafamille ou du foyer, qui devrait com-porter des ONG de femmes et d’autresONG engagées dans la lutte contre laviolence à l’égard des femmes. Le rôlede la Task Force nationale est de sou-tenir la mise en œuvre de la campagne

nationale pour combattre la violence àl’égard des femmes, y compris la vio-lence au sein de la famille ou du foyer.

Il est souhaitable que ce point decontact désigné par les autoritésnationales soit une personne exerçantdes responsabilités au niveau nationaldans le domaine de la lutte contre laviolence à l’égard des femmes. Lespoints de contact nationaux apporte-ront leur concours à la Campagne duConseil de l’Europe en communi-quant des informations et en faisantpart des bonnes pratiques en vigueurdans leur pays, qui seront publiées surle site Web du Conseil de l’Europe. LeConseil de l’Europe encouragera lesÉtats membres disposant d’une expé-rience et de compétences en matièrede mesures législatives, politiques etautres à partager leur savoir avecd’autres États membres, qui pourronts’en inspirer dans leurs campagnesnationales.

Les points de contact sont invités àdiffuser les documents de la campa-gne aussi largement que possible auniveau national, auprès de tous lesacteurs qui en feront la demande, enparticulier auprès des travailleurs so-ciaux, des professionnels des soins desanté, de la police, des services judici-aires, des responsables politiques etdes ONG luttant contre la violence àl’égard des femmes.

Chaque État membre informera leSecrétariat du Conseil de l’Europe dela nomination d’un point de contactnational. Par la suite, les informationsconcernant les 46 points de contactnationaux seront publiées sur le siteWeb du Conseil de l’Europe.

b. Plan d’action des campagnes Chaque Task Force nationale est

encouragée à élaborer son propre pland’action pour la campagne nationaleen s’inspirant du programme général.Les étapes suivantes devraient êtreincluses :

analyse de la situation nationalepour identifier les succès et les la-cunes de la lutte contre la violenceà l’égard des femmes ;collecte des données et/ou organi-sation des données existantes pourétablir une fiche d’information na-tionale sur la situation de départ ;


Stop domestic


définition d’activités concrètes,fondées sur les objectifs définisdans le programme général, pourcombler les lacunes ;prévision des ressources néces-saires, établissement d’un calen-drier, etc. ;communication des plans d’actiondes campagnes nationales auConseil de l’Europe pour informa-tion et échange.Les États membres sont invités à

soumettre au Secrétariat du Conseilde l’Europe un rapport intérimairepour le 2 juillet 2007, puis un rapportfinal sur les activités et les résultatsconcrets de leur campagne nationaleen 2008, pour examen par la TaskForce. Conformément à son mandat,la Task Force évaluera les progrès ac-complis au niveau national et élabo-rera des instruments permettant dequantifier les progrès observés auniveau paneuropéen en vue de formu-ler des propositions d’action.

c. Dates clés pour faire campagneDate : 8 mars. Signification : Jour-née internationale de la femme

La Journée internationale de lafemme est une excellente occasiond’organiser des manifestations pu-bliques et de collaborer avec lesmédias, en partenariat avec les orga-nisations de femmes, sur le thème dela violence à l’égard des femmes ausein de la famille et du foyer. Tous lesÉtats membres participant à la cam-pagne du Conseil de l’Europe sontinvités à donner la priorité à ce type deviolence comme thème de la Journéeinternationale de la femme en 2007 et2008 et à promouvoir les messages dela campagne.

Date : 15 mai. Signification : Jour-née internationale de la familleLa Journée internationale de la

famille est une bonne occasion pourappeler l’attention sur la violence àl’égard des femmes au sein de lafamille ou du foyer. Les États membressont invités à organiser des cam-pagnes publiques et des activités mé-diatiques pour s’élever contre cetteviolence.

Dates :25 novembre-10 décembre.Signification : Journée internatio-nale pour l’élimination de la vio-

lence à l’égard des femmes et 16Jours d’activisme contre la violencefaite aux femmes

La Journée internationale pourl’élimination de la violence à l’égarddes femmes et les 16 Jours d’activismecontre la violence faite aux femmessont aussi de bonnes occasions pourdes actions médiatiques et des campa-gnes. Les États membres participant àla campagne du Conseil de l’Europesont invités à s’élever publiquementcontre les violences à l’égard desfemmes au sein de la famille ou dufoyer et à s’associer aux organisationsnon gouvernementales de femmes etaux autres ONG nationales engagéesdans les 16 Jours d’activisme, afin defaire campagne ensemble pour l’élimi-nation de la violence à l’égard desfemmes.

Les États membres sont égalementinvités à utiliser les dates clés natio-nales pour mettre en lumière la Cam-pagne et à faire des déclarations com-munes au cours des réunions duComité des Ministres tout au long dela Campagne.

Matériel de la campagne

Matériel produit à ce jouraffichesfiches d’informationmarque-pagesdossiersbrochuresautocollantscalendriers

Matériel audiovisuel à produire, sous réserve de disponibilité de financement

Messages à la radio et à la télévisionCommunications des pouvoirs pu-blicsKits vidéoExposition de photos

VidéoAnimation WebAuto propagation par le Web (Webviral)Le matériel de la campagne produit

à ce jour est disponible sur le site Webdu Conseil de l’Europe consacré à lacampagne, consultable à l’adressehttp://www.coe.int/stopviolence/.

Calendrier

Année 2006Le programme général de la Cam-pagne du Conseil de l’Europe pourcombattre la violence à l’égard desfemmes, y compris la violence do-mestique, a été mis au point par laTask Force lors de sa deuxième réu-nion qui s’est tenue du 25 au27 avril et a été adopté par le Co-mité des Ministres le 21 juin.La Conférence de lancement s’esttenue au Sénat espagnol de Madridle 27 novembre 2006.

Un site Web du Conseil de l’Europespécialement consacré à la cam-pagne a été créé ; il est consultableà l’adresse http://www.coe.int/

stopviolence/.Il a été demandé aux Étatsmembres du Conseil de l’Europe dedésigner un(e) fonctionnaire dehaut niveau ainsi qu’un point decontact et de lancer des campagnesnationales, dans la mesure du pos-sible dès 2006.

Année 2007Des séminaires régionaux serontorganisés dans les États membresdu Conseil de l’Europe.

Les campagnes nationales se pour-suivront ou seront lancées par lesÉtats membres qui ne l’auront pasencore fait.

Des rapports nationaux intérimai-res sur les activités de campagneseront soumis à la Task Force pourexamen.


Stop à la violence


Année 2008Une Conférence de clôture de lacampagne sera organisée.

Les rapports nationaux finals surles activités de campagne serontsoumis à la Task Force pour exa-men.

Un rapport d’activité final de laTask Force sera adopté (compre-nant une évaluation de la cam-pagne du Conseil de l’Europe).


Council of Europe Campaign to Combat Violence against Women, including Domestic ViolenceProceedings

Launching Conference

Madrid, 27 November 2006

Campagne du Conseil de l’Europe pour combattre la violence à l’égard des femmes, y compris la violence domestique

Actes


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Gender Equality and Anti-Trafficking DivisionDirectorate General of Human Rights and Legal AffairsCouncil of Europe

F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex

Division pour l'égalité entre les femmes et les hommes et la lutte contre la traiteDirection générale des Droits de l’Homme et des Affaires JuridiquesConseil de l’EuropeF-67075 Strasbourg Cedex

www.coe.int/stopviolence

COUV A4 DOMESTIC def 6/07/07 9:45 Page 1

f-67075 strasbourg cedex proceedings/actes · 2008. 7. 22. · june 2007 council of europe campaign...

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