European Women's Lobby -  National Observatories to Combat Violence Against Women at the National Level & Linked to the European Level

Currently, the Violence Policy Centre and its European Observatory are working on the development of National observatories to combat violence against women, who will monitor polices on violence against women at the national level and make the link to the European level.

Background

The work of the EWL's European Observatory has made it clear that in order to strengthen the work against violence against women in Europe, it would be important to develop similar structures as the European Observatory also at the national level.

The European Observatory members therefore set up a project, with the aim to develop national structures that would be instrumental in building an independent voice, which is often missing in partnership relationships between NGOs and governments. The work at national level is a unique opportunity to examine the problems caused by the fragmentation of structures dealing with violence against women, and at the same time to bring together policy -makers and grass-root NGOs to find solutions.

While the structures of national observatories will inevitably differ from one country to another, some common factors can be drawn up as the basis of a common framework.

Holding governments accountable for their commitments


The National observatories are important actors in identifying all the commitments made by national authorities on violence against women. As a general rule, every EU Member State has ratified the CEDAW convention and endorsed the Beijing +5 Platform of action, both of which include specific measures to address violence against women. Most of these international commitments also acknowledges the important role of NGOs as partners in combating violence against women.

Objective of a National Observatory

The objective of a National observatory is to provide an independent critical voice, for women’s NGOs working in the area of all forms of violence against women, on the performance of government commitments as well as pointing to gaps in policy and service provision that need to be addressed.

The setting up national observatories on violence against women will require constituting a strong coalition of NGOs in the country, to facilitate the development of partnership relations in discussions with national authorities on violence-related issues.  

Missions of the national observatories:

• Monitor government performance in relation to commitments and outcomes of policies, actions and international commitments on all forms of violence against women (The EWL’s document “Towards a European common framework to monitor progress in relation to violence against women” (published in September 2001), provides a tool for national observatories to carry out the monitoring function).

• Highlight gaps in policies and outstanding commitments, particularly on where the obstacles lie.

• Point to critical and emerging issues; call and formulate recommendations for action on these.

• Draft a national report on violence against women by an independent coalition of women’s NGOs.

Exisiting National Observatories

The ultimate goal is to have a National observatory in each EU country in order to create a European report on Violence against women, and so far National observatories have already been officially launched in:

• Ireland (April 2002) http://www.nwci.ie/whatsup.html#swr
• Denmark (October 2002) http://www.det-nationale-voldsobservatorium.org  
• Greece (May 2003)
• France (November 2003)
• Finland (November 2004) http://www.nytkis.org/english.htm   

Framework of Principles
The basic framework of principles of the National observatories are based on a set of principles. These include but are not limited to: principles that are based on feminist values, i.e. by naming the problem as male violence against women; principles that are based on the recognition of the diversity of women; principles that state that prostitution and all other forms of violence against women are violations of women's human rights.

Practical modalities:

The EWL Violence Policy Centre co-ordinates the project of setting up National observatories and make the links between the different national partners.
The EWL project to support the setting up of National observatories have been supported by the EU Daphne programme.