WAVE Lobbying Paper on Council of Europe Campaign 2007 to Combat Violence Against Women

WAVE lobbying paper on the Council of Europe Campaign to Combat Violence Against Women, including domestic violence

Useful documents for the Council of Europe (COE) Camaign for download:
WAVE lobbying paper
Blueprint of Council of Europe Campaign to combat violence against women
Reccomendations 2002(5) on the protection of women against violence
Stocktaking study on VAW by the COE

WAVE LOBBYING PAPER
on the Council of Europe Campaign 2007 to Combat Violence against Women, including Domestic Violence

Blueprint for the Campaign adopted in June 2006!

In accordance with the Action Plan adopted during the Third Summit of Heads of State and Government of Council of Europe (COE) Member States in Warsaw on 16-17 May 2005, a Task Force to Combat Violence against Women, including Domestic Violence has been set up in 2006. Rosa Logar, one of the founders of the WAVE-Network, was appointed one of the experts, after nomination by Austria.

The Task Force, composed of eight international experts in the field of preventing and combating violence against women (the other experts come from Croatia, Finland, Poland, Portugal, Turkey, and the United Kingdom) will be in charge of evaluating progress at national level and establishing instruments for quantifying developments at pan-European level with a view to drawing up proposals for action.

The Task Force prepared a Blueprint for a Pan-European Campaign to combat violence against women, including domestic violence. The blueprint was adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 21 June 2006.

The WAVE Network welcomes the Council of Europe initiative to carry out a campaign in 2007 and calls upon the COE Member States to effectively implement the campaign objectives laid out in the Blueprint.

What are the main objectives and goals?

The campaign focussed on violence against women in the family and domestic unit
According to the Blueprint, the aims of the campaign are:
1) “To raise awareness across the Council of Europe member states that violence against women is a human rights violation and encourage every citizen to challenge it;
2) To urge states to demonstrate political will by providing adequate resources to deliver concrete results in ending violence against women;
3) To promote the implementation of effective measures for preventing and combating violence against women, through legislation and national action plans for the implementation of the Council of Europe Recommendation Rec(2002)5 and to regularly monitor the progress achieved” (COE, CM(2006)93, p.2)

The Blueprint further states:
“All measures contained in this recommendation are equally important and should be fully implemented. Recognising the different stages of member states in implementing this Recommendation, member states are urged to make significant progress during the Campaign in the following areas:
a. Legal and policy measures
b. Support and protection for victims
c. Data collection
d. Awareness raising.” (COE, CM(2006)93, p.2 ff)

What are the plans for implementing the campaign?

Structure

The implementation of the Campaign will be carried out involving the Committee of Ministers through the Directorate General of Human Rights – DG II (Equality Division), the Parliamentary Assembly of the COE, the Congress of Regional and Local Authorities of the COE in partnership with governments and parliaments of the member states, international intergovernmental organisations as well as NGOs involved in the protection of women against violence.

The Parliamentary Assembly is very actively involved in the campaign and has a Sub-Committee on Violence against Women (You can find the members of COE Parliamentary Assembly Sub-Committee on Violence against Women under:http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=/Members/Committees/O2-en.html . Further information about the work of the Sub-Committee on the Campaign: http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/Press/StopPressView.asp?CPID=1752).

The Steering Committee for Equality between Women and Men (CDEG) will also be involved in carrying out the campaign on the national level; each of the 46 member states of the COE has a representative in the Steering Committee

National women’s NGOs providing support services to women are explicitly mentioned as a target group the COE will work with to deliver the Campaign to Combat Violence against women

Activities

On the COE level:

The COE will organize a high level launching Conference in Strasbourg around the 24/25 of November 2006 (WAVE will lobby for the participation of Women’s NGOs working in the field at the conference – if your are interested in attending, please contact the WAVE office)

The COE will further organize five high-level regional seminars

Other activities (see Blueprint)

On the national level

Very important for the success of the campaign will be the activities of the member states carried out at the national level
In the Blueprint the member States agreed to appoint a high-level official and a national focal point to carry out the campaign (each member state will inform the COE Secretariat about the appointment of a national Focal Point and the 46 Focal points will be published on the COE website in September 2006.
In the Blueprint the member states have agreed to set up national Task Forces:
“Focal Points should be supported by a national Task Force on violence against women occurring in the family or domestic unit which should include women’s NGOs and others working to combat violence against women. The role of the national Task Force is to support the delivery of member states’ national campaigns to combat violence against women, including violence in the family or domestic unit.” (COE, CM(2006)93, p.7)
National Task Forces should develop their own National Campaign Action Plan based on the Blueprint. According to the Blueprint, the following steps should be included:
    o “Analysis of the country situation to identify success and gaps in combating violence against women.
    o Collection and/or organisation of existing data to develop a baseline national information sheet.
    o Define concrete activities based on the objectives in the Blueprint to fill the gaps.
    o Earmark appropriate resources, identify timeframe etc.
    o Action Plans should be shared with the Council of Europe for information exchange.” (COE, C (2006)93, p.7)
Member states are responsible for carrying out the national campaign and for providing the necessary resources

How can the WAVE focal points and partners support the COE campaign and lobby for a strong and effective campaign on the national level?

What you can do to make the campaign a successful one:

Get in contact with your government as soon as possible to find out who is/will be the focal point in your country and who is/will be the high-level official (if you do not know that already).
Show your interest in becoming am member of the National Task Force
get involved in planning the National Action Plan for the Campaign
Get in contact with MPs in your country who are in the COE Parliamentary Assembly Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men and the Sub-Committee on Violence against Women (see previous page and http://assembly.coe.int/Composition/APCommitteesList_E.asp#EGA)
find out about their activities, get involved
Get in Contact with your country representative of the COE Steering Committee for Equality between Women and Men (CDEG)
find out about their activities, get involved
Inform all women’s NGOs working in the field of violence against women about the COE campaign
develop an Action Plan for the Campaign (you do not have to invent new activities but rather build on the work you have been doing and set priorities according to what is most important in your country)
Start to find partners for the campaign on the national level (women’s organisations, police, the justice system, social and health services, local municipalities, equal opportunity departments, other NGOs, mens’s groups, Amnesty International, unions, companies, ….see also Blueprint)
Distribute the Council of Europe Recommendation Rec(2002)5 on “The protection of women against violence” (You can find the document for download on the top of the lobbying paper)
Encourage your government to publish the COE Recommendation Rec(2002)5 in the language(s) of your country (if they have not yet done so)
encourage women’s NGOs to make use of the Council of Europe Recommendation Rec(2002)5 on “The protection of women against violence” and the Blue print for the campaign (http://www.coe.int/t/e/Human_Rights/Equality/)
encourage women’s NGO to study the Stocktaking Study on the measures and actions taken in the COE member states to combat violence against women, 2006 (http://www.coe.int/t/e/Human_Rights/Equality/) and analyse the gaps in the report of your government
(for the report all governments have been asked to fill out a questionnaire on
measures and actions taken to combat violence against women in their countries – the answers
are not always reliable)
Inform the WAVE-Office about your activities concerning the campaign regularly and send us the name of a contact person

Further information:

Rosa Logar: rosa.logar@interventionsstelle-wien.at
and: WAVE-office: office@wave-network.org