La Strada Documentation Center

Reality Check: When Women’s NGOs Map Policies and Legislation on Violence against Women in Europe

Document number
1360
Date
2007
Title
Reality Check: When Women’s NGOs Map Policies and Legislation on Violence against Women in Europe
Author/publisher
European Women's Lobby
Availability
View/save PDF version of this document
Document type(s)
Research/Study/Analysis,
Keywords
European Policy Action Centre on Violence against Women, Observatory on Violence against Women, National anti-trafficking measures, Domestic violence, Pornography, Prostitution, Rape, Sexual harassment,
Summary
This EWL mapping report should be seen as a complimentary report, or a shadow report, to the 2006 Council of Europe stocktaking study on combating violence against women. In 1997, the Council of Europe adopted an Action Plan, which was followed by the adoption of a Recommendation Rec(2002) on the protection of women against violence by the Committee of Ministers. This European legal instrument is an important initiative to combat violence against women as it proposes a global strategy to prevent violence and to protect the victims. It covers all forms of gender-based violence. The Recommendation also calls on governments to inform the Council of Europe on the follow-up undertaken at national level. To this end, a monitoring framework to evaluate progress in the implementation of the recommendation was drawn up and sent to member states for the first time in 2005. The replies were assessed in the recent publication Combating Violence against women - Stocktaking study on the measures and actions taken in Council of Europe member states (2006).The CoE stocktaking study draws on information provided by the governments of Member States, whereas in contrast, the EWL report draws on information provided by NGOs and national experts on violence against women and consists of data from 29 European countries. The EWL’s analysis focuses on some issues reported by the CoE study (particularities of the National Action Plans, analysing the definitions and forms of violence targeted, the existence of specific budget or consultation mechanisms with NGOs), although undertake a more in-depth analysis in relation to these. Secondly, this EWL report focuses a great deal on the experts’ assessments of legislation and the implementation of legislation on different forms of gender violence, in particular: domestic violence, rape (including marital rape), harmful/cultural/traditional practices, trafficking and prostitution, pornography and sexual harassment.Behind the discourse, the reality is sometimes different from the official declarations and reported progress. This report may be seen as a critical exercise and in so doing, the EWL is fulfilling its role as watchdogs.
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