Launching conference of the Council of Europe campaign to combat violence against women, including domestic violence

Madrid 27 November 2006

Speech by Sandra Barnes, member of the Congress, panellist on roundtable:

“Support and protection of victims”

Good morning, I am Leader of South Northamptonshire Council in addition to being a member of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities’s Committee on Social Cohesion.

Violence against women takes a terrible, often fatal, toll on women and their families in every town and region across Europe and is much more widespread than many people believe. 

The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities is committed to fighting this violation of human rights and has already taken a strong stand against violence and such crimes as trafficking in human beings. The Congress has also sought to counter gender-based discrimination and the unequal balance of power between the sexes, insisting on the importance of women’s participation in political life and their individual voting rights as a means of empowerment and an affirmation of their equal role in society. 

What is the one thing that victims of domestic violence have in common? We have heard that people experience domestic violence regardless of their social group, class, age, race, disability, sexuality and lifestyle. That violence can take a number of forms from sexual abuse to threats, controlling behaviour and bullying, destructive criticism, isolation and harassment.  The one thing all victims have in common is that ultimately they live in a town, a municipality or a region with specific municipal or regional authorities who are responsible for their welfare and to whom they should be able to turn for help.

So, I am here to speak about the support and protection of victims at local level.  The strength of elected representatives at local and regional level lies in their closeness to the citizen which means they can be effective where it matters – in targeted awareness-raising, and above all in implementing tailored protection and prevention measures.

Many local and regional authorities across Europe have already introduced such initiatives, often through close cooperation with NGOs in the field  – and today I want, very briefly, to share a few of these initiatives with you.

Many local authorities have dedicated domestic violence web-sites which have an enormous amount of information to help victims – or put them in touch with NGOS offering counselling or legal help – and to explain their rights to them – to make them understand that they have a right to be safe and free from harm.  Local authorities are in the process of setting up specialised domestic violence units – if they have not already done so….

 In Germany, recognising that the problem of violence against women is a question of equality, Heidelberg has set up an equality office which is responsible for the majority of its policies against domestic violence –  women’s safety being the priority. A special local police unit is empowered to act immediately and remove an aggressor from the home environment. Perpetrators are provided with psychological counselling at a special centre.  Victims can be helped either through home visits or a shelter.  Both centres are financed by the municipality.   Furthermore, the town hall provides women with free taxis at night, distribution of mobile phones, self-defence classes and information.

Shelters remain one of the most important ways in which local authorities can provide immediate protection for victims, however there are still many places in Europe – and, as Amnesty International’s 2006 report outlines some of them are important capital cities – which don’t have a single refuge for women. So I was very pleased to read that early next year the first women’s shelter in Vukovar, is being opened as a partnership between an NGO and the Vukovarsko-Srijemska county.  This  shelter is the first one to be opened in this rural area of Croatia which suffered the most war damage and has the highest rate of people who were exposed to a cluster of war stressors.

In the United Kingdom the importance of local authorities’ role in fighting domestic violence has been acknowledged and indeed key performance indicators have been established (“Best Value Performance Indicators - www.lga.gov.uk) and published across the country to help those authorities know how to implement relevant measures.  There are 11 key questions that authorities must answer and which will enable them to assess their state of readiness.

Short-term housing is often just a stop-gap measure and long-term planning is required to help victims really find their feet.  Many women seeking help because of domestic violence approach local authority housing services so, cities such as Plymouth City Council have a Housing Advice Centre which, in addition to helping with immediate accomodation for a victim and their family either in a local guesthouse or refuge, give long-term advice and information on all the housing options available, including applying for housing benefit, finding accommodation with a private landlord, or making an approach to the City Council’s Homeless Unit.

In Croydon, the local authority will install new doors as well as a camera entry system to help victims feel safer.

A number of local authorities in the UK also provide money for travel: if a victim needs help with travel to a safe place for them and their children, Social Services might be able to provide them with a travel warrant. Otherwise, they can apply to the local Department of Social Security for a crisis loan.  

Also in Germany – a Domestic Violence Round Table has been set up in Gladbeck.  This roundtable, which meets 4 times a year, brings together the city administration, social welfare department, youth welfare department, migration office, court clerks, the NGO Caritas and the head of the local medical doctors’ association amongst others to coordinate and cooperate and reflect on new ways to combat domestic violence, with the focus being on what really works. 

Back in my country, the UK – we have a similar new approach to tackling domestic violence – the multi-agency risk assessment conferences or MARACs.  These have been piloted in Cardiff with outstanding success.  Their aim is to provide a forum for sharing information and taking actions that will reduce future harm to very high-risk victims and their children, as identified through the police risk assessment process.

You will see from several of my examples that I emphasise the importance of concertation –  how critical it is that all those responsible for the protection and support of victims work together, because a decisive factor in the success of many local campaigns and initiatives is whether they have effective multi-agency response from key players.

We hope that by sharing our good practices and promoting this campaign as widely as possible we can inspire as many municipalities, towns, cities and regions to join us and bring about a sea-change in attitudes to this crime which destroys lives and families.

Domestic violence may speak many languages, have many colours and live in many different communities, but we, as elected representatives at local or regional level, have a duty to say “domestic violence concerns us – it is a public, not a private matter”

To finish I would like to share with you my conviction that as elected representatives we must not only “think right” – but we must above all DO right.

Thank you