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Description
The project objective is to improve and adapt the public response capacity of central and local authorities in order to provide better and adequate support for victims of domestic and gender-based violence in the present challenging times, due to the COVID - 19 pandemic, by also including specific interventions for vulnerable groups exposed to double discrimination. The activities that will be carried out in the project aim at:
-improving the response capacity to emergency intervention in cases of domestic violence, at the communities’ level, of the mobile teams set up based on inter-agency collaboration;
- enhancing the institutional capacity of the General Directorates of Social Assistance and Child Protection by training specialists from Domestic Violence Departments on access to justice for victims of domestic and gender-based violence;
- developing a monitoring tool (barometer) in the field of domestic and gender – based violence, at county and national level, that will observe the implementation of the national policies in the field, the prevalent forms of domestic and gender-based violence and trends during COVID - 19 pandemic as well as challenges and specific needs of the victims, in order to develop or adapt the policies and programes in the field.
Summary of project results
This project aimed at improving and adapting the response capacity of the central and local authorities in order to provide better and adequate support to the victims of domestic and gender-based violence. Thus, the project focused on the strengthening of local interinstitutional mechanisms with relevant attributions in the field of preventing and combating domestic violence and gender-based violence, so as to enhance the intervention and support capacity for the benefit of the victims and to create new opportunities for domestic and gender-based violence victims from the perspective of accessing social services, legal guidance and information, protection measures and socio-professional integration.
The project consisted in three outputs:
Output 1 - Improved capacity of the Romanian authorities to support the victims of domestic violence and gender-based violence in the context of the COVID 19 pandemic
Under the output, a total of 133 training sessions were organized (123 initially planned) for app. 2605 members of the mobile teams focusing on the roles within the team, intervention methods and techniques, the role of key institutions in preventing and combating domestic violence, as well as strategies for effective inter-institutional cooperation. A manual was also developed for the mobile teams.
Also, a Toolkit on emergency intervention was elaborated and distributed to the participants, including step-by-step procedures, best practices and information designed to support the mobile teams in managing domestic violence emergencies.
Output 2 - Enhanced institutional capacity at the level of the General Directorates by training specialists from Domestic Violence Departments, at the counties level and increase their capacity to facilitate access to justice for victims of domestic and gender-based violence and affected children.
Within the output, a series of 5 training sessions (4 initially planned) for 98 legal advisors from domestic violence departments were organized and a handbook was elaborated for their use. The handbook includes information tailored to the needs of the law enforcement officers, social workers, medical staff and legal advisors in dealing with domestic violence cases.
All the elaborated materials include sections on specific issues related to domestic and gender-based violence against Roma women.
Also, within the output, a national programme aiming to improve access to justice for victims was developed. The programme focused on providing information on: legal rights, the jurisdiction of the judicial authorities, legal proceedings, how to benefit from free legal aid. To this end, a unitary methodology on legal guidance and information for victims of domestic violence (DV) and gender-based violence (GBV) and affected children in order to facilitate their access to justice was elaborated.
5 networking events for the purpose of piloting and finetuning the methodology were organized for app. 124 police officers, social services personnel, legal advisers and representatives of local administrations. 6 General Directorates for Social Assistance and Child Protection and Social Assistance Directorates were selected and partnership agreements were concluded for the purpose.
10 training sessions (8 initially planned) regarding the methodology with the participation of about 200 legal advisers from the General Directorates for Social Assistance and Child Protection were also organized.
Also, 5 more networking events for awareness raising among app. 115 practitioners were organized.
The scope of the training sessions and networking events was to disseminate the methodology and to equip the practitioners with the necessary knowledge and tools to provide appropriate legal support to victims.
Output 3 - Barometer developed in the field of domestic and gender – based violence
Within the output, for the final scope of developing the barometer, a methodology was elaborated, including the research methods for the quantitative and qualitative data collection.
For collecting the data necessary for the elaboration of the barometer, the following sub-activities were carried out:
- 32 interviews (out of the 16 planned) with participants from all the development regions in Romania with 20 victims of domestic violence and 12 specialists working with the victims;
- 8 regional focus groups with app. 125 representatives of local authorities, psychologists, social workers, as well as staff from all the relevant institutions providing social services, police, gendarmerie, forensic medicine, community hospitals, schools;
- 2 consultation meetings between the project promoter and relevant central institutions with responsibilities in the field, including the Ministry of Justice, General Inspectorate form the Romanian Police, 5 General Directorates for Social Assistance and Child Protection from Bucharest etc.
Based on the abovementioned preparatory activities, the Barometer in the field of domestic violence and gender – based violence was elaborated. It was based on a sample size of 1100 Romanian citizens with permanent residence in Romania, ensuring a confidence level of 95% and a margin of error of +/- 3% for the entire sample.
The document describes the prevalence of domestic violence, characteristics of domestic violence occurrences, practices in combating the phenomenon from formal and informal institutions – family, friends and community, but also aspects related to social, psychological, health and legal services, judicial measures, labor market.
The project addressed the needs of the Romanian central and local authorities in terms of improving their capacity to implement the Istanbul Convention, adopting a coordinated approach in addressing the challenges posed by the implementation of the Istanbul Convention in order to prevent and reduce the incidence and effects of domestic violence in Romania.
As such, through the activities of the project the professionals dealing with cases of DV (members of the mobile teams, staff from domestic violence departments within General Departments for Social Assistance and Child Protection, Social Assistance Public Services etc.) benefitted from trainings and were equipped with several tools (guidelines, methodologies) in order to support their effort to offering the most appropriate assistance and intervention to the benefit of the victims.
Also, by developing a barometer at national level, the policy making authorities are equipped with updated information and knowledge about the phenomenon in view of adopting or making the necessary modifications in the related legislation in order to prevent violence and to better protect the victims.
Last, but not least, the project also further contributed to the improvement of the situation of the Roma population, the specificities of the Roma ethnicity being considered and addressed in the materials created, as well as during the training activities.