Description
Sexual abuse remains a taboo topic in Romanian society with serious consequences for victims. In Romania, specialized services for victims of sexual abuse are lacking, with no available hotline or rape crisis center. Under this circumstance, the project aims to strengthen the capacity of NGOs working already in the field of domestic violence to develop a common approach in dealing with sexual violence as a form of gendered based violence. Through 7 thematic meetings, the project aims to produce a number of position papers and fact sheets promoting a common approach to different aspects of sexual violence. These documents are meant as guidelines for future policy and legislative interventions. Aside from the NGO specialized in the field of domestic violence, women and other survivors of sexual violence will benefit from an enhanced visibility of this taboo topic within Romanian society. Stigamot, an Icelandic NGO specialized in long term counseling of victims of sexual abuse will also attend some of the network meetings bringing in their 20 expertise in both advocacy and service delivery.
Summary of project results
„Breaking the Silence on Sexual Violence: Strengthening NGO’s capacity to introduce sexual violence on the public agenda” was nothing less than a pioneer project in the field of gender equality and women’s rights. When it kick-started, in May 2014, sexual violence was a theme barely touched upon by the media and very much ignored by decision-makers. Even among established women’s rights NGOs, knowledge, adequate language and a victim-centered approach to policy making was not yet in place. Sexual violence had been for too long one of the closely guarded taboos of Romanian society. The main objective of this project was to strengthen the capacity of women’s rights NGOs to introduce the topic of sexual violence on the public agenda from a victim-centered and gender perspective. In a relatively short time, the network Breaking the Silence on Sexual Violence (made up initially of 9 women’s rights NGOs and extended by the end of the project to a total of 15 NGOs) managed to gain a respected public profile after carrying out a number of public interventions and after organizing a series of local public events and a national seminar for decision makers - "Sexual Violence: moving away from silence towards policies that ensure women’s safety". We consider that indeed the project proved successful as many of the NGOs that were involved in the project enhanced their expertise on the issue and also due to the project the topic became visible for the media and for general public. Moreover this project was developed in close partnership with the NGO Stigamot from Iceland, an NGO specialized in working with victims of sexual abuse. The Icelandic partner took two trips to Romania in order to participate at network’s meetings and deliver insightful presentations. This exchange contributed greatly to reach the general objective of the project. Cooperation activities will continue with the Icelandic partner through the European network WAVE.
Summary of bilateral results
On a technical level Sigamot experts Gudrun Jonsdottir and Anna Thora Kristinsdottir participated in 2 thematic meetings of the network (Thematic meeting no. 3 - Best practices in supporting victims of sexual violence and thematic meeting no. 7 - Advocating for women’s rights to a violent free life), talking about the power of feminist networks. At the last thematic meeting, Stigamot experts helped the network identify ways of moving forward and ideas for common joint action in combating sexual violence. Stigamot experts took part also in the Public Seminar, where they delivered a key presentation on re-victimization of survivors of sexual abuse and on the barriers that prevent women to report crimes (commonly held prejudices that make victims of sexual abuse experience shame and guilt). Stigamot was also involved in the creation of the online resource center proposing interesting materials and participated in promoting the network messages in an international environment. Cooperation activities will continue between them through the European network WAVE.