Domestic violence
- ©IRIN
Domestic violence is violence committed by a member of the domestic circle of the victim. Domestic violence occurs in all social classes and within all cultures. Worldwide, women face more and severer levels of domestic violence. Experiencing domestic violence is a violation of the Human Rights of the victim laid down in a.o. the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (in particular, recommendation 19 of the CEDAW committee).
Human rights and domestic violence
Aim for human rights identifies domestic violence as a serious human rights violation. For this reason we are developing a rights based tool on Domestic Violence. The tool will facilitate the identification of a countries international human right responsibilities in the field of banning domestic violence. The tool will enable NGO’s and governments to work towards improved legislation, policies and legal practice for countering and prevention of domestic violence.
Cooperation with organisations in Africa
The development of an human rights impact assessment tool is a participatory process. Aim for human rights will work in close collaboration with partners in the field to develop the tool. Partners will be involved in carrying out a needs assessment to make sure the tool meets the needs in the field. Most of the partner organisations involved in the development of the tool will be in Sub Sahara Africa. Domestic violence occurs in all societies, but in many African countries the combination of poverty, low social value of women and a culture of violence makes women particularly vulnerable to domestic violence. After a thorough needs assessment has been carried out, a draft tool will be developed. The draft tool will be tested by partner organisations. Based on the outcomes of the test phase, the tool will be redrafted and will be ready for use.
Training local organisations
Aim for human rights also regularly provides organisations abroad with training on domestic violence. Together with them we analyse national legislation and provide links with international human rights conventions.
An example: training Shelter Center in Macedonia
During the summer of 2007, Aim for human rights carried out a project at the request of Shelter Center for Women’s Rights, Skopje, Macedonia. The goal of the program was to enable the 10 participants (from both Macedonian NGO’s and government) to formulate ideas and recommendations to improve the laws and policies on domestic violence in Macedonia. This was done through making an in depth comparison between the existing situation in Macedonia, the Western Balkan and the Netherlands.
At the end of the program the participants formulated targets for improvement in the Macedonian law and policy on domestic violence and set out a strategy for their own organisation to work towards achieving the targets.
More information
For more information on our activitities on domestic violance, please contact Loeky Droesen by phone +31 (0)30 233 40 27 or e-mail.
