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Women's Organisations - Greece
In Greece domestic violence is not
dealt with explicitly in criminal law but is covered under the statutes
governing general assault / offences against the person. In addition
there are no specific police guidelines, which means that what the
police do in cases of domestic violence is generally determined by their
attitudes to the specific issue. The absence of police guidelines has
resulted in inadequate levels of reporting, recording and prosecution of
domestic violence cases. Battered women have told us about the police's
unwillingness to intervene. Many police officers think of domestic
violence as a private matter.
Police Training
In Greece there has not been any
consistent work with police. The work that has been done to date amounts
to 3 short-term sensitisation training seminars (three to five days).
These seminars were funded through DAPHNH and ARIADNE Two of them were
organised by women's groups, one by the European Women's Network and the
other by the Committee Combating Male Violence. The third was run by a
vocational training institution. (In the case of the vocational training
institution we see how existing funding sources determine the desire of
an agency to work with the issue of domestic violence).
I took part in all three seminars. What we need is guidelines that the
police need to enforce Changing attitudes is a long-term process that
cannot be achieved with short-term training seminars.
Maria Pendaraki,
Committee Combating Male Violence
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KETHI
Research
Centre for Gender Equality
2, Mousaiou
GR - 105-55 Athens
site: www.kethi.gr
Daphne
Programme from the European
Commission
Directorate General for Justice and Home Affairs
http://europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/funding/daphne/funding_daphne_en.htm
Projects: http://europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/project/daphne/
Evaluation: http://europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/funding/daphne/documents/report/ex_post_2000_report_en.pdf
European campaign to raise awareness
on violence against women http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/equ_opp/violence_en.html
From the European Commission:
Domestic violence exists in all countries and across all
social classes. It may be something that happens behind closed doors, but it is
clearly a problem for society as a whole.
The launch of a European campaign to prevent violence against women
underlines the political will of the Union to curb this sad phenomenon and to
coax it out of the closed family environment.
A couple of statistics help to illustrate the scale of the problem:
- in the EU, one woman in five has at least once in her life been the victim
of violence by her male partner;
- 25% of all violent crimes reported involve a man assaulting his wife or
partner.
Every year, thousands of women and children leave their homes because they
are victims of abuse.
These terrible statistics make it all the more urgent that action is taken in
a number of ways.
Various measures have been taken by the Member States; some EU countries have
created 'helplines' to aid the victims, others have organised national awareness
campaigns.
The European campaign to prevent domestic violence against women aims to
support and add to these measures.
The European Commission, in collaboration with NGOs, is supporting a series
of initiatives on the ground with the aim of contributing to a change in
attitudes.
At the European level, the campaign is designed to reinforce the message that
violence against women is a social phenomenon that involves not only victims and
abusers, but also all those who witness abuse, as well as the police, the
judiciary, the teaching profession whose role it is to promote non-violence, and
the social and medical workers involved in coping with the consequences of
violent acts.
The Commission has formulated several messages, addressed to the different
target groups concerned:
For male abusers, the messages are:
- domestic violence is a crime;
- domestic violence will ruin your life as an abuser as much as the life of
your victim, and;
- help exists if you want to put an end to your violent behaviour.
For women victims of
violence, the messages are:
- break the wall of silence surrounding domestic violence!
- don't tolerate violence!
- help exists, find out how!
For all those who witness domestic
violence, the messages are:
- help women victims of violence break the silence
- help them escape from victimisation!
The Daphne Programme from the European
Commission
Daphne II Programme to combat violence against children,
young people and women.
Directorate General for Justice and Home Affairs
http://ec.europa.eu/
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