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Books : Marko Monteiro:  My first book, "Tenham Piedade dos Homens! Masculinidades em Mudana" (Juiz de Fora, Brazil: Portuguese, 100 pgs.). www.artnet.com.br/~marko

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APAV Apoio à Vítima Rua do Comercio 56 – 5° P – 1100-150, Lisboa , Portugal Contact: Faye Farr Tel: +21 888 47 32  Fax: +21 887 63 51 www.apav.pt/   Frederico Marques technical adviser to the board of direction

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!