DN: IP/99/198 Date: 1999-03-29 TXT: EN DE PDF: EN DE Word Processed: EN DE IP/99/198 

Brussels, 29 March 1999 

The European Union holds ministerial conference in Cologne as part of campaign against violence towards women

One of the major events in the European Union's (EU) campaign against violence against women is taking place in Cologne 29 31 March. The conference is organised by the German EU Presidency together with the European Commission. Focus will be on ways of combating domestic violence and the purpose is to explore ways to improve legal protection of victims of domestic violence and to prosecute the perpetrators with greater commitment than in the past. Commissioner Anita Gradin, responsible for Justice and Home Affairs, who has been one of the driving forces behind the campaign warns against the widely held view that domestic violence is a problem only of concern to women. "In most of the cases of domestic violence the perpetrators are men. Therefore, we will never get to the bottom of this problem unless we address the issue of how to deal with men with violent behaviour. But we also need to involve the vast majority of non-violent men in the fight in order to create good role models and to bring about a fundamental change in attitudes". In view of this Commissioner Gradin has decided that all the campaign money available, a total of 2 million euro, shall be used for projects in the Member States which address the issue of men and violence. 

The conference in Cologne is the third public event at EU-level in the ongoing campaign against violence. In December 1998, the Austrian EU Presidency hosted an international expert conference in Vienna. The main focus was the role of the police in combating violence against women. 52 standards and recommendations to combat violence against women were adopted. The work of the conference in Cologne will be based on these standards and recommendations. 

On March 8 the International Women's Day was celebrated in the European Parliament and to a large extent devoted to the theme of violence against women. Commissioner Anita Gradin made a special declaration and also launched a white ribbon campaign symbolising zero-tolerance against violence against women. 

A third European event is foreseen towards the end of the Finnish EU Presidency and the campaign is expected to be concluded around March 8, 2000. 

During the conference in Cologne Commissioner Gradin will present a report made with the support of the Commission on publicly available statistics in the Member States on violence against women. Another Commission contribution within the framework of the campaign is an Eurobarometer on the attitudes towards violence against women in the Member States. 

With the 1993 World Conference in Vienna on Human Rights, women's rights were finally accepted as human rights. 

"This was a real breakthrough meaning that all forms of gender-based violence, sexual harassment and exploitation are breaches of human rights. It also meant that today the issue of violence against women is internationally recognised as a major problem", Commissioner Gradin says. 

This is also to a high degree the case within the EU. In recent years progress has been made both in terms of establishing the issue on the European agenda, and in terms of changing the public perception of and Member States' legislation concerning violence against women. 

One important contribution to this work is the DAPHNE initiative. Since 1997 the Commission has supported a large number of non-governmental organisations (NGO) active in the fight against violence towards women and children. In May 1998 the Commission adopted a proposal to turn the DAPHNE initiative into a programme of community action. The programme will run for five years and provide a total aid of 25 million euro for measures relating to violence against women, young persons and children. The programme will also be open to the candidate countries in Central and Eastern Europe and Cyprus. 

Recommendations of the Expert Forums of the EU Conference on Violence Against Women,  Cologne, 29 and 30 March, 1999 

 Expert Forum 1:  The extent, reasons behind and consequences of violence against women 

1. The member nations of the European Union and their institutions are called on to provide support on a European level for a mixed group comprising researchers, experts and women's NGOs with extensive knowledge in the field of combating violence against women. This is to allow the accumulation of pertinent information on the basis of common criteria, the elaboration of common standards and the handling of multidisciplinary research programmes, taking the relationship between offender and victim into particular consideration. 

2. The member nations of the European Union and the European institutions are called on to maintain contact with this mixed group for the purposes of exchanging information and experience and to guarantee influence on socio-economic decisions on the European level, so that the problem of violence against women is taken into consideration particularly in policy pertaining to equal opportunity, family, equality and home affairs, as well as legal, educational and media policy. 

 Expert Forum 2:  Legal possibilities for combating (domestic) violence against women 

1. The member nations of the European Union, together with the applicant nations, are called on to establish explicit, effective and clearly defined legal regulations pertaining to domestic violence, oriented towards the immediate separation of the victim from the offender through the immediate removal of the violent man from the common household and environment of the woman and her children. The police forces are to be given concrete instructions on the implementation of such regulations, including further measures to protect the victim. The efficacy of the measures taken and the behaviour of the violent man must be monitored both during and after their implementation. 

2. In order to improve the safety of women affected by domestic violence, the member nations of the European Union and the applicant nations must ensure that female immigrants do not lose their residence permit when separated from violent offenders. 

 Expert Forum 3: Prevention 

1. All state institutions must be obligated to deal with the subject of "male violence", to cooperate in dealing with this subject, to exchange information with one another, to analyse internal structures as regards tolerance and continuation of male violence and to design their training and further training measures accordingly. Furthermore, these institutions must engage in measures aimed at primary offender prevention. 

2. The prevention work against male violence must be funded by the governments. 

 Expert Forum 4:  Help organisations and cooperation with institutions, European networks 

1. All national governments are to be obligated to establish and to finance a comprehensive and cost-free offer of support for abused women and their children, regardless of their legal status, under the management of women's NGOs. To this end, such support is to involve women's shelters, women's advisory offices, emergency organisations, legal and social help organisations, offers of support for children and intervention projects, for which standards have been developed in Expert Forum 4 and are to be implemented. 

2. All national governments are to be obligated to each elaborate a national plan of action on violence against women by the time of the next EU conference, in cooperation with women's NGOs, and to make available the requisite means for implementing said projects. 

 Expert Forum 5: Work with perpetrators 

1. Legal boundary conditions must be established in all member nations of the EU and the applicant nations that render it possible for instructions and restrictions to be issued in order to allow violent offenders to participate in training programmes. 

2. Work with perpetrators and associated public awareness campaigns must be based on international experience and scientifically supported and evaluated as part of an extensive package of measures aimed at combating violence against women and their children. The opinions and experience of the women and children involved must be taken into account when working with the perpetrators.