The document discusses best practices from organizations in Estonia working to combat violence against women. It provides background on the establishment of women's shelters starting in 2002. It describes the challenges faced by the shelters during an economic recession in 2009, including decreased funding and a draft law that would have undermined shelter services. The shelters' union lobbied to ensure the continued operations and sustainability of shelters during this difficult period.

1. DAPHNE III PROGRAMME 2007-2013
X Generation till Nonviolent Relations
A project on how to prevent and combat violence against children,
young people and women and to protect victims and groups at risk
A situational Report
2010

2. Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 4
Creating change regarding violence against women .................................................................................. 6
The project partners’ situational reports and examples from practise...................................................... 9
Estonia.................................................................................................................................................................. 9
Background ...................................................................................................................................................... 9
How to survive the recession......................................................................................................................... 10
Training the staff of the shelters.................................................................................................................... 12
Implementing common statistics gathering .................................................................................................. 13
Ensuring the operations of the shelters during the recession....................................................................... 13
Organizational Development ......................................................................................................................... 14
Finland................................................................................................................................................................ 16
Background .................................................................................................................................................... 16
Our aims and strategies ................................................................................................................................. 18
Awareness raising activities with the girls ..................................................................................................... 18
Awareness raising activities with professionals............................................................................................. 19
Two Finnish examples on youth work on the internet .................................................................................. 19
Lessons learnt ................................................................................................................................................ 20
Greece ................................................................................................................................................................ 22
Aims for combating violence against women................................................................................................ 22
Strategies ....................................................................................................................................................... 23
What have we learnt so far?.......................................................................................................................... 24
Criticism on the current threshold structures and their management in Greece ......................................... 25
A brief description of national activities ........................................................................................................ 26
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3. Uncertain Future and (un)sustainability of the services provided ................................................................ 27
Latvia .................................................................................................................................................................. 28
Aims of activities in Latvia.............................................................................................................................. 28
Enterprises in project frames......................................................................................................................... 29
The anticipated future effects of the project on the government's potential to diminish violence against
woman..................................................................................................................................................... 32
Lithuania............................................................................................................................................................. 34
The first example ........................................................................................................................................... 34
Saule's story (23 years old) ............................................................................................................................ 35
The second example ...................................................................................................................................... 36
Inga’s story (21 years old) .............................................................................................................................. 38
Sweden............................................................................................................................................................... 40
Aims/Background........................................................................................................................................... 40
Main strategy ................................................................................................................................................. 41
The law on Children and student protection ................................................................................................. 41
Education Act ................................................................................................................................................. 42
Brief description of local activities................................................................................................................. 43
Lessons learnt so far ...................................................................................................................................... 44
An understanding of the partner’s struggle for combating violence against women.............................. 46
The way forward ................................................................................................................................................ 49
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4. Introduction
Dovile Rukaite, Project Leader, Women’s Issues Information Centre
Dear reader,
It is our pleasure to present you the set of articles on best practices in six European countries and on how
the various organizations are dealing with the issues of violence against women (VAW) and go further. It
was created in order to analyze and improve each country’s social services environment, find solutions for
specific problems in a structural, political and managerial areas, as well as to share this experience with all
active professionals dealing with violence against women.
This manual is an outcome of two years cooperation of the Daphne III project “X generation till non violent
relations”. Six partners cooperation developed into an effective action plan for help and prevention of any
forms of violence, which young women experience in today’s post-modern society in the public and private
spheres. This way we promoted gender non-discriminatory policies and gender equality on European level
as an overall goal of our project.
This manual came to be after lengthy discussions and brainstorming on what would benefit the reader, who
we consider social partners, NGOs and professionals who work with the VAW issue as their daily duty and
mission. Each of the authors’ groups decided on what would be the best to present and share with other
beneficiaries, so the term of “situation analysis” was born during the concept brainstorming. You will find
the Estonian Shelters’ women’s history as well as the Latvian way to survive in a critical period while
continuing to provide help to the most vulnerable. The Finnish and Lithuanian examples illustrate
experiences on how to work with young people when preventing violence and providing necessary help.
We greatly benefited from cooperation with Greece and have achieved a thorough presentation of the
Greek feminist struggle advocating for women’s rights.
We are pleased that our reports are supported by DVD material, with interviews of professionals who
contributed to best practices and supporting material to share as valuable information with everyone
interested in women issues.
All six organizations are long term colleagues from the women rights movement in the three Baltic States,
Finland, Sweden and Greece. Our team was supported by three evaluators from Denmark, Norway and
Sweden.
The project’s target groups are:
• Young women at risk to experience violence or exposed to violence
• Organizations and institutions
• Service providers for victims of violence, or developing policies, methods and help services system
for women from the first target group
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5. Personally, I would like to express my acknowledgement to all the participants of the project that have
contributed with their innovative ideas and played an active role during the two years’ of cooperation.
I believe we all reached and benefited from the main achievement, a joint task sharing our knowledge and
creating valuable preventative material, this way contributing to the struggle of violence against women
and girls. Nevertheless, the Daphne programme remains a significant implementation of sustaining best
initiatives across Europe, in the prevention and elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls.
Project manager
Dovile Rukaite
Contact:
Women's Issues Information Centre
Olandu 19-2, 01100 Vilnius
Lithuania
Te: +370 5 2629003
mic@lygus.lt ; www.lygus.lt
Partners:
Women's Issues Information Centre, Lithuania
The association Estonian Women's Shelters' Union, Estonia
Research Centre of Women’s Affairs, Greece
Crisis Centre for Children and Families with Children “Pasparne”, Latvia
Women’s Line, Finland
BalticFem, Sweden
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6. Creating change regarding violence against women
Maria Eriksson, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Uppsala University. Short term expert to
the project.
Today violence against women is a central issue on political agendas all over the world. The recent 15 year
follow-up of the Beijing Platform for action shows that this is the case also in Europe. Continued
development in policy and practice can be seen in most parts of the European Union, especially when it
comes to the criminalisation of violence and protection and support to victims. Many of the member states
aim at a more co-ordinated approach in tackling violence against women and at least half have developed
national strategies or plans of action on this issue (Swedish Presidency, 2009). When it comes to the
formulation of men’s violence against women as a policy problem, the central role played by the women’s
movement in general and the women’s shelter movement in particular is well documented (e.g. Dobash
and Dobash 1992, Eduards 1997, Hagemann-White 1998, Jonassen 2005). Voluntary organizations or non-
governmental organisations (NGOs) active in the field of violence play a key role when it comes to
development as regards this social problem.
These NGOs can use a number of different strategies in the attempts to influence policy and create social
change. For example, one special trait of battered women’s shelters or crisis centres is the tendency to
combine lobbying with voluntary social work. Help and support to women and child victims of violence can
then form a basis for claims of special knowledge and for political demands (cf. Jeffner 1994). When it
comes to the efforts used by the organisations in this project, these can roughly be divided into five
categories or, strategies, which can be used by them or – more commonly – in various combinations with
each other (cf. Eriksson 2010).
The first is external awareness raising. This strategy draws on the idea that the definition of problems and
problem solutions is an important part of politics and policy development (Bacchi 1999). For example, the
development of policy to combat domestic violence is dependent upon a shift away from constructions of
such violence as a “private” issue and an emphasis on women’s own responsibility to solve the problem or
protect themselves, toward a view of violence against women in intimate relationships as an unacceptable
crime that all agencies should try to prevent.
The second strategy that can be seen is internal awareness-raising and knowledge development. In this
case, the efforts are primarily aimed at the organizations’ own members. This strategy can be seen
especially amongst the NGO’s working at a national level, where one of the tasks is to support the member
organizations.
This internal awareness raising also lays the foundation for the third strategy: development of services and
staff professionalism. This third strategy can especially be seen amongst those NGOs which also work as
shelters or crisis centres. Activities can, for example, be to develop new models for support for victims,
models which at a later stage could be disseminated to other agencies as well. Other examples are the
development of minimum standards for practice, the development of quality control of services, for
example by including service user perspectives in a more elaborated way, and so forth. Just as is the case of
new support models, all of these activities can at a later stage be used to put pressure on other agencies to
improve practice, or be used as models for policy and guidelines at a national level.
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7. A fourth strategy is the development of new knowledge. In some cases, NGOs try to create links to
researchers who, for example, can document their new models or evaluate their work. In other cases the
NGOs will try to create new knowledge themselves, through the gathering of statistics, or by making
existing research and statistics easily available to a broader audience.
The fifth strategy that can be seen is to engage in more direct lobbying to create change in law or policy at a
national level. The efforts can also be directed at at least four different areas of policy and law:
1) Women’s and children’s rights as victims of crime, for example, rights to aid during criminal law
proceedings, or rights to compensation from the state and/or the perpetrator;
2) Criminalisation of perpetrators of violence and the accountability of men who use violence;
3) The social welfare of victims of violence, and women’s and children’s rights to protection and support
from welfare agencies;
4) The protection of victims of violence in family law proceedings, to ensure that decisions regarding child
custody, contact or residence do not further endanger women and children previously subjected to
violence. As regards children exposed to domestic violence, a fifth area can be added: vulnerable
children’s rights to participation in matters that concern them, and participation in a safe way.
References
Bacchi, C L (1999). Women, Policy and Politics. The Construction of Policy Problems. London: Sage
Dobash, R E and Dobash, R P (1992). Women, violence, and social change. London: Routledge.
Eduards, M (1997). The Women’s Shelter Movement. In Gustafsson, G, Eduards, M, Rönnblom, M (eds).
Towards a New Democratic Order? Women’s Organizing in the 1990s. 120-168. Stockholm: Publica
Eriksson, M (2010). Justice or welfare? Nordic women’s shelters and children’s rights organisations on
children exposed to violence, Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention, Vol. 11,
No 1, 66-85.
Hagemann-White, C (1998). Violence without end? Some reflections on achievements contradictions, and
perspectives of the feminist movement in Germany. In Klein, R (ed). Multidisciplinary Perspectives on
Family Violence, 176-191. London and New York: Routledge
Jeffner, S (1994). Kvinnojourskunskap. Kvinnojourernas kunskap speglad mot aktuell forskning [Women’s
shelter knowledge. The knowledge of the women’s shelters seen in the light of current research].
Stockholm: Folkhälsoinstitutet.
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8. Jonassen, W (2005) Marching on the spot? Dealing with violence against women in Norway. In Eriksson, M,
Hester, M, Keskinen, S, Pringle, K (eds). Tackling Men’s Violence in Families. Nordic Issues and Dilemmas,
83-100. Bristol: Policy Press.
Swedish Presidency (2009). Beijing +15: The Platform for Action and the European Union. Report from the
Swedish Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Stockholm: The Ministry for Integration and
Gender Equality.
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9. The project partners’ situational reports and examples from practise
In the following reports the six partners captures in various ways the specific country’s situation concerning
the issue of violence against women. The reports are given in the light of the activities that the partners
have carried out during the project period according to the project’s overall aims and obligations.
Estonia
Union of Estonian Women's Shelters’ examples of best practices to combat violence against women in
Estonia
Background
The topic of violence against women emerged in public discussions as recently as in the early years of this
century, when the results of the first surveys commissioned by the Ministry of Social Affairs showed
that more than 40,000 women are injured yearly as a result of violence committed. Experts working
with women experiencing violence (police officers, health workers, social workers, child protection
specialists, psychologists) had not received any prior training relating to violence against women, thus
women who had suffered from violence did not often receive the necessary professional help. The
government had neither a relevant action plan nor a working system for preventing violence and
helping the victims. As a result, measures for extending help were developed by civil society
organizations. The initiatives of the civil society in Estonia are the best practice we would like to discuss
here.
The first shelter opened in Tartu in 2002, and for several years this shelter had to rely only on funding
from the local government and foreign agencies. Several support groups for abused women started up
in different places all over Estonia in 2003. These groups were coordinated on a project basis by the
NGO Sotsiaalprogrammide Keskus, the Estonian Centre for Social Programs, which today does not play
an active role any more.
From 2005 and onwards, women’s organizations started coordinated efforts in order to set up safe
shelters and make professional help available to abused women and children. In 2005, a women’s
shelter was opened in Tallinn and in 2006, in Jõhvi, Ida-Virumaa, the predominantly Russian-speaking
North Eastern region of Estonia. In the spring of 2006 two shelters founded an umbrella organization,
the Estonian Women`s Shelters' Union. The Union was founded as an advocacy organization in the field
of violence against women, to lobby and partner with the government and the parliament in drafting
legislation and influencing policy decisions, while facilitating cooperation between shelters, supporting
their development and managing international relations and cooperation.
The priority of the Union was establishing new shelters in Estonia with the aim of ensuring equal access
to shelter services to every woman, regardless of where she lives. Active women interested in this field
were recruited and offered training and help to establish NGOs and to apply for funding.
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10. Seven shelters had been founded by the beginning of 2009: Tartu (2002), Tallinn (2005), Jõhvi (2006),
Tapa (2007), Viljandi (2008), Paide (2008), Valga (2008) helping mainly victims of domestic violence in
different counties. Members of the staff at Jõhvi and Tartu shelters also received training to help
victims of sexual violence via the Nordic-Baltic pilot project which aimed to help women who have been
trafficked with the aim of sexual exploitation.
The shelters in Estonia are/were funded by a project funding by the Gambling Tax Council, the agency
distributing grants using proceeds from gambling. Only the municipal governments of the two bigger
cities, Tallinn and Tartu, gave considerable financial support to the shelters. By the end of 2008, the
earnings from gambling fell dramatically, causing a radical decrease in shelters’ funding. The existing
shelters were facing closure. Therefore, the aim of the Estonian Women`s Shelters’ Union in 2009 was
to ensure the operations and sustainability of the shelters and offer at least minimum help to victims of
violence throughout the recession.
How to survive the recession
At the beginning of 2009, the Union and the shelters faced several challenges during their lobbying
efforts to influence legislation and policies.
By the end of the year, the Ministry of Social Affairs prepared the draft for the amendment of the Social
Welfare Act with the aim of regulating shelters’ services. The act was to make local governments fully
responsible for providing shelter services independent of the fact that they lack adequate resources
and specialist knowledge to do this. This would have meant that local government officials would have
had to be notified of all the addresses of the shelters, which would have turned some people away.
Furthermore, the draft law suggested that persons of the opposite sex could, in principle, be placed in
the same shelter. The Union suggested a meeting with the ministry and submitted proposals for
amendments in the draft law. Representatives of the Union also took part in events organized for local
authorities introducing the services available at the shelters and discussing possibilities for cooperation.
The Union also invited representatives of the Ministry to one of the shelters to show its everyday work.
As a result of these actions, the wording of the draft was then amended favourably for us.
In 2006, the Ministry of Social Affairs started preparing the National Action Plan to combat violence in
intimate relationships, but this document was never passed.
In early 2009, the Ministry of Justice started drafting the National Action Plan to reduce violence. The
document deals with three areas: crimes committed by and against minors, human trafficking, and
domestic violence. Such a development enabled us to put again the issue of violence against women on
the public agenda. The Union was against dealing with all these issues in one single policy document
because the approach used by the Ministry of Justice would not allow covering any of the above
mentioned topics in greater depth.
To make our opinions heard, the Union partnered with other NGOs interested in participating in
drafting the National Action Plan, among them the Estonian Women’s Associations’ Roundtable, Eluliin,
Living for Tomorrow. During the drafting phase, the NGOs sent a joint letter to the Ministry of Justice,
explaining the reasons behind expressing criticism of the National Action Plan.
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11. In July 2009, the Union and the Estonian Women`s Associations’ Roundtable sent the Ministry of Justice
comprehensive proposals for drafting a separate action plan for combating violence against women
following the principles enshrined in relevant documents by the UN, the European Commission, the
European Parliament and the Council of Europe. In September, the organizations arranged a meeting
with the director of the department responsible for drafting the national action plan at the Ministry of
Justice, where we presented our proposals regarding the contents of the National Action Plan doing so
also in writing. We also contacted other ministries involved in the drafting process of the national
action plan, among them the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of
Social Affairs and presented to them our vision of the problems and their possible solutions.
The representatives of the Union were officially involved by the Ministry of Justice - which carried
overall responsibility for coordinating the process - in the working group for drafting the National
Action Plan to reduce violence. Unfortunately, the representatives of the ministries, except for the
Ministry of Social Affairs and its gender equality experts, who were participating in the drafting process
lack adequate understanding of the structural nature of violence against women. And thus they failed
to consider the recommendations by the UN as well as the EU and the Council of Europe in the field of
combating violence against women. Thus, the whole process turned out extremely frustrating for the
Union.
On April 1, 2010 Estonia’s National Action Plan to reduce violence for the years 2010-2014 was passed.
In the explanatory part of this document women’s violence towards men and men as victims are
described as an essential part of the whole issue. To justify this, references are provided to some
international surveys that deal with men as victims of domestic violence. What we consider a great
drawback is that very few references are provided to the numerous international research papers
discussing men’s violence against women, its reasons and consequences.
The Ministry of Justice also did not take into account the suggestions by the Ministry of Social Affairs
which were in line with the internationally recognized principles and that largely coincided with those
of the Union and other women’s organizations involved in the process.
One of the aims of the National Action Plan is reducing and preventing domestic violence (including
violence against women). Violence is defined as follows: “The term domestic violence is broad,
encompassing family, home and relationship violence. Domestic violence involves the victim and the
perpetrator from the same family, violence which is committed among family members or a family
member and close relative. The most common types of domestic violence are abuse of the spouse,
partner, children, grandparents or siblings”. The child witnessing violence between adults at home or
elsewhere is also considered a victim of violence. Low income, unemployment and many children in the
family are considered to increase the risks of domestic violence.
Some suggestions by the NGOs that were taken into account were from the sections about specific
measures and actions rather than those concerning the explanatory part of the document. In the
implementation strategy of the document it has been envisaged that the funding for women’s shelters
and for the helpline for abused women come from the budget of the Ministry of Social Affairs.
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12. As a preventive measure, a pilot training program to raise self-awareness of girls has been planned,
following the example of other countries. One of the measures taken is analyzing and improving the
training curricula of experts dealing with violence. Resources have also been envisaged for providing
further training of professionals. Unfortunately, all of the above mentioned measures come with the
clause that they will be implemented only in case sufficient resources are available, so the
implementation remains uncertain. One of the measures planned was also to analyze the possibilities
of limiting guardianship of parents who are violent, a suggestion also proposed by the Union.
What we consider positive in the National Action Plan to reduce violence is that adequate attention and
funding has been given to helping victims of human trafficking.
The way the National Action Plan was drafted and adopted in Estonia explicitly indicated the need for a
common EU strategy on combating violence against women since the efforts of NGOs committed to
dealing with this topic in member states cannot make up for the lack of political will on the part of the
government. There is a positive aspect to this exercise, however, mostly in terms of developing
cooperation with other NGOs and some of government agencies.
Training the staff of the shelters
At the beginning of 2009, the Union was to organize regular trainings for the staff of the shelters and
the helpline, to ensure the same quality of services offered by different shelters and to provide better
quality aid. We planned to concentrate on the problems of young women and girls and hold monthly
trainings, but the recession forced a different reality on us. Unfortunately, we were unable to find
funding to carry out the trainings. However, we did manage to carry out a more thorough training in
April and another one in December.
In April, we focused on human trafficking because this poses a threat for young women and girls. In
December, the training was focused on psychological problems. Furthermore, in September, we met
the staff of the Swedish women’s shelters and learned about their work in combating violence against
young women. In February 2010, we continued training of the staff of the shelters and the helpline,
focusing on family law and children’s problems.
In addition to training staff, two basic trainings for new shelters' employees were organized in 2009,
early in the year in Rapla and in April, in Pärnu where a new women’s shelter was opened on November
2. This means that by the end of 2009, there were nine women’s shelters in operation in Estonia which
also had skilled staff.
What should be highlighted here is that irrespective of the very serious economic downturn we
remained committed to the goal set by women’s organizations, i.e. ensuring equally good services and
providing equal access to assistance to women victims of violence across the country. Today, we can
say that such an approach was the right one. Women’s shelters are functioning in over half of the
counties offering victims a higher degree of security and giving shelters more credibility vis-ą-vis local
authorities and government agencies.
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13. Implementing common statistics gathering
The year 2009 was also remarkable because for the first time we started gathering statistics from
different shelters into a unified table. We took the table used by the Union for gathering statistics of
the helpline as the template. The shelters agreed to send the data to the Union on a monthly basis in
2009, giving the Union the possibility to receive information on the number of cases, most prevalent
types of violence and services offered by the shelters at any given time.
We got the idea to collect comparable statistical data from our Nordic colleagues and within the short
period of time we have done so it has helped us raise public awareness of the scale and scope of the
problem; it has also helped us communicate with and lobby government agencies.
Ensuring the operations of the shelters during the recession
In January 2009, it became clear that the Gambling Tax Council would provide only one third of the
funding necessary for the shelters for the year. In April, it was announced that the agreed sum would
be cut by 35%. This posed a clear threat that the system developed by recent years’ efforts might
collapse. The Union wrote a letter to the Minister of Social Affairs, where we clearly indicated the
allocations to different shelters during the previous years and the ongoing year. We also appealed to
reorganize the shelters’ project-based funding system into a system with secure government funding.
Furthermore, we had a meeting with the minister of social affairs. As a result, we agreed that the
Ministry of Social Affairs would try to support through the Gambling Tax Council as many project
applications submitted by the shelters as possible with the proposals being submitted on a rolling basis.
This development was the result of an agreement and good cooperation between the nine shelters.
The shelters did not compete with each other for funding and consequently, almost all smaller scale
projects submitted to the Gambling Tax Council throughout the year received funding.
However, this would not have been enough to sustain the shelters’ operations. Hence, additional
support was sought for from the crisis program of the Open Estonia Foundation which opened in the
summer of 2009.
For the first time we decided that the Union would submit a joint application for 1 million EEK for the
seven shelters. This was also a test to the shelters' aptitude for cooperation and financial management.
Our application was approved, enabling the shelters and the helpline to continue full scale operations
for five months – from October 2009 until the end of February 2010.
The shelters continued their everyday operations under the project, offering victims of violence
different services like safe accommodation, crisis counselling, social counselling (both as a phone
service and face-to-face), legal and psychological help, etc.) The project enabled the staff of the shelters
to concentrate on their core activities without having to worry about how to cover basic everyday
costs. Altogether 549 people contacted the shelters during the project time frame. 85 women and 80
children needed accommodation. Problems occurred with settlement with one of the shelters but as a
whole, the project proved a success.
In 2009, the Ministry of Social Affairs was extremely instrumental in helping cooperate with the
national TV channel using the traditional Christmas time charity program Jõulutunnel, Christmas
13

14. Tunnel, to raise money for women’s shelters and the helpline for abused women. The Union was to
propose topics and people to be interviewed, including women victims of violence ready to discuss
their experiences.
This involved a substantial risk because the TV station retained the final say. At the same time, it was a
great opportunity to talk publicly about violence against women, present the shelters' work and
encourage women to seek help.
The Union decided to accept the proposal and asked help from the shelters to find appropriate people
for the broadcast. The program encouraged public debate about domestic violence and helped gain
visibility to the work of the shelters. With the help of the program 1.477 million EEK was raised. It was
decided to divide this sum equally between the nine shelters and the helpline.
In conclusion, it can be said that 2009 turned out unexpectedly successful for the Estonian women’s
shelters in terms of finances. Whereas the sustainability of the shelters was uncertain at the beginning
of the year, by the beginning of the 2010 2/3 of the yearly operational costs were covered.
During 2010, the shelters have secured additional funding from the Gambling Tax Council which has
contributed to their sustainable operation.
This was the result of the good cooperation between the shelters and advocacy work of the Union.
Using the models and experience of other regions, in particular the Nordic countries, for running
women’s shelters, especially in terms of setting up an umbrella organization, applying common
principles of service provision and developing service standards, collecting comparable statistical data,
etc. created preconditions for the shelters’ sustainable operation in the face of the economic crisis.
What was absolutely essential was overcoming rivalry as well as voicing the shelters’ common interest
in communicating with the public. Setting clear goals and contributing continued efforts to achieve the
goals, doing so irrespective of harsh external conditions helped build a good reputation for the shelters
among donors and the public at large. A further factor was the shelters’ pro-active approach in dealing
with government agencies, readiness to submit proposals as well as lobbying.
Organizational Development
The strategy of the Estonian Women’s’ Shelters’ Union was to support establishing new women’s
shelters as independent NGOs in Estonia. The first goal was to create a women’s shelters network and
introduce them to the public, in order to make them known within the communities.
By the summer of 2009, eight women’s shelters were in operation and the ninth shelter was opened
later that year.
In 2009, we also had to focus on fostering cooperation between women’s shelters and reorganise the
working principles. The most critical problem was the hierarchical management structure and a small
number of Board members of the umbrella organization, the Estonian Women’s Shelters’ Union, which
failed to correspond to the changing situation where the number of shelters was growing fast.
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15. We can now attribute the problems emerging to the lack of teamwork skills among the Board
members, unclear responsibilities and inadequate communication both among the Board members as
well as with the shelters themselves.
So, now we have come to the conclusion that the hierarchical management model is not suitable for
women’s shelters’ umbrella organization. What are mostly needed are good teamwork, clearly defined
roles and responsibilities, good information flow and reporting, and knowledge of and abidance by
relevant legal acts. And that is what we are increasingly going to work on in the future.
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16. Finland
Women’s Line’s practise on REACHING THE GIRLS WHERE THEY ARE – DEVELOPING SERVICES ON THE
INTERNET
Background
Partner violence in teenage intimate relationships is a neglected area in the Finnish discussion on violence
against women. There are some related studies but no research as such, that has looked into the issue from
a gender perspective. From a prevalence study on violence against women, we know that partner violence
is fairly common in Finland. Every fifth married or cohabiting woman has experienced physical or sexual
violence or threats of these, by her current spouse. One fifth (22 %) of the women who had experienced
violence outside the partner setting (marriage, cohabiting relationships) reported that the perpetrator was
a current or former dating partner. Young women (ages 18 – 24) are at a greater risk of experiencing
violence (1)
Barter et al (2009) have recently studied partner exploitation and violence in teenage intimate relationships
in the UK. The research shows that boys and girls both experience high levels of violence. One fourth (25 %)
of the girls reported physical violence, one in three girls (31 %) sexual violence and nearly three-quarters
(72 %) emotional violence. Boys reported violent experiences as follows: physical violence 18 %, sexual
violence 16 % and emotional violence 51 %.
The picture changes when the impact of violence is examined (Figure 1.). The gender divide is then very
clear: girls report much higher negative impacts than boys do. The categories of negative impacts reported
were scared/frightened, angry/annoyed, upset/unhappy and humiliated. Girls generally reported as being
scared/frightened and upset/unhappy.
Figure 1. The impact of
different forms of
violence in teenage
intimate relationships.
Source: Barter et al 2009.
Partner exploitation and
violence in teenage
intimate
relationships (2)
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17. Barter et al (2009) argued that partner violence being so common in teenage relationships should be seen
as a significant child welfare problem. In this project, Women’s Line together with the local partners aim to
raise awareness on this issue in Finland. Intimate partner violence is not limited only to the lives of the
adult women, but girls also experience violence in their intimate relationships.
We based our knowledge on Duluth Model (3) which was developed in the 1980s at the Domestic Violence
Intervention Project (DAIP) in Duluth, USA. In the process of creating programmes for victims and
perpetrators, the staff at DAIP developed a tool known as the Power and Control Wheel to describe the
most common ways of abuse. The National Centre on Domestic and Sexual Violence (USA) has adapted the
Wheel to teen relationships (Figure 2.)
Figure 2. Teen Power and Control Wheel
Source: National Centre on Domestic and Sexual Violence (4)
17

18. The Wheel is a helpful tool in understanding the complex nature of partner violence. It often involves many
different forms of physical, sexual and emotional violence bound together.
Our aims and strategies
The aim of the Finnish local activities is to empower girls and prevent intimate partner violence against
them. Our main strategy is to raise awareness by reaching out and offer information to girls, as well as
organising a seminar for professionals and other interested parties. With these activities we hope to help
both girls and adults to recognise violence and to enhance help-seeking.
Local activities were planned together in a local working group and carried out by Women’s Line. Members
of the group were Pirjo Pehkonen, Tiina Paananen and Heidi Rosbäck-Mikkonen (Women’s Line), Outi
Pajala (The Feminist Association Unioni), Kristiina Hannila (Tyttöjen talo) and Malin Gustavsson
(Folkhälsan). Through Tyttöjen talo we were able to listen to the girls and hear their ideas about our
material. For this we are very grateful.
Awareness raising activities with the girls
Our first target group was girls between the ages of 13 to 18. We wanted to develop informative material
for girls on sexual integrity and bodily rights, features of a healthy and respectful relationship, the signs of
violence, dynamics of partner violence, where to get help and advice and internet safety.
The original idea was to focus only on teenage intimate relationships. However, during the project it
became evident that focus also had to be put on forms of violence that are connected with the internet.
Young people spend a lot of time on the internet and meet new people there. According to Finnish
Communications Regulatory Authority, 96 % of the 15-24 years olds have internet access at their home.
Nearly 90 % of these who use the internet at their spare time, use it to interact and communicate with
others (6).
While ways of communicating and meeting people on the internet have developed, so are ways of
misusing them. New technology has created new forms of violence, forms of control and sexual abuse.
Child grooming is one example where someone, usually a much older person, deliberately aims to befriend
and build an emotional connection with a child, in order to sexually abuse her/him. The actual abuse could
happen online, for example by using a web camera. Some abusers may pretend to be children themselves
on the internet and then make arrangements to meet the child in person. New technology also has an
affect on teenage partner violence, as was shown in the UK study, in which girls reported that online
technologies are used for coercive control (7).
For these reasons, we decided to also cover questions of internet safety to some extent and actually shift
our own awareness raising activities targeted to girls, to the internet. When the project started we had
plans to develop material in form of a booklet in both of our national languages and distribute printed
copies to places where girls could find them (schools, youth centres etc.). However, when the local group
started to work, we quickly came to a conclusion that the best place and the most cost-effective way of
18

19. reaching girls and young women in our society today is the internet. We then decided to develop a website
with the same information, print flyers as guides to the website and distribute them to schools, youth
centres etc.
Awareness raising activities with professionals
Our second awareness raising activity was to organise a seminar for professional and the wider public,
where the knowledge acquired during the project was disseminated. Guest speakers (academics and
professionals working with young people on the internet) were also invited to share their knowledge on
violence and internet based services.
Apart from the Daphne funding, Women’s Line in Finland received funding from the Ministry of Justice for
an internet campaign in order to draw the girls’ attention to the new website. The website was launched
and the campaign started at the seminar. The campaign was placed in “Irc-gallery” (8) which is the most
popular social media teenagers use in Finland. The press was also invited to the seminar and a press release
was put out.
As these activities were scheduled later than writing this document, we are not able to report the outcome
of our awareness raising activities. We are hopeful to get public attention and promote discussion about
partner violence within young people’s relationships from the gender perspective.
Two Finnish examples on youth work on the internet
During the project we got acquainted with many different service providers who already work with youth
on the internet. We will introduce briefly two agencies who have already taken on the task and developed
new ways of reaching out to young people. One of them is Netari.fi – a project coordinated by the city of
Helsinki Youth Department and the other is a special police unit named Virtual Community Policing Group.
The Netari.fi project was started in 2004, as a joint project between the municipalities in the Helsinki
metropolitan area. Netari.fi defines their work as follows: “Netari.fi-project is to develop youth work
carried over the internet and to create a coherent work model and working culture for national internet
youth work. Through multi-professional cooperation, the project aims to lower the threshold for the youths
using the facility to seek social and health services when necessary. The plan is also to bring the services,
through the Netari operation, straight to the internet environments popular among young people.” (9) By
2007, results were so promising that the Ministry of Education gave a grant to the city of Helsinki to expand
the project to the national level. Currently, youth workers from 24 municipalities are involved in part-time
online youth work as part of their own jobs. Through Netari.fi, young people can also come in contact with
social workers, public health nurses and the police.
The other example is a fairly new police unit Virtual Community Policing Group. Virtual activities (first police
profile in Irc-gallery) started in autumn 2008 and at the beginning of 2010, the group was established. At
present, there are two policemen and one policewoman working on the internet. The aim of the virtual
police work is to offer a new way of contacting police and preventing criminal acts. Being at the same
19

20. internet sites as the young people may also create a sense of safety, the same way as seeing police officers
patrolling on the streets. Police profiles at different social media sites are also used for informing about
laws as well as asking young people for information, (e.g. if they know anything about a man trying to buy
sex from young girls at the local shopping mall) (10).
Jutta Antikainen, a Senior Constable from Virtual Community Policing Group, says that in their experience it
is easier for young people to talk about their worries and concerns on the internet. Young people do not
separate internet and “the real world” so discussions and investigations can then be continued face to face
if necessary (11) In May 2010, the police reported that the threshold of contacting them seems to be lower,
especially in the sensitive areas like sexual crimes. The cases that have come to police notice in the social
media can be divided in two categories. The first one includes cases of sexual harassment that have
occurred on the internet within a few days. The second category consists of “real world” crimes that have
happened years ago, but the victim has not been able to tell anyone. There have been cases of child abuse,
rape and gross child abuse (12). Virtual police work seems as a promising way of lowering the threshold for
reporting sexual crimes.
Lessons learnt
During the project, we realised even more profoundly than before, how important it is to find ways of
working on the internet and actually get to the same venues where young people spend their spare time
these days. It also seems that the threshold for seeking help is lower on internet based services than in the
more “traditional” ones.
As the younger generation grow older, they get used to communicating through the internet and are likely
to use internet based services more frequently than adults do today. Phone help-lines may turn into chats,
or some other ways of communicating online. Therefore, it is important for us service providers to learn
how to operate on the internet, in order to reach people who are used to searching for information,
support and help online – in the future probably even more often than today.
References
(1) Piispa, Minna & Heiskanen, Markku & Kääriäinen, Jorma & Sirén, Reino. 2006. Naisiin kohdistunut
väkivalta 2005. Oikeuspoliittisen tutkimuslaitoksen julkaisuja 225. Euroopan Kriminaalipolitiikan
Instituutti (HEUNI). Publication Series No. 51. Helsinki.
(2) Barter, Christine & McCcrry, Melanie & Berridge, David & Evans, Kathy. 2009. Partner exploitation
and violence in teenage intimate relationships.
http://www.nspcc.org.uk/Inform/research/findings/partner_exploitation_and_violence_report_wd
f70129.pdf; Downloaded 6.7.2010.
(3) http://www.theduluthmodel.org/wheelgallery.php; Downloaded 6.7.2010.
(4) http://www.theduluthmodel.org/; Downloaded 6.7.2010
(5) http://www.ficora.fi/attachments/suomiry/5myDfhVJ2/DOHA_n576318_v1_Tutkimusraportti_200
9_Telepalveluiden_kayttotutkimus_[Read-Only].pdf; Downloaded 6.7.2010.
20

21. (6) http://www.ficora.fi/attachments/suomiry/5lw6sCr9t/Viestintapalvelut_tutkimus_ikaryhmat.pdf;
Downloaded 6.7.2010.
(7) Barter, Christine & McCcrry, Melanie & Berridge, David & Evans, Kathy. 2009. Partner exploitation
and violence in teenage intimate relationships.
http://www.nspcc.org.uk/Inform/research/findings/partner_exploitation_and_violence_report_wd
f70129.pdf; Downloaded 6.7.2010.
(8) http://irc-galleria.net/; Downloaded 6.7.2010.
(9) http://www.netari.fi/web/guest/English; Downloaded 6.7.2010.
(10) http://www.poliisi.fi/irc-galleria. Downloaded 27.8.2010.
(11) Jutta Antikainen. 5.5.2010.
(12)http://www.poliisi.fi/poliisi/helsinki/home.nsf/pfbd/90210FD9C79A5861C225772D002B5680?open
document; Downloaded 6.7.2010.
21

22. Greece
Research Centre of Women’s Affairs, RCWA’s best practise combating violence against women
Aims for combating violence against women
In the Research Centre of Women’s Affairs, our main goal is to change the current framework towards
violence against women in Greece as well as globally, through our international networks. We work to
create a new legal and social framework, aiming to set the problem in its actual dimensions. As well as to
place the issue on the policy agenda, by lobbying with other women and feminist organisations. Through
awareness raising campaigns, we focus on fighting for the rights of the victims and their access to support,
protection and rehabilitation.
We strongly believe that in order to change the current situation of violence against women, it is vital to
understand, analyse and evaluate the social framework within which, the relationship of power between
men and women are reproduced. According to our study, five basic frameworks and a brief analysis is
presented:
1) Family: is the fundamental institution of reproduction of both social relationships and the relationships
between the sexes. The family is the place where people’s personalities are built and the procedure of
their socialization is shaped. Within the family, gender roles are formed. We follow the patterns of our
parent’s relationships, even if ideologically we reject them and consciously choose to do things that are
contrary to their wishes and advice.
2) School: is the second fundamental institution for reproduction of social relationships in general and
relationships between the two sexes. From the woman’s superiority in numbers within the educational
staff of the first degree education, the subject of history limited to well known historic events, where
men dominated as political, military or financial factors, till the sexual harassments against schoolgirls,
send school children the message is that segregation by genders is a natural condition and not a social
fabrication.
A few years ago, Greece was shocked at the rape case of a schoolgirl from Bulgaria, by four Greek
schoolmates inside the lavatory of the same school they all attended. This event, that took place in a
small town in Greece, has been discussed on the mass media, as it applied to two forms of violence;
sexist violence and the racial violence. It was revealed during these discussions that the events of
violence against schoolgirls are a day-to-day condition. Moreover, it became known that such sexual
harassments are often video-recorded on mobile phones by other children watching the spectacle.
3) Work place: violence begins by sexual harassment and ends at the compulsory, by law enacted;
discharging in ages younger than men’s age (the younger generations of working women are equated
by the increase of women’s limitations, rather than decrease of the men’s limits). What is wasted here
is the woman’s life. Woman’s professions and man’s professions. Women teachers, nurses, typists,
cleaning women are greater in numbers with regard to specific professions, giving the impression of
their work as an extension of her role as housewife and mother. Basically, where genders are almost
equivalently and quantitatively shared, as long as they reach the top of the hierarchy, men and women
are shared in inverse proportion. E.g.: in a total of 21 bank managers in the Bank of Greece, there is
only one woman manager, while for the first time during the eighty years of this bank’s existence, a
22

23. woman has been appointed as bank sub-governor. Not even one woman governor or president is to be
found in the commercial banks.
4) New family: the repetition of what has been experienced within the traditional family will be a
probability, if new consciousness of self-determination is not developed by the woman.
5) Army: the perfect mechanism of men’s indoctrination as masters of women. This is the institution
where the segregation of genders is not only undisguised but also unalterable during historic times.
Apart from its function as mechanism of consciences indoctrination, the army also embodies the
pattern of authoritative exertion against women even today. The military installations throughout
Greece, where organization of the human forces is concerned, have the form of camps. Next to these
camps, the installation of brothels have been foreseen and materialized. The Law on Prostitution,
which is in force in Greece, gives the right to local municipal authorities to allow the operation of a
number of brothels in view of the local needs. It is not difficult to understand that young men
experiencing sexual intercourse with these women will adapt the psychological condition and practice
they follow in their sexual activity during their military service, to their own civilian lives.
Strategies
Our main strategy in combating violence against women is to set up proposals for policy makers in order to
overturn the male domination relationships. At the same time we are struggling to support the autonomy
of women’s struggle.
Below are the standards and political motions that must be applied in order to deal with the problem:
1) Awareness of the problem: in order to solve a problem, one must recognize its existence. We women
have to trust each other and talk together. If we talk together, we will also talk about the violence we
have suffered and thus realize that not only we are unfortunate, but also members of a society where
one sex dominates the other.
2) Vindication of free space away from the place where violence is exercised: in order to see beyond the
suffering now, you have to escape from the place where the maltreatment or sexual abuse occurs.
3) Women’s self-organization: on our own we cannot deal with men’s oppression. Women’s self-
organization is a primary procedure in order to change our fate.
4) Overturning the social framework that reproduces violence: in such a procedure we women must
recognize ourselves as a particular social category and not only as a biological gender. We should
recognize ourselves as a social gender. The recognition that our gender is both biologically determined
and socially fabricated, gives us the ideological and political weapons to fight autonomously for
overturning dominating relationships between the two sexes. At the same time this obligates us to
recognize the fact that as we women undergo oppression, there are many other social categories
oppressed as well. The recognition that oppression will not cease to exist, if we do not reject it in all its
forms and on behalf of everyone who undergo it, is a prerequisite of our struggle. In order to overturn
this condition, which conserves the unequal relationship between the two sexes, we have to
23

24. understand and reject all other forms of inequality existing within the society. You cannot fight only for
the oppression that only you undergo. This is not a moral question, but a deeply political one.
Another highly important political motion and strategy for immediate dealing with the question of the
violence, is to keep on urging what should be done by the State in order to eliminate the problem.
Here we must refer to the explanatory summary of the Law 3500/23-10-2006 on the confrontation of
domestic violence, which became an ineffectual law of the Greek State. From the wording it is straight
forward and clear: The problem of non-recognition arises within the open marriage, cohabitation. The
intention of the legislation is to cope with the perpetrators and victims as though they were jointly liable
and individuals are given advice in order to work within the framework of the family, so as to maintain it
under any circumstances.
What have we learnt so far?
Harmful practices
On the basis of the above-mentioned two markings, we found out that:
• The assignment of the solution of the family/domestic violence problem to the police and the
courts of justice does not decrease the events of violence, rather the contrary; the events of
violence have increased.
• Policemen and judges, observing the spirit of the law for the maintenance of the family at all costs,
work as marriage consultants and not as state agencies empowered to protect the victims and cope
with the victimizers as persons who exercise violence against other human beings. Furthermore,
the same treatment is applied to everyone who acts accordingly in the public sector. If a citizen
slaps another citizen on the face in a public area, he is sure to be condemned, provided that the
person attacked lodges a complaint against him. The contrary happens in cases of domestic
violence, where the offender could avoid punishment, if he reassures the policeman or the judge
that this will not occur again.
Women’s access to protection and support
Furthermore, we investigated the breaking away possibilities of maltreated women and found out that the
SOS lines, consultative centers and shelters for maltreated women can be counted on one hand. These
shelters and are either partly financed by the State or supported by private agencies, which do not assume
any obligations to support them indefinitely.
What we have learnt is dealing with the question of family/domestic violence must be brought up on four
axes:
1) A maltreated/abused woman must be released from the obligation to vindicate herself at the
offender’s penal prosecution. A bodily or physically maltreated/abused woman should take
recourse to experts/specialized scientists for help and not try to convince the policemen or the
24

25. public prosecutor that she has really been maltreated or abused. The penal prosecution of the
offender should be appointed by the woman’s supporting agency for two reasons: a) the
undertaking of the responsibility for the victimizer’s penal prosecution by a social agency, forms a
factual recognition of the domestic violence as a social question and not as litigation between the
two persons. By force of law this will secure the character of the prosecution that prevents the
dealing possibility b) Protects the woman from suspicion that her denunciation may have selfish
motives, especially if the violence she has suffered has not left any visible traces on her body.
2) Centers with fully specialized staff must be established in order to provide full support to the
victims of family/domestic violence, for as long as they are in need of protection. We think that the
proportion of one centre for every ten thousand inhabitants is a feasible, realistic and an attainable
objective.
3) If as a society, we really wish to fight family/domestic violence, we should also fight the institutions
and the laws reproducing it in their entirety. For example: one the one hand, we can not legally
secure a proportion of soldiers and brothels in places where camps exist and on the other hand
protest against maltreatment and abuse of the women.
4) Financing: women carry on the task of bringing up their children and the housekeeping, even when
on the labor market. They produce unpaid work of which is advantageous to the State, as it saves
resources in the field of social allowances and benefits. We ask for this unpaid work to be
calculated and a minor part of it to be returned to women in the form of backing and supporting
centers for maltreated women. A feasible and attainable objective is in the order of 1% of the gross
national product, with the minimum to be paid back to the women for everything they have
offered and still keep offering. We vindicate this.
Criticism on the current threshold structures and their management in Greece
The Law 3500/23-10-2006 that has been valid from January the 25th. 2007, maintains the circle of male
violence, instead of aiming at the psychological, medical and financial support and protection of victims, with
the creation of corresponding structures. We notice that, no family courts or family public prosecutors exist in
Greece nor commissaries and advisers. Neither services of psychological support of victims or perpetrators
that would be included in the courts.
The benefit of relative services and vocations depends on the public hospitals and psychiatric clinics. The
transaction of predetermining from the public prosecutor and the police does not encourage women victims
to resort to the protection of the law, which has up to date proved to be protectors of patriarchal structures,
instead of protectors of women, the victims of violence. According to the law, no financial support can be
given to the victims without the indication of the government.
In her website, the General Secretariat for Gender Equality indicates roughly 25 institutions and supporting
structures for aiding women of violence, seven in Athens and one in other big cities. In Athens, five of them
function as hostels or claim to be, while the others provide advisory support. In the province most institutions
provide advisory support, and some of them are supported by European programs which are stopped due to
financial problems.
25

26. Only in 3-4 of them hostels function under private initiative. These things are happening in a country where
the women population reaches 5.500.000.
A brief description of national activities
At the end of October 2009, after the appointment of a new Secretariat for Equality from the newly elected
government, which is now placed under the Ministry of Justice instead of under the Ministry of Interior, a
Special Permanent Committee for Equality, Youth and Human Rights Issues was established. On the 25th of
November 2009, this Committee organized a session in the Greek Parliament, where the RCWA and another
five organizations presented their aspects about the confrontation of violence against women. In
February the 9th 2010, another meeting was organized by the General Secretariat for Equality and the Minister
of Justice, where the majority of women and feminist organizations in Greece criticized the current situation.
On March the 8th 2010, an Open Day was organized in the Greek Parliament, where policy makers from all the
parties talked and also listened to proposals and suggestions for improvements by the women organizations.
The Report of the Special Permanent Committee for Equality, Youth and Human Rights Issues was presented
and distributed. In this report the State Polices were announced which includes:
• The conduction of surveys from Universities and the Research Centre for Equality Issues which is
under the General Secretariat of Equality
• Raising awareness though mass media campaigns in order to educate young people especially and
inform the general public about violence, its causes and its consequences
• The amendment of the Law for Domestic Violence (Law 3500/2006) in issues like mediation and
victim’s protection measures
• The creation of family courts in order to assure prompt elaboration of all trails
• Financial and ethical compensation for victims of violence
• Imposing severe penalties when divorce alimony is not paid
• Bringing back the Law of 1983, where married women mandatorily keep their family surname and
not take their husband's surname
• Special general provision that cover the field of education, labor relations, women’s position and
roles in this field, in order to mainstream equality
• Special provisions that plan to create a counseling center in each of the 9 prefectures of Greece and
the establishment of shelters near each counseling centre, providing legal support, physiological
help as well as secure places
• Creation of health centers in each shelter
• Elaboration of a SOS telephone line working 24 hours a day, in cooperation with the National
Centre’s for Social Solidarity Three-digit Hotline Service ‘197’.
26

27. Uncertain Future and (un)sustainability of the services provided
The funding of the above planned and announced state policies strategies would be through the National
Strategic Reference Framework NSRF (2007-2013), from European Funds for Cohesion Policy, together with
Greek funds from the Ministry of Economy, Competiveness and Shipping. However, due to the present
political and financial crisis in Greece, the RCWA is being extremely critical and doubtful as to whether the
above policies will be accomplished. Scenarios about the Greek State’s bankruptcy, the financial support and
political interference of the International Monetary Fund and/or by the European Financial Package for
Supporting the Greek Economy, will have a huge impact on the social service sector.
Public expenditure on social services will be diminished, which means that shelters and state supporting
services for victims of violence will not be the first priority of policy makers.
Neither will fund for public awareness campaigns, supporting educational systems with lessons by specially
trained and educated teachers about human right and gender equality. Moreover, establishment of family
court and financing organizations, which help victims’ rehabilitation, will not happen. We will be observing the
processes and actions within that framework, in order to ensure that measures will be taken as promised. If
not, we will be ready to denounce the lack of political will by policy makers in this field.
27

28. Latvia
Ventspils Crisis Centre ‘Pasparne’& Talsi Crisis Centre for Women and Children present the developed of
services for women exposed to violence and the training program for professionals and specialists working
with victims of violence.
Aims of activities in Latvia
Rehabilitation for women suffering violence – is the task of government but business of NGOs.
"Effective violence prevention policy framework is the link of recognition, prevention and rehabilitation.
…Cooperation between policy-making institutions, planning of professional training, and development of
the supportive work environment as well as accessible and qualitative treatment and rehabilitation
programs … are the main challenges for Latvian improve the situation. Specific policies targeted at youth …
are crucial to preventing future violence," had recognized after the state and WHO funded study “Violence
and Health” (Putnina, A. Report on the situation in Latvia, Riga, 2007).
After 1995 a new process began – the formation of social and legal assistance for victims of violence – in
this case, women and children. At the same time NGOs and some local initiatives led to a crisis center
network. The assistance to female victims of violence is provided predominantly from Latvian NGOs.
Government says: the elimination of violence is priority but there is not money.
Kristaps Petermanis, director deputy of the Child and Family Policy Department of the Ministry of Welfare,
comments the government point:
“The elimination of violence against women in Latvia shows up mainly through the
policy of the derogation of domestic violence. It must develop in an integrated kind with
policy of children rights protection. In the period from 2009 to 2011 state institutions
can to carry out activities, which finances are not necessary.”
Inete Ielite, Chairperson of the Women’s NGOs Network of Latvia, comments:
“Efforts of coordinated action of government agencies and NGOs in Latvia since 90’s are
mostly funded by projects developed and submitted by civil society representatives. The
Latvian coordination of EU 2010 Year against Poverty and Social Exclusion foresees to
address the gender based violence amongst priority issues.”
The "blocked" government Program about the ‘diminish domestic violence program’ for 2008 – 2011 had
foreseen „to produce to include teaching about aspects of domestic violence and possible situation
decisions for such groups of specialists: the staff of law enforcement institutions, judges, medical persons,
social workers, teachers, workers of crises centers and NGOs”. If the program could be carried out then at
least 400 social workers and more than 600 various professionals (families support workers, workers of
crises centers, judges, public prosecutors etc.) will get such teaching for state means.
28

29. In this situation NGOs activities have aimed at support and rehabilitation of the victims. Support groups
have proved to be one of the most effective forms. However, this work cannot be systematic without the
involvement of various specialists. The core of the project activity is the development and the approbation
of the training program. The program is interdisciplinary and the first such program in Latvian.
Enterprises in project frames
A) Support group for women suffering violence
Support groups aim at exchange of attitudes toward violence. NGOs organize periodically support and
training groups for women who suffered or are at risk of suffering from violence. Experience shows that the
average length of the group, after which the observable positive changes, often continues 9-24 hours.
Such groups include recognition of violence and change of attitudes towards violence as well as information
about the possibilities of receiving assistance. Groups work both with the traumatic consequences of
violence and restoring a feeling of security, both guilt and shame replacement with a healthy relationship
and an adequate understanding of the division of responsibilities.
This project includes the program (9 hours – 3 meetings by 3 hours) for specific groups of girls and young
women - with no positive family experiences in childhood and who bring up a child in orphanages, foster
care or who are within inter-family-care. The specific choice is based on the belief that childhood
experience about positive relationship is one of the basic conditions of healthy partnerships and that
violence experience creates a risk to re-enter the violent relationship.
A risk group is young women from orphanages and boarding schools. A survey of target groups shows that
girls and young women who come in orphanages, stayed long in boarding schools, have received assistance
from crisis centres have lower social skills, less confidence to trust and to co-operate with social services,
less ability to engage in positive activities. They have lower self-esteem and show more aggression.
Therefore, they are often non-critical in the relationship building and allow violence from partners, if they
believe that the partner cares about them or is able to care. Lack of positive experiences and 'light
moments' in relationship creates the illusion that the violence would stop by itself.
The programs for groups are formed with a feministic approach and lean on equality rights principle. The
programs take in use the so called Duluth Model that calls for responsibility of a violence act from the
abuser and for legal, social and another kind of help and support for the victim. The Duluth model
promotes responsible reaction of the legal system and the public service agencies.
The support program for women includes two specific subprograms. One of them is targeted at young girls
(16 - 18 years old or a bit younger and older) and aims at promoting an understanding of how equal
relations could be formed. The second subprogram is targeted at young women (18 - 28 years old or a bit
younger and older), who have experienced violent partnerships. It aims at changing attitude towards the
gained experiences and at improving the quality of life.
29

30. How to be socially active and to manage life without violence? The group work contributes to promoting
skills to ask and to give support, to confide in and give the possibility to begin the process to prevent or
stop the violence. Therefore the contact created during the group work is maintained after a group work in
order to sustain a stable future network. The developed help programs encourage young women to be
socially active, teach social habits and empowering them to be able to manage their financial and
professional life.
B) Interdisciplinary training program for professionals working with women after violence
The training program is the first of this kind in Latvia and aims at strengthening the service providers’
network and building their competences. Furthermore, the program intends to increase the
professionalism of the crises centres, social service and other help institutions. In Latvia joint and licensed
programs have not existed before this. Competence and capacity building has been until now. Professionals
and specialist have had to take initiatives on their own if this should take place.
The project partners - Ventspils Centre ‘Pasparne’ and Talsi Crises Centre have developed, carried out and
licensed the first training program (40 lessons) in Latvia for specialists, who work with female victims of
violence. The program enables specialists the knowledge and skills to provide both high-quality preventive
caring and rehabilitation of victims of violence. Interdisciplinary and inter institutional teams are important
too. However, the first step in training specialists is to inform about international declarations viewing
violence against women as a human rights abuse.
Equality of rights is not a matter of gender neutrality.The theoretical and philosophical foundation of the
program is based on a feminist approach, leaning on equality of rights, but not on gender mainstreaming.
Firstly, violence is an extreme and an impermissible form of displaying power and control. Secondly,
responsibility for violence must be placed on the abuser, not on the victim. Thirdly, the fight for
interrupting violence is the institutions’ business, not the victims’. Proper legislation should sustain this.
Teaching/training program is formed on two levels and in nine modules; contact and support – and
rehabilitation. The contact and support level involves not only social workers, psychologists,
psychotherapists and other professionals, whose direct duties are to ensure a secure environment for
women and to provide high-quality services. The rehabilitation level involves professionals with complete
social or psychological education, including the capability to rehabilitate and reintegrate women who have
suffered violence.
Moreover, the programs aims at enabling the professionals to discover and diminish threats of violence, to
promote for women in risk groups a consciousness that makes them able to identify violent situations, to
manage them and to protect themselves along with the children involved. However, not every professional
need to take part in all the processes. A base level is to achieve a basic understanding and to establish skills
important for their position in relation to women suffering violence.
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31. The followings phases are recognized in the contact and support process:
1) To be open and to acknowledge violence
2) To motivate victims to receive help and to collaborate with specialists
3) To break the violence and to form a secure environment
4) Rehabilitation of victims to diminish traumatic symptoms
5) Ability to avoid insecure situations and to retain a sense of security when such situations arise, as
well as the ability to re-establish one’s security when compromised.
6) Support for women suffering/suffered violence after rehabilitation
As the different specialists can carry out various duties in relation to women suffering violence, their
contact with the victims can continue in different supporting and helping phases. For example, every
specialist must engage in the first and second phases, but the victim's motivation could mean that the
social worker undertake the case management for the investigator. The victim's position calls for
understanding and the skill to specify the necessary help.
The multidisciplinary team is the most effective tool to support women who have been exposed to
violence.
There are nine modules included in this program and includes the following issues and themes:
7) Violence as an offense of human rights. Violence as a social, psychological and legal phenomenon,
identifying causes and risks.
8) The understanding of the process and forms of violence. Violence as a process (the pattern of
violence). Power and control versus equal and respectful relationships.
9) Traumatic consequences after suffering violence, including “normalizing the perception of
violence”, changes of the social and emotional functioning, post traumatic stress syndrome and
adaptation disorders, helplessness and aggression as the victim’s reaction.
10) Contact with the victim. Crisis estimation and providing adequate support. Victim’s motivation for
stopping the violence, receiving help and safety.
11) Psychological aspects and methods of interviews, interrogations and intervention, including the
specialists’ competence and ethics.
12) Rehabilitation process from the point of view of various specialists (the social worker, psychologist,
lawyer, physician). Mastering of social skills, forming of support networks and improvement of
social functioning. The estimation of violence reiteration risk and the forming of a safe
environment.
13) The forming of interdisciplinary teams as a resource for providing rehabilitation efficiency.
14) The collaboration of interdisciplinary work to form a safe environment and social support based on
networking.
15) The increase and maintenance of the professional level of specialists, including the continuous
competence building, supervisions and prevention of burn down risk.
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32. The mastering of the modules differs only at the levels important for each professional. They contain
understanding of the process and basic skills for working with woman suffering from violence. However, it
acquaints every specialist with the work specific to other specialists. It allows understanding actions,
possibilities and the limitations of each other, and also forms a collaboration and incorporated position for
support, help and the overall rehabilitation process.
The first 20 professionals with increased capacity to support victims of violence have taken part in the
program. The group of specialists who took place in the program was multidisciplinary; social workers,
psychologists, social teachers, police, investigators, public prosecutors, doctors and teachers. The
participants presented both the national and municipal levels and the NGOs. Workers of social services and
crises centers were also included.
After two months of training, lectures, individual work and exams, seven specialists received certificates
stating the right to discharge rehabilitation, and 12 specialists, for the right to provide support to women
suffering violence.
Benefits were expressed by the professionals participating in the program. Professionals acknowledged
their change of attitude to violence. Moreover, they recognized professional growth and better skills for
cooperation within a multidisciplinary team. As the participants admitted, the training will affect the
professional collaboration in the inter institutional cooperation when providing support and assistance to
victims of violence, due to a better understanding of the competence and possibilities of other specialists.
The inclusion of the psychological and legal aspect of rehabilitation is important for social workers in the
same way as the social aspects for psychologists and lawyers. “Violence cannot to be stopped without the
comprehensive team work,” a social worker said.
“I am convinced that violence can be stopped when the professionals and the women suffering violence
begin to cooperate.” “I have gained confidence that state institutions are able to put a stop to the violence,
but specialists must use the laws with knowledge and be active in the interest of the victim.” “This is a long
and difficult job with the customer.” “It is difficult to protect the victims after the violence has occurred.”
These are some of the statements expressed after the training.
The most important benefit was acknowledged towards having achieved both new knowledge for everyone
and new ways to cooperate for the benefit of the clients. This was expressed as follows: “I am convinced.”
“I can be more effective.” “Our services will be better.”
The anticipated future effects of the project on the government's potential to
diminish violence against woman
To be socially active is a must when preventing being exposed to violence. Support groups for young
women showed that not only stopping the violence is important, but also being able to start a socially
active life; as well as to develop self-esteem and to achieve a higher level of security.
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33. This positive oriented program is usable for different women NGOs who work in the field of gender equality
improving the quality of life for women. We hope to be able to disseminate this program for other
interested activists.
The next step is to improve the services for women exposed to violence. The first trained group of
specialists has started to use their new knowledge and skills, and it is important to continue the process.
We, the Talsi Crises Centre and the Ventspils Crises Centre “Pasparne” can present this training program for
specialists who work with women suffering from violence to the authorities and politicians, who are able to
make decisions for comprehensive staff training. A top level conference for representatives from
government, municipalities and NGOs must be called for.
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34. Lithuania
"Women's Issues Information Centre, the managing partner of the "X generation till non violent relations"
project, presents two successful best practices of services for vulnerable groups of women in Lithuania.
The first example
Since 2004, the Women's Issues Information Centre has provided free legal advice to women on labor,
family law and domestic violence issues. Many women who seek advice had experienced gender based
violence. These clients need special attention; furthermore, their cases as a rule are complicated, often
requiring complex and multiple consultations in family law issues. It is important to know that advising
these women requires several special skills: how to help them relate their life story, how to communicate,
how to help them decide themselves on further steps in their lives, how not to accept clients' problems as
your own.
The idea that young law students can provide a much needed free legal advice to women is taken from the
Oslo Legal Advice for Women, JURK (Norway). This organization which provides free legal advice to women
for many years and raised a number of prominent Norwegian lawyers, suggested the idea to convey their
experience of Women's Issues Information Centre and the successful model of adaptation in Lithuania.
Sharing good practice was fully justified and we can reasonably assert that provision of legal advice free of
charge for women Lithuania is already good practice. Good experience with this service can call the
following reasons:
1) Clients' experiences show that free primary legal aid guaranteed by the State is not always prompt nor of
good quality. Furthermore, procedural documents are not prepared during primary legal aid, and
secondary legal aid is granted only in rare cases. The Women's Issues Information Centre provides support
for women who in general are socially, emotionally and financially vulnerable and are unaware of their
rights. They can visit the consultation, and if they live in other cities, relevant questions are submitted by
post, e-mail or telephone. Consultants call the clients on an agreed time in advance, so women do not even
pay for telephone calls. Women who are victims of violence are also provided with information where they
can receive social, psychological assistance and short-term or long-term shelter, or where they can apply
for funds for their children. It is important that women are not only advised but procedural documents are
prepared if and when needed. Each consultant has their own identification number and for each client and
each consultation they assign the appropriate code which guarantees client anonymity. During the
consultation the client’s card is filled in with the client’s appropriate personal data as well as a description
of the problem for which the advice was given and the documents needed to be prepared. All data are
stored, and can be used only by the specific consultant and if needed, accessible to the person coordinating
the work of consultants. Moreover, the consultants fill in the electronic register of consultations, indicating
the date of the consultation, whether it is on family law or labor law, as well as when and in what form the
reply was provided.
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35. 2) Law students, while providing legal aid for clients gain practical knowledge on how to interpret and apply
the rule of law, get familiar with various legal problems and become sensitized on gender issues. Practical
skills of future lawyers are in great demand, because law studies at the Lithuanian universities are limited
to the various legal theories, but no practical skills. Students and law consultants get to know the issues of
violence against women, trafficking in women, and this knowledge helps to shape their views as lawyers, to
the existing problems in society. They also gain knowledge or extend their experience of voluntary work.
Former consultants train and assist the newly selected consultants. Previously, only young female students
provided legal consultations, but from autumn 2009, one young male student who is aware of the issue of
gender equality is also involved as a consultant. Clients are satisfied with his consultations, despite our
early misgivings that they might not wish to be advised by a man. The consultants initiate the dissemination
of information on the consultations and are actively involved in various social campaigns. Information on
the consultations are made public, but the most effective dissemination is by word of mouth. If consultants
have more complex or exceptional cases, they receive practical training and consultations are provided by
experienced lawyers, attorneys, bailiffs and so on.
Some statistics:
In 2004, 101 consultations to women were given.
In 2006, 100 consultations were given and 33 women of these
were victims of violence.
In 2008, 114 consultations were given and 32 of these women
were victims of violence.
In 2009, 143 consultations were given, and 20 of these were
for victims of violence.
We think that free legal advice to women, as well as printed brochures containing basic legal information
on family law and labor law are a very effective and targeted assistance for women. Consultations are
conducted on the principle of volunteering and the Women's Issues Information Centre provides free
space, covers phone costs, advertising in media and public space. Thus, a targeted and successfully
operating organization should not face financial problems to provide free legal advice to women.
Saule's story (23 years old)
Saule got married over a year ago, the main reason for marriage was that she became pregnant. Several
months after the marriage they lived the most beautiful life, and both were happy. However, due to the
economic recession and financial crisis in Lithuania, the husband lost his job. After that he began to misuse
alcohol, completely neglected the child and his excuses for such behavior was that he has a difficult time
and he needs support himself. Saule soon realized that he did not make any attempts to look for a new job.
The situation became unbearable when he started to show his aggression and for the first time slapped his
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36. wife. In order to preserve the family she did not call the police. Bodily injury, although slight, as the heart
wounds heal over time. However, the aggression, violent behavior and misuse of alcohol became
unbearable. The woman decided to divorce, despite her husband's claims that he won’t accept divorce.
Saule approached the Women's Issues Information Centre in December 2009. Her older brother informed
her about the organization, because his girlfriend has been provided by a qualified legal advice at the
Women's Issues Information Centre. Saule needed number of consultations. During the first consultation,
she was given information about the different possibilities to be divorced, separation option, and costs of
the proceedings at Court and different deadlines of the proceedings. During the second consultation she
received consultation on alimony for her child and information about the Children's Maintenance/Alimony
Fund, about possibilities to receive alimony in case the father is unemployed. The woman was given
information about the parents' responsibility to provide financial support for their children and its
implementation, the alimony’s limits, etc. During the third consultation, Saule asked whether the divorce
trial can take place when one of the spouses is absent, as her husband was going to work abroad. Then the
necessary procedural documents for the divorce and the consent of both spouses were prepared.
Saule presented procedural documents to the court in February 2010 and after one month the marriage was
terminated by mutual consent between the spouses. Both parties were satisfied with Court's decision as
both spouses agreed to the divorce, and the amount of child maintenance.
Today Saule is quietly developing her child’s well-being as well as her's. She is satisfied that the ex-spouse
after the divorce has changed and wants to communicate with their child. The sad news is that after
returning from maternity leave, she was fired as an employer went bankrupt. Despite these troubles she is
optimistic about a bright future for her child and a future without violent relationships for herself. She also
hopes that everything will turn out well for her ex-spouse, who promised to go to work abroad but stayed,
trying to find a job in Lithuania.
The second example
The municipal institution - Vilnius Mother and Child Pension provides temporary lodging (three days) and
short-term social care (up to six months or more) services for residents of Vilnius. At the Mother and Child
Pension women experiencing domestic violence may stay from several days to half a year, and if necessary,
live until their situation stabilizes. In the Pension not only women suffering from violence are expected, but
also orphans from the orphanages who do not know how to start their own lives, former prisoners, and
victims of trafficking also receive help here.
Vilnius Mother and Child Pension has provided specialized services for girls in foster homes since 2000. This
is a separate target group with special needs and specific problems. Foster homes do not provide love,
warmth and do not teach how to live independently.
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