During the past four weeks we examined the theme of changing male behaviour as a strategy for ending violence against women. Working Group members shared many ideas, cases, and lessons learned on a range of topics, including the effectiveness of counselling programmes for batterers, research on the costs of violence against women, multi-agency approaches to combat violence, coalitions between men and women, and training programmes for male police officers. Later this week we will post a summary of this discussion.
During the next few weeks we would like to focus on the PREVENTION OF SEXUAL ASSAULT. Recent studies indicate that more than half of women, worldwide, are sexually assaulted at some point in their life. Some studies in the United States indicate that one in every four girls will be sexually assaulted by age 18. Discussions of assault usually focus on protection -- improving treatment of women by legal systems, healthcare systems, etc. These areas are generally the responsibility of governments. In contrast, we would like to focus on PREVENTION -- ensuring safe environments for women. This is an area where communities and NGOs can have a major impact. Many factors contribute to making women feel unsafe. Aside from cultural factors, environmental factors such as lack of street lighting, policing, and public transportation, create unsafe streets for women. But some communities are taking a stand against violence. In India, for example, some communities are experimenting with "zero violence zones," (ZVZ) in which communities take responsibility for gender based violence and work with police and local governments to prevent sexual assault. The ZVZ project sets up neighborhood support committees, drawn from community leaders, NGOs, and community members, including representatives of local youth and elders, women and men. The project takes a holistic approach: * raising women's awareness of their rights * raising everyone's awareness that violence against women in unacceptable * setting up centres that provide counselling and services for victims, as well as counselling for perpetrators * intervening, with police support, in cases of violence to provide medical and legal assistance, and follow-up in courts * training for the neighborhood committees, and for police, teachers, and medical and legal professionals * Advocacy at state and national levels * Data collection Evidence thus far indicates that the ZVZ pilots have been highly successful: gaining acceptance of the neighborhood committees by police, providing counselling to families in which violence has taken place (including to victims and perpetrators), improving women's knowledge of their rights, increasing interventions when violence occurs and support for victims by community members -- including community leaders and elders -- and achieving a reduction in violence against women. KEY QUESTIONS 1. Do you know of concrete efforts in your community or country to create a safe environment for women? How successful have they been? 2. How do we create communities where everyone feels responsible for ensuring that women are never assaulted and can feel secure? 3. How do we create a generation of boys and young men who respect women's rights and help to ensure safe environments for women? 4. How can girls and young women be made aware of their rights, and assured the community will support those rights? 5. In creating safe environments, what is the role of the community generally? How about community leaders, including religious leaders? Community watchdog groups? Local police? Local governments? Other local stakeholders? Our deep thanks to all Working Group members who have providing your input thus far. We look forward to hearing from all Working Group members regarding your own experience, and what works, what doesn't, and why. Warm regards, End-Violence Moderators ***End-violence is sponsored by UNIFEM and receives generous support from ICAP*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe end-violence OR type: unsubscribe end-violence Archives of previous End-violence messages can be found at: http://www.edc.org/GLG/end-violence/hypermail/
