Start at Global campaign ‘16 Days of Activism Against Violence Against Women’ falls annually on 25. November - International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. This year, NGOs, initiatives and individuals are also participating in the campaign in Slovakia. Including ADRA Slovakia and our KIT (Crisis Intervention Team).
In the last two years, violence in our country has been thirteen women murdered. All were murdered by their husbands or partners. Most of them died because they wanted to leave or divorce from a relationship in which they were experiencing violence. Children also witnessed the murders.
As the Fenestra organisation in Košice, which organises the ‘16 Days of Activism Against Violence Against Women’ campaign in the Slovak Republic, points out, “Femicide is the most serious consequence of violence against women. They are a memento of the failure of the entire society in protecting women and their children from violence and respecting women's rights. All women have the right to life, and they also have the right to freedom and self-determination. These rights are inviolable.”
The lawyer, Daniela Borzová, in a statement by KIT on the campaign, says: „Each of us has the right to live in dignity, free from violence and without being constrained by the action of another subject in a violent way. Each of us has the right to choose (and thus free to decide) how to deal with his life. And no one may prevent him from doing so.“
The right to life is a fundamental human right. But it is not only the right to life that is associated with the victim's experience of violence. However, the KIT experts point out the reality when „victims must literally assert your rights the very institutions that are supposed to guarantee their implementation in practice. Suspicions of reported violence are often minimised and downplayed, and even victims are discouraged from reporting, few listen and try to understand...myths and prejudices appear in the final assessments of victims' actions and behaviour, all of which can lead decision-makers and the helping professions to misjudge the facts experienced by the victim and thus to mischaracterise the violence (whether in a criminal or civil law context).“
All these topics will be addressed at the event ‘Saturday with ADRAU‘ in Bratislava, where the activities of our Crisis Intervention Team (KIT) and sub-topic will be presented to the attendees on 8 December: relationships and violence.
Fenestra representatives say that “We need good prevention programmes in schools to prevent violence against women, but we also need accessible and quality help and support, based on the needs of women and their children.” This is exactly what our KIT is trying to do in Western Slovakia, in the form of Crisis Intervention; Social Rehabilitation and Adaptation; Advocacy; and Prevention.
Our three experts from KIT lead the general Slovak public through education and media outputs to not tolerate violence and to spoke out about violence. This includes all forms of violence - not only against women, but also against children and male victims - consisting of psychological, physical, economic, social or sexual violence. For these can not only have fatal consequences (as the culmination of the violent behaviour of the perpetrator towards the victim), but also have a subsequent profound traumatic impact on the victim's very life and social functioning. This is why a few months ago we launched ‘Living with Dignity’ campaign’, to provide victims of domestic and sexual violence with a new life of dignity. With your help.
Violence against women and women's human rights are spoken about loudly and widely in the international community. But it is not always the voices of abused women themselves are heard. However, listening to their experience of violence is very important. That's why this year's global campaign ‘16 Days of Activism Against Violence Against Women’ and UN Women's ‘Orange the world’ campaign this year Subtitle: #HearMeToo (‘Hear me too’ / ‘Hear my voice’).
At the end of KIT's statement on the ’16 Days of Activism‘, the lawyer, Daniela Borzová, urges: „Let's learn the victim is first questioned and understand its experience. Only then will we be able to make the right decision and legal assessment of the perpetrator's actions, thereby truly helping the victim and not exposing them to secondary victimisation. Only by listening to the victim and understanding her actions will we truly know what she has been through and therefore be able to help her so that she can live her life with dignity.“
Learn more about the global Orange the World campaign here.
More information about the Slovak 16 Days of Activism campaign on Fenestra's website here.
More about KIT's activities and the Decent Life Campaign here.
More about ADRA KIT's presence at the Saturday with ADRA event here.
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