Major European campaign to stop violence against women in the home

At a recent conference in Madrid, Spain, the Council of Europe launched a major European-wide campaign aimed at stopping domestic violence.

“Domestic violence must be criminalised, victims protected, and perpetrators punished across Europe. Violence against women in the home is a major human rights abuse”, said a spokesperson from the 46 member Council of Europe.

The campaign will run until 2008 and was devised when the Council’s 2005 Warsaw summit demanded immediate action in the face of widespread violence to women in Europe. It will work through governments, parliaments and regional and local authorities, creating partnerships with leading NGOs to ensure wide-ranging action. The Campaign aims to make the public aware of the extent of violence towards women and aims to encourage new laws and practices to stop violence.

"Women suffering from domestic violence are not only victims of abuse, they are also victims of silence, victims of indifference and victims of neglect," Council of Europe Secretary General, Terry Davis, said.

"The slogan of the Campaign is 'Stop Domestic Violence,'" he said. "This is the message to governments, who must meet their political, legislative and administrative obligations to prevent domestic violence, help the victims and punish the perpetrators.

Figures gathered by the Council show that violence happens in every European country. Although statistics are difficult to compare from country to country because of the different research methods, studies for individual countries show that:
- Across countries one-fifth to one quarter of all women have experienced physical violence at least once during their lives, and more than one-tenth have suffered sexual violence.
- Figures for all forms of violence, including stalking, are as high as 45%.
- Most violent acts against women are carried out by men in the immediate social environment, most often partners and ex-partners.
- It is estimated that about 12% to 15% of all women have been in a relationship of domestic abuse after the age of 16.
- The cost to society of domestic violence is enormous. Studies in individual countries have ranged from 2.4 billion euros per year in Spain, to 34 billion euros in the UK.

On the launch of this campaign, Amnesty International called upon the Council of Europe and its member states to ensure that the campaign does achieve its objectives. Amnesty International spokespeople said that many government officials and members of the public do not recognise domestic violence as a human rights violation, or as a gender-based crime, and the social acceptance and tolerance of violence towards women needed to be urgently addressed.

Amnesty International also called on the Council of Europe to ensure that a European methodology for the systematic collection of statistical data on domestic violence disaggregated by sex, type of violence and perpetrator, as well as by the relationship of the perpetrator to the victim is elaborated and made available for implementation to the Council of Europe member states by the end of the campaign, March 2008.

Further information on the campaign is available at www.coe.int/stopviolence