Using the Icelandic Police’s paradigm to build a Greek multi-Agency substantial partnership, in order to strengthen the support and protection of women and children victims of domestic violence, in line with the standards of the Istanbul Convention
Funding: Active citizens fund – EEA grants
Coordinator: European Anti-Violence Network
Partners: a) National Police Commissioner of Iceland, b) The Smile of the Child
The daily practice of supporting women survivors of domestic violence (DV) & their children in Greece, presents lack of coordination & networking of competent bodies, lack of a common protocol for handling the incidents, deficiencies in professionals’ training etc. For combating DV many systems are involved, which act sequentially, without interconnection & activated only after survivors’ specific actions. This systems’ chain activation negatively affects the response time & quality of the protection/support survivors receive; also leads to great under-reporting of DV because survivors are reluctant to resort to Authorities; but even when they do resort, protection is not guaranteed because if the process fails at a critical or early point of the chain, the entire protection scheme collapses.
The project’s objective is to build a multi-agency substantial partnership between police, justice & support services with the aim to strengthen the support & protection of women & children suffering DV in Greece, in accordance with the standards of the Istanbul Convention & through building on good practices, tools, experience & know-how of the Icelandic Police & other competent authorities & NGOs of Iceland.
Activities
- Identify factors that impede effective support & protection of DV survivors in Greece
- Establishment of an interdisciplinary/intersectoral Greek DV Task Force with representatives of police, justice & support services
- Exchange good practices between Iceland & Greece
- Development, pilot testing & evaluation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) in the involved agencies
- Capacity building of professionals
- Advocacy
Beneficiaries are the women survivors of DV & their children & target groups are the organizations & staff of police, justice & support services.
Competent authorities participate as stakeholders as well as external experts.
The project “Using the Icelandic Police’s paradigm to build a Greek multi-Agency substantial partnership, in order to strengthen the support and protection of women and children victims of domestic violence, in line with the standards of the Istanbul Convention” is being implemented in the framework of the programme Active citizens fund with EAVN being the implementing organization and the National Police Comissioner of Iceland and The Smile of the Child being the partner organizations.
The Active citizens fund in Greece is supported through a € 12m grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway as part of the EEA Grants 2014 – 2021. The program aims to develop the sustainability and capacity of the civil society sector in Greece, and to strengthen its role in promoting and safeguarding democratic procedures, active citizenship and human rights. The Fund Operator for the Active citizens fund in Greece is Bodossaki Foundation in consortium with SolidarityNow. For more information: www.activecitizensfund.gr.