INFORMATION
The
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) defines sexual and
gender-based violence as “the type of violence directed against a person
for reasons having to do with a person’s gender or sex” (UNHCR, 2003, p.
10). This includes domestic violence, rape, sexual abuse and sexual harassment,
bullying at school and in the workplace, human trafficking and forced
prostitution. Women, men, boys and girls can be equally affected; statistically
and in terms of the variety of forms of violence to which they are subjected,
women and girls are the group most affected by sexual or gender-based violence.
In
1993, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the “Declaration on the
Elimination of Violence against Women”, which defined the concept of
“violence against women”.
According
to the United Nations Declaration, “violence against women” means
“any form of gender-based violence that results in actual or potential
mental, sexual or psychological harm, including threats, coercion or arbitrary
restrictions of freedom, whether occurring in public or in private”.
The
statement highlights groups of women who are more vulnerable to violence,
namely minority women, refugee or migrant women, women living in rural or
remote communities, poor women, women in institutions or in detention, women
with disabilities, older women or women in situations of armed conflict.
Under
the Istanbul Convention, states are called upon to take action to prevent
violence against women by eradicating prejudices, customs, traditions and other
practices which are based on the idea of women’s inferiority or on stereotyped
roles for women and men respectively:
· Raise
awareness of violence against women.
· Education
on gender equality, non-stereotyped gender roles, mutual respect, non-violent
conflict resolution in interpersonal relationships, gender-based violence
against women and the right to personal integrity, adapted to the evolving
capacity of students, in the formal curriculum and at all levels of education.
· Training
of professionals dealing with victims or perpetrators of all acts of violence
against women.
· Preventive
intervention and treatment programs aimed at teaching perpetrators of domestic
violence to adopt non-violent behavior in interpersonal relationships in order
to prevent further violence and change violent behavior patterns.
· Involvement
of the private sector and the media in the development and implementation of
policies and in the setting of guidelines and self-regulatory standards to
prevent violence against women and increase respect for their dignity.
In
Romania, the prevention of gender-based violence is mainly the responsibility
of the following institutions: the General Inspectorate for Immigration, the
General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police, the general directorates for
social assistance and child protection, the public social assistance services,
the probation services, the National Agency against Trafficking in Human
Beings, the Ministry of Labor and Social Justice, the Ministry of the Interior,
the Ministry of National Education and the Ministry of Health at central level
also have direct responsibilities for the prevention of gender-based violence.
The
General Inspectorate for Immigration is obliged to implement information
activities aimed at preventing gender-based violence. According to the
Regulation on the internal order of the regional centers for procedures and
accommodation of asylum seekers of 25.08.2016 published in the Official Gazette
of Romania on 02.09.2016, article 60, the employees of the centers inform the
persons accommodated in the centers about what sexual or gender-based violence
is, as well as about the consequences of occurrence of such acts. The
regulation also makes it compulsory to inform asylum seekers accommodated in
the Regional Centers for Procedures and Accommodation (CRCPSA) of the
prohibition to commit acts of violence against other foreigners accommodated
there, as well as against any other persons.
Another
institution is the General Directorate for Social Assistance and Child
Protection (DGASPC) which has the following responsibilities in the field of
preventing and combating domestic violence, according to “Decision No.
797/2017 of 8 November 2017 approving the framework regulations for the organization
and functioning of public social assistance services and the indicative staff
structure”:
· provides
the necessary measures for the implementation of activities to prevent and
combat domestic violence and for the provision of services for victims of domestic
violence and domestic abusers;
· monitors
the measures necessary for the implementation of activities to prevent and
combat domestic violence and for the provision of services for victims of
domestic violence and domestic abusers;
· develops
partnerships and collaborates with non-governmental organizations and other
representatives of civil society in order to provide and diversify services to
prevent and combat domestic violence;
· to
provide a basis for and propose to the county council and the local council of
the Bucharest municipal district respectively the establishment, financing and
co-financing of public institutions providing services aimed at preventing and
combating domestic violence;
· support
and develop an information and counselling system accessible to victims of
domestic violence in order to exercise all the rights provided for by the laws
in force;
· monitors
cases of domestic violence in the administrative-territorial unit in which it
operates;
· identifies
situations of risk for the parties involved in domestic violence situations and
refers the parties to specialized services/mediation;
· it
compiles at county level, respectively at the level of the districts of
Bucharest, the database on cases of domestic violence and reports these data
quarterly to the National Agency for Equal Opportunities between Women and Men.
For some types of
gender-based violence the roles in terms of identification, assistance and
protection are very clearly defined. In others, however, identification depends
on the level of preparedness and proactivity of institutions and professionals
who understand the impact of gender-based violence on individuals and respect
for their rights.
According to Romanian
legislation, the identification of migrant victims of violence in regional
accommodation centers and procedures for asylum seekers is mainly the
responsibility of the General Inspectorate for Immigration, the General
Inspectorate of the Romanian Police, the National Agency against Trafficking in
Human Beings, the National Agency for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men,
and health institutions, general directorates for social assistance and child
protection, local public authorities through public social assistance services
and community medical assistants, schools, social assistants from other public
and private structures, regional integration centers, any natural or legal
person working/interacting with children or employees of public or private
institutions, adult or minor victims themselves.
