MINSK, 27 March (BelTA) – A clear-cut system to respond to troubled families has been built in Belarus. Belarusian Deputy Interior Minister Nikolai Melchenko made the statement during the international seminar held to discuss the Istanbul Convention as an instrument to develop measures to prevent violence against women at the national level, BelTA has learned.
According to the Belarusian Deputy Interior Minister, putting efforts into safety in families is a priority direction of the state policy. A smoothly operating system has been built in Belarus in the last few years to respond to cases of family troubles, illegal actions against family members and to help people in distress. The work has produced results: the number of people killed by family members due to family conflicts has dropped nationwide since 2014.
Nikolai Melchenko remarked that thanks to national legislation improvements Belarusian law enforcement agencies can now use new effective approaches for the sake of producing better results and improving the quality of preventive efforts. Support from international partners provided an additional impulse to these efforts, said the Deputy Interior Minister.
Yet the official admitted that Belarusian laws contain a number of problems that need to be addressed. “We have accumulated a lot of constructive proposals, ideas for the comprehensive response of all the government agencies and public associations to violence in families, further development of assistance for victims of family aggressors and preventive measures against lawbreakers,” said Nikolai Melchenko. “The work should be continued by correcting the national legislation, implementing high standards of the Istanbul Conference, which are viewed as the reference model in this work.”
In his words, a core of professionals, who can effectively develop legislation and law enforcement efforts, has evolved in Belarus.
Larisa Belskaya, Head of the Central Office for Multilateral Diplomacy of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, noted that violence against women is a serious problem in many countries across the globe. “Social and economic troubles, negative consequences for the health and welfare of women and children have been documented by the international community. Every country has its own experience of implementing concrete measures to counteract family violence,” she stressed. “The seminar is supposed to compare national practices with practices of European partners and to sketch out ways for moving forward.”
Larisa Belskaya said she is confident that the seminar would give an impulse to future cooperation of national and foreign partners.
The international seminar has been arranged by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Belarus, the Belarusian Interior Ministry, and the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The event was arranged as part of the international technical aid project meant to bolster the national potential for counteracting gender violence with a focus on violence in families in the Republic of Belarus. Members of the parliament, representatives of central government agencies, who are involved in the development and implementation of the national policy on preventing violence against women and violence in families, took part in the seminar. Representatives of UN agencies and other international organizations, public associations, academic circles, the diplomatic corps, and mass media also took part in the seminar. Participants of the seminar were made familiar with the main clauses and tasks of the Council of Europe's Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence. The experience of other countries, which had acceded to the international document, was also part of the agenda.
The Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (aka the Istanbul Convention) came into force on 1 August 2014. The convention recognizes violence against women as a violation of human rights and a form of discrimination. Besides, the convention is meant to encourage intolerance towards violence and introduces criminal prosecution for coercive actions.
The international technical aid project meant to bolster the national potential for counteracting gender violence with a focus on violence in families in the Republic of Belarus is being implemented by the UNFPA and the Belarusian Interior Ministry with financial assistance of the UK government and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). The project began in 2016 to end in 2018. The project is designed to secure stability in enhancing the national potential for counteracting gender violence and preventing its manifestations, particularly against women.
