Violence Against Women (1998-2006)

Focus Areas

Through international trainings and campaign projects, the Network Women's Program (NWP) supports the development of sustainable women's NGOs that respond to the multi-faceted problem of violence against women, one of the key social mechanisms for maintaining women's inequality.

16 Days Campaigns Against Gender Violence

This small grants program supports NGOs in the Soros foundations network to organize national public awareness campaigns on violence against women in conjunction with the global "16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence" campaign. Initiated by the Rutgers Center for Women’s Global Leadership, this campaign takes place from November 25 to December 10 every year. Find out more about the 16 Days Campaigns.

Coordinated Community Response to Violence Against Women (Duluth Program)

The NWP introduced this innovative community-coordinated strategy, originally developed in Duluth, Minnesota, to countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The strategy is based on the understanding that all parts of the community must coordinate their efforts to protect domestic violence victims from further abuse and to hold perpetrators accountable for their criminal actions.

A 2002 report based on analyses of NWP programs in nine countries demonstrated significant progress in multi-sectoral approaches to violence against women, but noted the need for ongoing work. Subregional meetings in Central Asia, the Caucuses, and South Eastern Europe in 2003 demonstrated both the need and demand for ongoing support of this program to secure legislative change, raise community awareness, improve police training, train medical personnel, impact the court system, and further empower NGOs as advocates and coordinators of effective systems to protect women from violence.

Stop-VAW Website

The Stop Violence Against Women (Stop-VAW) website (www.stopvaw.org) was developed by Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights as a tool for the promotion of women's human rights in Central and Eastern Europe and countries in the former Soviet Union. The site was developed with support from and in consultation with the NWP as well as the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

Stop-VAW considers violence against women to be one of the most pervasive human rights abuses worldwide. The Stop-VAW site provides women's rights advocates with information focused on ending the most endemic forms of violence against women in the region, including: domestic violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment, and trafficking in women.