Emakunde participates in an international program on minimum standards for care for women victims of violence
Emakunde is participating with several UN agencies, including the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and UN Women, in an international programme (Joint global programme on essential services for women and girls subject to violence) that aims to reach a global consensus on what the minimum standards for care of women victims of violence should be. This programme was presented in Bilbao on 27 October 2016 in the presence of the President of the Basque Country, Iñigo Urkullu.
The aim of the international programme in which Emakunde is participating at the request of the UN, is to reach a consensus that can be ratified by the UN General Assembly in the future, on the minimum standards necessary to provide a coordinated and quality response to the needs of women and girls who suffer violence. This programme covers the areas of police, justice, health, social services and coordination systems and mechanisms.
Essential Services Package for Women and Girls Subject to Violence
The program is currently in a second phase that aims to test these standards (until December 2019) and then present them to the UN General Assembly for approval. That is, the aim is to achieve an international agreement at the highest level that commits states to implement these standards.
Disabled women and girls who are victims of gender-based violence
Emakunde has been concerned about how to respond to the needs of disabled women since the organization was first created. The various equality plans that have guided Basque public policy over recent years have compiled objectives and actions that support access to resources, statistical improvements, and the eradication of poverty and the full exercise of social rights.
In this context, in 2015 Emakunde launched a process of reflection as part of the work carried out by the Technical Group of the “Second institutional agreement for improving the care of female victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence”. The outcome was the document titled “Intervention recommendations for women with functional diversity who are victims of violence”. Published in 2017, this document aims to facilitate continued progress in establishing guidelines for professionals who work with disabled women and girls who are victims of violence and to improve the care that these people receive, by means of empowerment and independence.
A new guide was launched in 2019 as a result of the collaboration between Emakunde and Edeka, an organization with access to experts in this field. The aims of this new guide is to improve the knowledge held by professionals who care for these victims, to raise awareness of women with various types of disability and to improve the care they receive.