(POW-R) Protection of women’s rights: Empowering survivors of domestic violence (2021-2022)
The project combats discrimination, stigma and supports social justice and the inclusion of vulnerable women and children, strengthening active citizenship and empowering this vulnerable group.
The project focuses on empowering victims of domestic violence and assisting with their recovery, resilience and growth in the aftermath of the abuse. The effect of domestic violence on women will be addressed by conducting a therapy based programme (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) approach) for survivors, which will offer ‘increased support for human rights and social inclusion’.
There are many ways in which domestic violence and human rights violations are connected. Violence against women is a violation of women’s fundamental human rights, particularly the right to life, not to be tortured or treated in an inhuman and degrading way and the right to physical and psychological integrity. Often (wrongly) treated as a private matter, the human rights framework provides a tool to challenge this and reframe the issue as a collective problem that society must address as a whole.
Once domestic violence takes over, an individual can no longer exercise their human rights, the most basic of which are often prevented by the abuser (commonly by physical, sexual or psychological harm, with the most extreme cases including deprivation of liberty). The project will ensure that survivors overcome the damaging effects left behind from the abuse and the breach of their fundamental human rights.
Informal education will be taught in groups to survivors of domestic violence. Triple R is a therapy based programme, currently carried out in the United Kingdom by an independent charity called Safer Places. Safer Places provides a range of services to women and children living in England, who are affected by all forms of domestic abuse. By commencing this project, we would be bringing this inspirational initiative and its benefits to Malta.
The therapy programme has three aims:
- To enable victim/survivors to Recognise the abuse and its impacts on them and their children.
- To enable them to Recover from the abuse and support their children to do so.
- To develop Resilience by building on the strengths of the victim/survivors and addressing challenges in order to build a better sustainable safe future for themselves and their families.