Towards an integrated model of care of intrafamily violence : broadening and consolidating interventions coordinated by the State and Civil Society

Abstract

In the last few years in Central America, a series of efforts have contributed to ensure that all seven countries recognize intrafamily violence as a public health concern deserving immediate attention. As a result, countries have put into place legislation and committed human and financial resources designed to facilitate the operation and consolidation of a model of integral care to respond to intrafamily violence... Violence against women has increasingly been recognized in the international arena as a major issue for women’s human rights, most recently at the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995. More recently, there has been a growing awareness of the impact of violence on women’s mental and physical health and most of the contributions that public health can make to addressing violence. Among the most prevalent forms of violence against women are those perpetrated by intimate partners including the physical, mental and sexual abuse of women and the sexual abuse of children and adolescents. This project seeks to contribute to the strengthening, consolidation and replication of the experiences developed in the last three years in Central America to prevent intrafamily violence and offer safe solutions to battered women. It will use a two pronged approach: at the local level, it will continue to create coordinated community networks where all of the actors, among them the health sector, the legal system including police and judges, churches. Other NGOs and community based groups, devise and implement a collective response to violence. At the national level, it will contribute to the implementation of diverse mechanisms that protect women from violent partners and will ensure that women know that there is a law which can be applied to safeguard them and their families.