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It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to today's opening ceremony of the training seminars, organized by the National Coordinating Body for the Prevention and Combating of Violence against Women, in cooperation with the Mediterranean Institute for Gender Studies.
The aim of the training seminars is to inform and raise awareness among frontline health workers on critical and essential issues of gender-based violence, in order to be able to recognize and handle incidents of violence against women in a timely manner, providing specialized and effective services to victims of violence.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Allow me to warmly thank the Directorate of the Ministry of Health for accepting the invitation for cooperation, launching an extended cycle of trainings for health professionals. By the end of June, a total of 75 Health Officers are expected to be trained on a nationwide basis, followed by trainings for Social Workers, Education Officers, Police Officers and other professionals involved in handling incidents of gender-based violence.
I would also like to express my sincere thanks to the Director of the Mediterranean Institute for Social Gender Studies, Ms. Susana Pavlou, for her constant and long-lasting support and assistance in the Ministry's work on issues of promoting equality, and in particular on issues of preventing and combating gender-based violence. Your expertise in these issues, due to your many years of involvement, both at national and international level, is a guarantee for the successful completion of the seminars, on the basis of a quality and comprehensive training programme, specifically designed to meet the needs of the specific target group.
Distinguished participants,
Distinguished participants,
I feel truly delighted and honoured to be present today among excellent Doctors, Nurses, Gynaecologists, Midwives, Paediatricians and Health Visitors. You are admittedly an extremely important group of health professionals, as you are called upon to deal daily with a multitude of critical and complex issues and incidents in your highly demanding working environment.
The acquisition of additional and specialised knowledge and tools around issues of violence against women will, I am sure, further enhance your efforts to provide high quality care services, based on a fully human-centred approach and targeting.
The acquisition of additional and specialised knowledge and tools around issues of violence against women will, I am sure, further strengthen your efforts to provide high quality care services, based on a fully human-centred approach and targeting.
Let me at this point stress that the need for training of all professionals involved in handling cases of gender and domestic violence is explicitly recognised in the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, also known as the Istanbul Convention. Similarly, the need for training and further sensitization of professionals is included in the first National Strategy and the first National Action Plan for the Prevention and Combating of Violence against Women for the years 2023-2028, prepared by the National Coordinating Body and adopted by the Council of Ministers in February 2023.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The need to cultivate a culture and mindset of equality and respect for human rights, free from violence and abuse is a high priority of the Ministry of Justice and Public Order and the Government at large. This is expected to make the existing protection network for victims of all forms of discrimination and violence in our country, which in recent years has admittedly been greatly expanded and enriched, even more effective.
By way of example, I refer to the enactment in the last five years of legislation to criminalise all forms of violence against women included in the Istanbul Convention, harassment, stalking and sexism. Of great importance was also the introduction of the offence of femicide as a specific offence in the implementing law of the Istanbul Convention.
Significant improvements have also been made to the Criminal Code, where the definition of the offence of rape has been fully modernised, in line with European and international human rights conventions, in order to be fully consistent with modern victim-centred approaches and concepts. In this context, the Protocols on sexual violence and rape cases implemented by the Police have also been revised, strengthening efforts to provide individualised protection, with full respect for the dignity and rights of victims.
This framework has been reinforced by a number of important institutional changes, such as the creation of the multidisciplinary "Women's House", the establishment of the National Coordinating Body for the Prevention and Combating of Violence against Women under the Ministry of Justice and the operation of the "Thread" Centre to provide specialised support to adult victims of sexual violence.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Although the adoption and implementation of clear and strong laws, regulations and protocols in relation to the criminalization of all forms of violence is a fundamental prerequisite for the elimination of all forms of gender-based violence and abuse, this unfortunately does not seem to be enough.
What is additionally required is the de-legitimization of violence against women, through the deconstruction of everyday attitudes, perceptions and mindsets that breed and reinforce it. No political, legislative or administrative effort to tackle violence can succeed unless it is preceded by deep and substantial changes, based on the cultivation of zero tolerance towards such phenomena, as well as the establishment of a culture of equality and full respect for human rights.
As the Minister responsible for gender equality, combating gender-based violence and promoting human rights, I assure you that we will continue to work systematically and in coordination with all our governmental and non-governmental partners so that the new legislation and the new tools at our disposal can be fully exploited and implemented in practice effectively and without delay.We are investing in prevention, information and awareness-raising among professionals and civil society around the issue of gender equality, combating gender-based violence and promoting human rights. Thank you.
(EAT/NZ)
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