CEPOL addresses gender-based violence as a cross cutting issue within its wide portfolio of residential, online and other learning and training activities.
Discrimination and gender-based violence continues around the world, in all societies and regions. Women are harassed, raped, mutilated, beaten or murdered, even in their own homes. According to a report by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA)
, in the EU, one in three women has experienced physical and/or sexual violence since the age of 15.
Combating all forms of gender-based violence and girls is a fundamental pillar of the respect for human or fundamental rights and remains a priority for the EU, both internally and externally. For this very reason, Dr. Ferenc Bánfi, Director of CEPOL, has joined the White Ribbon Campaign, an initiative promoted by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) and also the world’s biggest campaign engaging men in fighting gender-based violence.
Gender-based violence has always been acknowledged by CEPOL as very serious criminal phenomenon with devastating social impact. To help ending domestic and gender-based violence, the agency has developed a complementary portfolio of training and learning tools focusing on these issues. This multi-layered training package consists of residential activities (courses, seminars, conferences) that discuss characteristic examples of exploitation and oppression of women, of online seminars (webinar) on Trafficking in Human Beings (THB) and gender-based violence, of online module on gender-based violence and of a common curriculum on domestic violence. Besides, CEPOL collaborates with various human rights agencies and organisations (i.e. FRA, ILGA…) to elaborate its activities and provides opportunities for their experts to address a wide law enforcement audience. See below for details on the different activities implemented by CEPOL since 2011 on these topics.
As THB is one of the most serious crimes that violate human dignity and the fundamental rights of persons, CEPOL has treated the fight against this criminal phenomenon as its top priority since its foundation. CEPOL`s commitment to combat the distinctive example of criminal exploitation and oppression of women is reinforced by the fact that majority of the victims are often defenceless, having extremely vulnerable social status (children, women living in extreme poverty, migrants, refugees).
Combatting domestic violence is featured in courses on community policing where – among other topics – CEPOL intends to facilitate the adoption of multidisciplinary and integrated approach by strengthening cooperation between police and non-law enforcement players.
In 2015, CEPOL will continue its work to help fight gender-based violence. Several activities are in the pipeline: a course (3/2015 Trafficking in Human Beings - labour exploitation), two webinars (55/2014 Hate Crime Indicators: how to recognise Bias Motives in practice; 62/2014 Severe forms of labour exploitation) on THB, a course on community policing (68/2015 Community policing), two courses on the promotion of fundamental rights and related ethical standards in day to day police work (70/2015 Fundamental Rights and Police Ethics - Step 1; 71/2015 Management of diversity - Step 2). Besides, the module and common curriculum remain available.
# CEPOL activities on gender-based violence
Since 2012, residential activities implemented entailed:
- 2/2014 THB mechanisms with specific focus on reduction of demand (13-15 May 2014, Sweden, 28 participants);
- 3/2014 EU approach to Trafficking in Human Beings (15-18 September 2014, Lithuania, 31 participants);
- 70/2014 Community policing (17-21 November 2014, France, 28 participants);
- 8/2013 EU approach to Trafficking in Human Beings (9-12 April 2013, Sweden, 31 Participants);
- 9/2013 THB - Prevention mechanisms with specific focus on reduction of demand (15-17 October 2013, Sweden, 27 Participants);
- 1/2012 Trafficking in Human Beings (10-13 April 2012, Hungary, 26 Participants);
- 26/2012 Community policing (5-9 November 2012, Finland, 27 participants);
- 66/2012 THB prevention programmes for target countries (19-22 November 2012, UK, 12 participants); and
- 67/2012 THB victim handling in line with human rights (16-19 October 2012, Spain, 26 participants).
CEPOL also implemented numerous webinars on these issues:
- 37/2014 LGBT and Law Enforcement with experts from FRA and ILGA (5 November 2014, 78 participants, 100% overall satisfaction);
- 36/2014 Diversity and non-discrimination with experts from FRA and ILGA (10 September 2014, 88 participants, 92'3% overall satisfaction);
- 03/2014 Trafficking in Human Beings (8 July 2014, 62 attendees, 88% overall satisfaction);
- 35/2014 Hate Crime with experts from FRA, ILGA and ODHIR (23 June 2014, 61 participants, 87'5% overall satisfaction);
- 34/2014 Police and Human Rights with experts from FRA (13 May 2014, 94 participants, 91'4% overall satisfaction);
- 04/2014 EU Anti Trafficking Coordinator (25 March 2014, 133 attendees, 78% overall satisfaction);
- 39/2014 Gender-based violence against women (24 March 2014, 104 participants, 86% overall satisfaction) - this webinar was organised in cooperation with the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the City University of New York -;
- 01/2013 Best THB practices in prevention programmes (5 December 2013, 48 attendees, 100% overall satisfaction); and
- 03/2013 THB following OAP priorities 2013 (11 December 2013, 47 attendees, 86% overall satisfaction).
Moreover, CEPOL has developed the “Gender-based violence” online module in 2011 with cooperation of experts from Austria, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland and Spain. So far 198 Law Enforcement officers (47 in 2014) have completed this training package.
Finally, CEPOL has developed a common curriculum on domestic violence in 2009 that has been updated in 2012. The curriculum has been distributed to all 28 Member States for integration into their national training programmes thus reaching nationwide police audiences. It contains recommendations for training on the following topics:
- Interpersonal violence (IPV) in old age and people with disabilities;
- Implementation of an integral information system in the EU area, similar to the Spanish VdG System, allowing monitoring of any type of case to protect victims;
- Adaptation of design and contents of e-learning module on gender violence for CEPOL and international seminars;
- Domestic violence amongst LGBT people (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender);
- Burnout syndrome among police officers;
- Violence in ethnic subcultures;
- New multi-professional strategies and tactics in the protection of victims and control of offenders;
- Overcoming attrition in domestic violence cases; and
- A Module Description with updating activity for the heads of special police teams dedicated only to tackling domestic violence situations (periodic training for specialists in prevention, investigation and/or protection of victims).
