Protecting women from violence: the impact of gender neutrality and the cost of ignoring it
On November 30 was held the discussion “16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence: the Impact of Gender Neutrality on Lithuanian and Polish Societies“, which was organised by the Polish Law School VU Law Faculty. Discussion focused on the protection of women from violence, speaking from a legal, criminological, and psychological point of view. The event was moderated by Assoc. Prof. Dr Ilona Michailovič and three experts from Poland and Lithuania gave presentations.
Dr Magdalena Grzyb, a criminology expert from the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, presented the different approaches to domestic violence in the laws of the European countries and discussed the cases of Poland and Spain in more detail. The other panellist from Poland was Agata Szypulska, who works for the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) and is a national expert on gender-based violence appointed by the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights in Warsaw. She presented the activities and objectives of EIGE and talked about the psychological and financial impact of violence against women. “We need to estimate the cost. How expensive it is for states to ignore the violence?“ said A. Szypulska, who pointed out that victims of violence need time to recover psychologically, which can lead to the need to stop working for a while, what raise financial difficulties.
Dr. Zuzana Vasiliauskaitė, international expert in combating violence against women, researcher, legal and trauma psychologist, lecturer at Vytautas Magnus University, explained the impact of gender neutrality in protecting women from violence in Lithuania. According to the expert, the position of women and men in society is different. “We have a very long history of violence against women”, she said. In conclusion, Z. Vasiliauskaitė said that not treating violence against women as gender-based makes women more vulnerable and undermines the confidence of security agencies in reporting violence.
The event was organised as part of the annual international campaign 16 Days of Activism against Violence against Women, which runs from 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, to 10 December, Human Rights Day.
