Violence against women and girls is a global challenge that requires effective, comprehensive and immediate policy solutions. Recent data shows that at least 30% of women worldwide have suffered physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence,  confirming the urgency of the matter on a global scale. Fortunately, in some parts of the world, local initiatives and frameworks have already proven highly successful in tackling gender-based and domestic violence, which can serve as examples to the global community.

The “Coordinated Community Response (CCR) to Domestic Violence” implemented in Minnesota (USA) is one of those initiatives. Also known as the “Duluth Model”, the method has been successfully protecting women from domestic violence for more than 30 years. For this, it was awarded the 2014 Future Policy Award as the world’s best policy addressing domestic violence. In April 2016, our team travelled to Minnesota, US, to facilitate a workshop that aimed to spread this comprehensive policy to other communities.

The “Coordinated Community Response (CCR) to Domestic Violence” workshop brought together advocates, law enforcement officers, legal professionals and policy-makers from six different countries (Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Trinidad & Tobago) to explore and witness first-hand the key principles of CCR as it is being implemented in Duluth (Minnesota, USA). This method, also referred to as the “Duluth Model”, promotes cooperation of all relevant actors, such as police and probation officers, prosecutors, and NGO advocates, working to prevent and combat domestic violence. This coordination effort proves as a highly effective approach for the implementation of domestic violence laws and focuses on victims’ safety and offender accountability.

The workshop provided an extraordinary opportunity for participants to learn the techniques of CCR from its designers/founders/initiators – and in the community that has most successfully implemented it – and develop an understanding and framework from which to respond to domestic violence in their own communities.

The World Future Council (WFC) was a funding partner of this nine-day workshop, planned and hosted by Global Rights for Women (GRW), a Twin Cities based non-profit, and presented in partnership with Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs (DAIP) out of Duluth, Minnesota. The workshop took place from 28 March to 5 April 2016.

 

Next steps

The World Future Council will continue to work with our partners to facilitate the transfer of knowledge between policymakers and their NGO counterparts and to support them in introducing the model in their communities.

Project partners

Author

Marta Sánchez Dionis, Policy Officer, Ending Violence Against Women and Girls, World Future Council

The WFC took part in the 3^rd World Conference of Women’s Shelters in The Hague. The conference, organised by the Global Network of Women’s Shelters, brought together more than 1000 advocates and activists representing 115 countries.

Further resources: 

• World Shelter Conference (Call for Action)

On 15 October 2015, the WFC convened a workshop for parliamentarians from seven francophone African countries at the European Parliament in Brussels. The conference participants adopted a joint road map for the elimination of violence against women and girls in their respective countries. The workshop was convened in partnership with the European and African Parliamentary Forums on Population and Development, and co-hosted by WFC Councillor Sirpa Pietikäinen MEP. You can read the roadmap in English and French.

Further resources:

• EU Girls Week: Francophone African MPs meet in European Parliament
• “Governments must implement effective laws in tackling violence against girls”, article by workshop participants Sirpa Pietikäinen (WFC Councillor) and Marie Rose Nguini Effa (MP Cameroon).

On the International Day of Peace, our Councillors Scilla Elworthy, Thais Corral, Rama Mani and Anda Filip led a discussion on “Women’s Strategies for Peace for Future Generations” at the UN office in Geneva. For further information click here.