The March “Together for the safety of women”

Saturday October 24th approximately 150-200 participants have joined the march “Together for the safety of women” in Bucharest organized by the Network for preventing and combating violence against women.

The march organizers asked the authorities to:

  • Implement an emergency protection order; the Police, the Forensic Institutes, the medical units, the prosecutors and the courts should act with due diligence in the violence situations claimed by women.
  • To have specialized staff for such situations, taking into account the risk of re-traumatization of the victim.
  • To allocate public funds from the state budget and local budgets for psychological counseling, legal aid and shelters.
  • To establish specialized centers for rape victims
  • The existance of a partnership between institutions whenever a case of aggression in the family, rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, sexual exploitation is dealt with.
  • To sanction the media channels that violate the right to protect the identity of victims and those promoting broadcasts or articles which are inciting to acts of violence against women.
  • To  introduce in the school curricula and teach the students concepts related to gender violence.

From Victory Square the  march participants walked on the first lane on Lascar Catargiu Avenue – Romana Square – University. They held banners reading: “Safety is a right, not a privilege”, „We want a world without physical, sexual, economic violence against women”, „1 in 4 women has been physically or sexually assaulted by partner”, „Excuses for batterers, accuses for women?”, „The battering is not made in heaven”, „Together for the safety of women”, „The police defends the abusers, the state and the capital and that’s it “, „Stop police abuses against sex workers. ”

The Ambassador of the European Commission in Romania, Mrs. Angela Filote attended the march. The next persons made statements and attended the march: the ambassador of Norway- Mrs. Tove Bruvik Westberg, the ambassador of Sweden- Mrs. Anneli Lindahl Kenny, the ambassador of USA- Mr. Hans Klemm, the ambassador of  United Kingdom- Mr. Paul Brumell, the ambassador of Finland- Mrs. Päivi Pohjanheimo,  the ambassador of Netherlands- Mrs. Stella Ronner Grubacic, the Director for Central and Eastern Europe of the Francophonie-Mrs. Chantal Moreno, the Labour Minister- Mrs. Rovana Plumb, Minister of Foreign Affairs – Mr. Bogdan Aurescu, Head of Department FRA-Mrs.  Jo Goodey,   Mrs. Secretary of State- Ioana Cazacu from the National Agency for Equal Opportunities and 18 NGOs. http://violentaimpotrivafemeilor.ro/activitatile-retelei/page/7/

 

Spontaneously, citizens showed their support and some joined the march.

The action took place within the project “Development and strengthening of the Network for the Prevention and Combating Violence against Women” funded by the EEA Grants 2009-2014 in the NGO Fund in Romania. The contents of this event do not necessarily represent the official position of the EEA Grants 2009-2014.