### NEED FOR A COMPREHENSIVE AND COORDINATED SYSTEM OF SUPPORT TO WOMEN - VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

According to the authors of the national research (Leskošek et al., 2008) since the age of 15, 23 % of women have experienced physical violence. Of all the perpetrators of physical violence, 92 % were men. The interviewers who experienced physical violence are in general less healthy then women from general population, 44.6 % of victims of violence have marked their health as poor and very poor. The prevalence of psychological violence in the research is very high. In the last 12 months, half of all the respondents (49.9 %) have experienced psychological violence, with four-fifths of perpetrators of psychological violence being male. According to the research the violence can begin at any time in life, from early childhood through to old age. Some women experience violence their whole life. 5.5 % of women experienced violence also during their pregnancy, 4.5 % of women reported that the perpetrator was also violent to the children, most often psychologically, then physically and sexually. The findings are reflecting experiences and views of better-educated women, who are employed in safe employments and not in threatened employments, or they are retired. They have their own income, which is in most cases at their disposal. Most often they live in a joint household with their partners (64.1 %), who are in the most cases (51.9 %) their spouse and they have common children. In majority they are Slovene citizens. Half of them are religious; mostly they belong to catholic religion. Most of them live in bigger cities or villages near the bigger cities. The accessibility and diversity of different supports is also better near bigger cities and in bigger cities. Women in Slovenia still do not have the same access to different forms of support in all regions, there is no free of charge psychosocial support that will be available to all women victims of violence. In practice we observe a big need for this kind of support, the help from social workers to women that are in shelters is not enough, also no one is providing the adequate support to women who are not in shelters. If they want free of charge support they wait for a long time. Women need support to overcome the consequences of violence. There is also a big need for this kind of programmes for their children. In our shelters we are providing this kind of help only to children if we see that they really need it. We are covering it with donations; also the professionals are sometimes giving it on the volunteer basis.

### We urge the Committee to recommend to the state:

- 1. The establishment of a network of free counselling assistance programs for victims of violence throughout the country, including the establishment of free specialized therapeutic programs providing assistance to victims of violence - the possibility of free psychosocial support, as long as the victims of violence need it.
- 2. To ensure free legal aid for victims of violence in all (not only criminal) procedures connected with the elimination of the consequences of violence,
- 3. To promote the development of programs for Roma women and programs for elderly women victims of violence.