14508/09 ADD 1 PL/vk 1 DG G COUNCIL OF THE ... - Europa

egards the latter, it can be noted that two MS report special national action plans on this issue (RO
on Roma women and ES on ethnic minority women) and some examples of policy development
regarding violence in the name of honour can also be seen. In Sweden, the national plan of action to
combat violence against women included honour-related violence and oppression, and in Austria, a
violence-prevention campaign in 2008 included material on this form of violence. A tentative
conclusion that can be drawn from these examples is that there may be a growing recognition within
the EU MS of diversity both as regards forms of violence against women and women subjected to
violence.
When looking at the reporting of progress in policy areas other than criminal law and specialised
violence work, it becomes clear that the development of integrated measures to prevent and
eliminate violence against women remains a challenge. Some scholars in the field have pointed out
contradictions between different aspects of policy on violence against women and children, often
leading to contradictory outcomes and lack of safety-oriented practice (e.g. Eriksson and Hester
2001; Hester 2004; Humphreys and Carter et al. 2006). Underpinning this analysis is the
observation that different policy domains tend to have their own separate cultures and professionals,
with different institutional discourses and practices that create difficulties in linking the work on
victim protection and support, with, for example, child protection, family law proceedings, or
practice in relation to immigration and asylum-seeking.
A challenge for the future is the creation of a strong focus on evaluating the work in this field. Some
MS' reports suggest an increase in the attention paid to monitoring and evaluation of policy and
practice. In many countries awareness-raising campaigns have been organised, directed at
professionals, the general public, and/or special target groups such as young people. In addition,
many different examples of training of professionals have been provided. Even so, it is unclear how
systematic such training has been, to what extent training has improved practice, to what extent
general attitudes to violence against women have changed, and so forth. In terms of evaluating
policy and practice, two countries report a decrease in the prevalence of violence against women
(DK, UK).
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