Agreement signed to improve integrated attention to gender violence victims

The UAB, the Cerdanyola del Vallès City Council and the Institut Català de les Dones signed an agreement to improve the attention of gender violence victims and offer integrated and coordinated actions between the public health network and university. This pilot programme will begin at the UAB and later extend to all other public universities.

11/06/2018

The UAB, the Cerdanyola del Vallès City Council and the Institut Català de les Dones (ICD) are working jointly to offer an integrated and coordinated response together with the public health sector to women suffering sexual abuse or any other type of gender violence occurring in the UAB's university community.

Margarita Arboix Arzo, Rector of the UAB; Carles Escolà Sánchez, Mayor of Cerdanyola del Vallès; and Núria Ballade Cardona, President of the ICD, signed on 11 June an agreement at the UAB which will allow improving assistance in gender violence cases.

The UAB's protocol to fight against any type of harassment on campus ("Protocol d'actuació contra l’assetjament sexual i l’assetjament per raó de sexe, d’orientació sexual, d’identitat de gènere o d’expressió de gènere de la UAB”), passed in March 2016, has made it necessary for the public network to offer integrated assistance to victims of gender violence.

The UAB until now offered assessment and accompanying to women through the Psychogender Unit located at the Faculty of Psychology in coordination with its Observatory for Equality. The agreement now will facilitate the accompanying and specialised assistance in cases of gender violence beyond the university and thus be able to improve the assistance given.

Specialised assistance at the centre for attention to women
A referral mechanism for cases detected at the UAB will be established with the CIARD (Centre for Information, Attention and Resources for Women) of the Cerdanyola del Vallès City Council, which offers specialised attention to address gender violence. It is an organisation that counts with the collaboration and economic support of the Institut Català de les Dones. The CIARD counts with two consultants, a psychologist specialised in gender violence, a jurist and an educational psychologist.

This service is included in the 102 SIAD network located in towns with more than 20,000 inhabitants and can be found across Catalonia. The services depend on local entites whose mission is to offer women psychological and legal assistance and, in a coordinated manner, provide them with information, guidance and help with employment, as well as meet their social, personal, familiar and other needs they may have They are also places in which detection, prevention and awareness campaigns of gender violence are also carried out and are part of the Network for the attention and integral recovery of women in gender violence situations, a group of specific services for the integral attention of this problem which are established by Law 5/2008 on the right of women to eradicate gender violence.

This law defines gender violence against women as a manifestation of discrimination and of the inequality within a system of male dominance which, produced through physical, economic or psychological actions, can lead to damage or suffering at physical, sexual or psychological elevel, both when suffered in the public sphere and in the private sphere.

Sexual violence is a type of gender violence and its main characteristic lies in the fact of using sex as a way to control and dominate women. Sexual violence (sexual harassment, abuse or aggressions) can take place in a vairety of areas (in a relationship, the workplace, social networks, on the street, during leisure activities, etc.) and at any age. The main cause is male chauvanism, which vulnerates the rights of women to live their sexuality, personal spaces and life in freedom and autonomously.

Spaces for Reflection and Analysis
The three entities have agreed also to facilitate spaces in which to reflect on and analyse gender violence and the challenges it poses.

The Institut Català de les Dones has agreed to evaluate this pilot programme beginning at the UAB with the objective of implementing it in the future in other public universities.

On 10 March 2016, the UAB passed a protocol to fight against any type of harassment on campus, for reasons of gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. The protocol is applicable to all students, lecturing staff and administration and service staff who have had or have a professional or legal relationship with the UAB.

To activate the protocol a form must be filled out and delivered in a sealed envelope with information on the situation, The envelope can be handed to any of the acadaemic administration offices, teaching centres or the Rectorat building.

The UAB offers assessment and support in the process of activating the protocol through its Observatory for Equality. It is open to any member of the university community needing psychological support through its Psychogender Unit (Service of Psychology and Speech Therapy, Faculty of Psychology).