JUSTISIGNS 2 – Empowering Victims of Gender-Based Violence through VET for Multiagency Actors Erasmus Project

Project Title

JUSTISIGNS 2 – Empowering Victims of Gender-Based Violence through VET for Multiagency Actors

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Gender equality / equal opportunities; Migrants’ issues; Home and justice affairs (human rights & rule of law)

Project Summary

“When the attack happened that night I was in such a panic and I didn’t know where I was going. I couldn’t text, I didn’t have a number, I didn’t know who to contact. I was going to go into town to the Garda station, but luckily enough I stopped and the man followed me and he was able to phone. I explained to the guards when they arrived on the scene that I’m Deaf so they wrote down the information but I actually could not use the pen because I was so petrified. It was very hard to communicate with the guard but there was a bean-garda, (a female guard), who was very easy to lipread, so I found it easier to communicate with her.”

CONTEXT
We can become a socially inclusive society by protecting the rights of marginalised groups such as women and girls who are victims of gender-based violence. Resolution 2159(2017) of the Parliamentary Assembly on protecting refugee women and girls from gender-based violence; the Council of Europe’s Gender Equality Strategy 2018-2023; the Victim’s Directive enshrine the principles of equity, equality and empowerment.

In JUSTISIGNS 2 we focus on two key factors. These are: the language(s) and culture of the non-native language users (NNLUs). In JUSTISIGNS 2, we focus on Deaf Sign language users, migrants, refugee and asylum-seeking women and girls. However, we do not set out to exclude, nor ignore men and boys who fall victim to gender-based violence. We include the Deaf community as a marginalised group in society which historically has experienced social exclusion in all walks of life. Data suggests that Deaf people are 2-3 times more likely to suffer abuse (sexual, emotional, physical) than their hearing peers, and 2 – 4 times more likely to experience clinically significant emotional distress. We emphasise that the Deaf community is classified as a linguistic and cultural minority, rather than being classified as a disability group.

OBJECTIVE
JUSTISIGNS 2 responds to the obligations of the EU Directive 2012/29, also known as the Victims’ Directive, this proposal is aimed at reducing the disparity that exists within society, by developing education and training solutions for professionals who support victims of violence and crime and in particular women who are victims of gender-based violence.

THE PROBLEM
Challenges in accessing services in the legal, medical, educational & political sphere have just begun to be documented following from work on EU funded projects like MEDISIGNS & JUSTISIGNS sometimes predicated on problematic policy measures or the quality of interpretation provided. When accessing the legal structures – research from the JUSTISIGNS project (upon which this application is modelled REF: http://www.justisigns.com/downloads/report2016.pdf) has demonstrated that member states’ approaches to dealing with the deaf people when engaging with the justice systems is largely ad hoc. Findings show that police forces, by and large – do not take a uniform approach to applying policies. Many senior ranking police have little to no knowledge of working in interpreted settings, and many confirmed that they were not aware of the legal ramifications of such lack of awareness among their own forces. This fundamental awareness relates to basic communication skills, the “reading” of rights (or police cautioning), or even the most basic of tasks such as booking an (sign language) interpreter and verifying their qualification.

ACTIVITIES
– A Review of the literature and data
– training course for multi-agency actors who support victims
– training course for interpreters who practice in situations of gender-based violence and crime
– Series of tool kits & training resources for victim support professionals
– Training workshops, Town Hall meetings and masterclasses

WHO ARE WE TARGETING?
– Police forces with competence in gender violence (National Police, Civil Guards, Regional & Local police)
– Court staff (judges, prosecutors, lawyers, court administrative staff, forensic doctors, forensic psychologists, etc.)
– Health staff (doctors, nurses, etc.)
– Psychologists
– Social workers
– Staff of NGOs and Associations that help victims/survivors
– Other front line support interlocutors and agents.
– Sign language and spoken language interpreters
– Victims and survivors of GBV who participate in the project as volunteers to share experiences

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 373980 Eur

Project Coordinator

Interesource Group (Ireland) Limited & Country: IE

Project Partners

• THE DUBLIN RAPE CRISIS CENTRE LIMITED
• HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY
• AN GARDA SIOCHANA
• THE PROVOST, FELLOWS, FOUNDATION SCHOLARS & THE OTHER MEMBERS OF BOARD OF THE COLLEGE OF THE HOLY & UNDIVIDED TRINITY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH NEAR DUBLIN
• UNIVERSIDAD DE VIGO
• EUROPEAN UNION OF THE DEAF AISBL