DUSHANBE, November 24, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- Manual for domestic violence (DV) practitioners entitled “Breaking the Silence” will be presented in Dushanbe on November 25.

The publication has been prepared in the framework of the project Prevention of Domestic Violence (PDV/AVEDIS), which is financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) jointly with UNIFEM, according to the DPV/AVEDIS.

The project direct partners – local NGOs Dilafrouz, Hamroz and Mahbouba, as well as crisis centers Ghamkhori and Bovari and some others – have participated in preparation of the manual under the direction of Dr. Bekker, Professor with the International Academy at the Free University of Berlin.

The manual has been published in the Tajik and Russian languages.

Since 2000 the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) has been supporting the “Project on Violence against Women in Tajikistan” (ProVaW), according to the SDC Dushanbe Office.  The project took an active part in supporting development of a draft law on domestic violence.  In 2008 the project implementation was overtaken by the German consulting firm AVEDIS that preliminary had won the bid.

Since the beginning of the Inception phase, started in December 2008, AVEDIS managed to maintain institutional memory and network relationships within the project.  At the same time the project outcomes and delivery methods have been reviewed and the focus enlarged to the family level as well as advocacy and lobbying initiatives at local and national level.  These innovations will allow improving the impact of the project at all levels among others through a well devised policy dialogue with all stakeholders.  While redirecting the overall thrust of the project, it was decided to rename the project from the ‘Project on Violence Against Women’ into the ‘Prevention of Domestic Violence’, as this better reflects the idea of fighting against all forms of domestic violence in the society, and relates better to gender and family aspect.

However, SDC is continuing to play an important role in the lobbying of anti violence legislation in Tajikistan and promotion of the human rights principles.  SDC facilitates policy dialogue on domestic violence issues, where it is necessary, in order to enhance the project capacities in fighting and preventing domestic violence in the country.

The project is aimed to reduce the level of Domestic Violence in Tajikistan as a violation of human rights and criminal offense, and increase public awareness thereof.  The objectives are as follows: to improve the institution frameworks of governmental and non-governmental stakeholders in the fight against DV; to improve access to quality services for victims of DV; to demonstrate attitudinal change with respect to DV; and to enhance partners’ capacity to deal with DV at different levels.