The overall objective of this project was to eliminate violence against women and children in the northern part of Cyprus primarily by increasing the capacity of organisations and public bodies that work with survivors of domestic violence.
KAYAD implemented the project in partnership with the Turkish Cypriot Bar Association and the Global Association of Special Education and Psychological Service with the financial support of the European Commission.
The project consisted of five main actions:
- To identify the statistics relating to domestic violence and violence against women and children in the northern part of Cyprus with a representative survey of 1000 respondents and statistics compiled by relevant public agencies.
- To increase the capacity of all professional groups who have contact with domestic violence survivors including Social Services, the Turkish Cypriot BAR Association, the police force, journalists, teachers and health services in dealing with cases of domestic violence and violence against women and children.
- To raise awareness on domestic violence and violence against women and children in northern Cyprus to empower women and children to seek support in cases of violence.
- To make the legal system more accessible to survivors of violence against women and children. As part of the project, KAYAD will work with the Bar Association to lobby for the establishment of a ‘Legal Aid’ service, which will enable survivors to seek legal assistance regardless of their financial capacity. During the project, KAYAD, together with the BAR Association will establish a mini legal aid system and hire both a lawyer and psychologist to work for the project. Amendments to the Family Procedural Rules Statute and a domestic violence legislation will also be drafted and presented to the parliament. The statute currently restricts the ability of domestic violence survivors to the family court and to obtain protection orders. The amendments will ease access to the protection of the judicial system. The drafts will comply with the principles laid out in the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence.
Through this project a legal aid system was initiated in the northern part of Cyprus
