Project goal: to train judges, prosecutors and police officers, improve their professional capacities and provide international and European good practices on ways to effective response to domestic violence cases
Project duration: December 2010 – April 2011
Project activities:
- This project was a part of the broader prevention campaign on combating violence against women in Lithuania, initiated by the US embassy in Lithuania, involving Lithuanian government, the Royal Embassy of the Netherlands, other EU embassies and Lithuanian NGOs
- Under the cooperation with the US embassy, the Centre for Equality Advancement identified two US legal experts dr. Cheryl Thomas, Director of Women Human Rights Program, The Advocates for Human Rights and the judge Kathryn Quaintance from Minnesota State Court who have long experience in dealing with the domestic violence legislation and trainings in Central and Eastern Europe.
- CEA organized two workshops for judges, prosecutors and police officers from Klaipeda and Vilnius regions, coordinated the selection of the participants, maintained liaison and with Ministry of Justice, Police department and Office of General Prosecutor, consulted the international experts on the content and methodology of the training and provided them the material on Lithuania’s legislation, policies and social context related to the issue of violence against women.
- Together with the US experts the CEA’s staff participated in the workshops, helped the experts to conduct practical exercises, hypothetical situations and role playing activities and observed the group dynamic in order to see how these targeted groups viewed violence against women
- CEA collected feedback from participants about their new approach to dealing with domestic violence and more specifically violence against women Project partners: Ministry of Justice, Office of the General Prosecutor, Police Department, the Judges Training Center under the Ministry of Justice Project funding: US Embassy and Royal Embassy of the Netherlands