Perspective project Report on the seminar ‘Prevention of …研讨会上预防角度项目报告….doc

Seminar Report Prevention of Gender-based Violence among Adolescents in Europe: Research and Educational PracticesOn the 27th of April 2009 the Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies MIGS organised a public seminar entitled: Prevention of Gender-based Violence among Adolescents in Europe: Research and Educational Practices. The seminar was organized within the framework of the project Perspective: Peer Education Roots for School Pupils to Enhance Consciousness of Tackling and Impeding Violence against Women in Europe, Daphne III Programme, European Commission. The aim of the seminar was twofold: to bring together academics and practitioners working on issues relating to gender-based violence (GBV) among adolescents in Europe in order to identify common issues that arise from research undertaken in various geographic areas in Europe; and to present and evaluate interventions aimed at combating this phenomenon. The seminar also aimed at raising public awareness on the various forms of GBV affecting young people, its root causes, and its consequences. The seminar was attended by over 45 participants including NGO representatives, trade unions, and teachers, representatives from the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health, the Police, as well as other professionals interested in issues related to gender violence, bullying, and education. The seminar facilitators were Ms Susana Pavlou, Director of MIGS for the first thematic panel on Gender-based Violence in Cyprus and in Europe and Dr Kiki Petroulaki, President of the Board, European Anti-Violence Network, for the second thematic panel on Interventions for the Prevention of GBV among Young People. The seminar began with a welcome address by Dr Zelia Grigoriou, Assistant Professor at the University of Cyprus and Board Member of MIGS. A brief introduction to the Perspective project followed presented by Ms Michela Iorio, Coordinator of the project from the City of Modena in Italy. Ms. Iorio outlined the main aims of the project and the logic behind introducing peer education activities as an intervention action aiming at the prevention of GBV among young people. The first panel began with Georgina Christou, Research Associate and Project Coordinator at MIGS who presented the results of the Daphne II project Secondary Education Schools and Education in Values, to which MIGS was a partner, with a focus on the qualitative research conducted with teenagers in Cyprus. She pointed out the most common forms of GBV in teenage relationships in Cyprus as well as some of the possible causes behind these behaviors. She emphasized the perceptions that teenagers have in relation to love, violence and relationships and the association of these with GBV. Dr Vappu Sunnari a Senior Lecturer on Womens and Gender Studies, from the University of Oulou, Finland proceeded with a presentation of the results of her research on physical and sexual harassment as experienced by Northwest Russian and Finnish children in the school environment. The results show that in the majority of cases of sexual harassment in schools, the perpetrators are boys and the victims are girls. She also expressed concern over the alarmingly high rate of girls experiencing sexual harassment in schools in Finland and the lack of adequate training for teachers to address this phenomenon. Mr Friedrich Glenski from Leipzig, Germany followed with an overview on GBV in Germany and emphasized that girls who had been sexually victimized before the age of 16 are more than twice as likely to become victims of violence from partners or ex-partners and four times more likely to become victims of sexual violence after the age of 16. Furthermore he pointed out that migrant women in Germany do not only suffer GBV more frequently but also suffer more severe and extreme forms of physical violence. Dr Jesus Jerranz Bellido from Alicante Spain proceeded with an overview of a number of projects that dealt specifically with GBV among young people in the Spanish context.The second thematic panel of the seminar began with a presentation by Ms Tamara Georgiadou, Programme Officer at the Cyprus Family Planning Association on the importance of sex education in the prevention of GBV. Ms Georgiadou emphasized the different contexts through which young people receive their socialization in terms of gender roles and attitudes and how effective sex education programmes targeting children form an early age are vitally important for the development of a healthy society. She also pointed out that sex education programmes must target not only students but also teachers and parents in order to stop the perpetuation of negative gender stereotypes in our societies. Following this Ms Mairy Chioni, Director of Health Education of the 1st Athens Directorate of Secondary Education presented the results from a variety of research studies conducted in Greece on the phenomenon of bullying in primary and secondary schools. She also presented peer education methodology as an intervention tool to prevent bullying among middle school children. The last two presentations made referred to the description of campaigns made in Italy and Belgium with the aim to prevent GBV. Ms Alexandra Adriaenssenes from the Directorate of Equal Opportunities of the Ministry of French-speaking Community in Belgium presented three campaigns that were directed towards preventing violence in young couples. Mr. Sandro Casanova of the organization Mascile Plurale of Bologna proceeded with a presentation of the White Ribbon Campaign made in Italy on a nationwide scale and which mainly targeted men and boys. The main goal of the campaign was to give visibility and space to men who want to engage with fighting violence toward