Project leader visits FPCEUP, University of Porto (UP)

From January 21^st to 24^th 2015, Prof. Carol Hagemann-White, CEINAV's project leader, visited the Porto CEINAV team in FPCEUP, University of Porto (UP). During this visit, Prof. Hagemann-White met with UP officials and with the Porto CEINAV team to work on the domestic violence comparative paper. Hence, with the DV working papers from Germany, Portugal, the UK, and Slovenia in hand, we discussed the different legislations and policies that exist across the four countries. We also talked about some of the main frames and dilemmas that emerged in the workshops. Prof. Hagemann-White's much appreciated visit ended with a Pastoral Symphony concert in “Casa da Música” where we took this photo.

Working Papers on Intervention published

Right in time for a little early christmas present we have nearly all of our working papers on intervention polished and published.

The first versions were written for the discussions during the big porto meeting. After the working seminar all the authors reworked and polished their papers and now we have most of them online (two are missing for technical reasons but will be added as soon as we can). All of them will also be accessible via the CEINAV Website at London MET.

We have written a background paper to decribe our method read the papers here:

 --> Background paper <--

Read the working papers:

Working Paper on Intervention Against Child Abuse and Neglect in Germany

Working Paper on Intervention Against Child Abuse and Neglect in Portugal

Working Paper on Intervention Against Child Abuse and Neglect in Slovenia

Working Paper on Intervention Against Child Abuse and Neglect in UK

Working Paper on Intervention Against Domestic Violence in Germany

Working Paper on Intervention Against Domestic Violence in Portugal

Working Paper on Intervention Against Domestic Violence in Slovenia

Working Paper on Intervention Against Domestic Violence in UK

Working Paper on Intervention Against Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation in Germany

Working Paper on Intervention Against Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation in Portugal

Working Paper on Intervention Against Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation in Slovenia

Working Paper on Intervention Against Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation in UK

New high court decision will help to prosecute traffickers in Germany

On October 8 2014 our associate partner KOK co-hosted (with Terre des femmes and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung) a major conference “Focus on Women’s Rights” in Berlin, where the consequences for Germany of EU law against trafficking and of the Istanbul Convention of the Council of Europe were discussed. There, Carol Hagemann-White learnt of a recent high court decision that will enable prosecutors as well as lawyers representing trafficked women to obtain convictions more easily.

Prosecuting traffickers in Germany has been difficult, not only because victims may not be willing or able to testify, but also because “coercion” and “exploitation” are often hard to prove. On July 16, 2014 the federal high court of Germany issued a decision (rejecting an appeal by a convicted trafficker in the case of three Nigerian women) that the key criterion of coercion is sufficiently proven by the fact that the women had been in a precarious economic situation in their home country. This is a decision with far reaching implications! The court ruled that the ensuing restriction of the women’s freedom of action and decision had the concrete effect of reducing their ability to resist attacks on their sexual self-determination. It is thus not necessary to prove any further circumstances beyond the predominating negative social conditions in the home country. Furthermore, it is irrelevant whether or not the victims had already decided to work as prostitutes in Germany before being trafficked to this country, or whether the coercive pressures used by the accused after they were brought to Germany (such as the demand that they work to pay off a debt) led to their final compliance. If you are interested in the original document you can find a pdf here.

From the original German text of the court ruling (Bundesgerichtshof  5 StR 154/14):

 

Der Senat entnimmt den Feststellungen, dass das Merkmal der „Zwangslage“ schon bei der „Rekrutierung“ der drei Nebenklägerinnen in Nigeria erfüllt war. Alle Nebenklägerinnen befanden sich in ihrem Heimatland in prekären wirtschaftlichen Verhältnissen (vgl. auch UA S. 46). Die damit verbundene Einschränkung ihrer Entscheidungs- und Handlungsmöglichkeiten war – was genügt – konkret geeignet, ihren Widerstand gegen Angriffe auf die sexuelle Selbstbestimmung herabzusetzen (vgl. zu § 180b StGB aF BGH, Beschluss vom 25. Februar 1997 – 4 StR 40/97, BGHSt 42, 399, 400 f.; Eisele in Schönke/Schröder, StGB, 29. Aufl., § 232 Rn. 10 mwN; siehe auch BT-Drucks. 12/2046 S. 4). Es ist dementsprechend nicht erforderlich, dass zu den im Heimatland der Opfer herrschenden schlechten sozialen Verhältnissen in Bezug auf das jeweilige Opfer noch weitere erschwerende Umstände hinzu-kommen (aM wohl Fischer, StGB, 61. Aufl., § 232 Rn. 9). Damit kann letztlich offenbleiben, ob die Opfer – durch die Angeklagte veranlasst – bereits vor ihrer Einschleusung beschlossen hatten, in Deutschland die Prostitution aufzunehmen, oder ob dieser Entschluss erst durch die Maßnahmen der Angeklagten in Deutschland (unter anderem Forderung, Beträge von über 50.000 € „abzuarbeiten“, Hinweis auf den „Voodoo-Eid“; vgl. dazu UA S. 45 f.) endgültig bewirkt

DIJuF statement regarding future handling of minor refugees

The increase of unaccompanied minor refugees over last years and months caused a critical situations. The communities in which most of the children and juveniles arrive lack care facilities as well as qualified personnel. Therefore Bavaria tabled a bill in the Federal Assembly which takes a distinct regulatory approach of distributing the young persons by quotas throughout Germany.

Aspects of the children’s best interest are not taken into account yet. The Länder Bavaria, Berlin, Hamburg and North Rhine-Westfalia held a hearing in Berlin on 14 Nov. 2014. The DIJuF participated and promoted the children’s rights. For more information see http://www.dijuf.de/fachliche-hinweisestellungnahmen-des-dijuf.html.

Hearing in celebration of 25yrs CRC

The Children Commission (Kinderkommission) of the German Federal Parliament (Bundestag) invited to a hearing in celebration of 25 years CRC on 12 November 2014. The Members of Parliament posed 20 questions concerning the status of the implementation of children’s rights in Germany. Hearing and participation of the child, complaint procedures and issues related to children in families from a minority group or with a migration background are core topics. As one of the four experts, Dr. Thomas Meysen will be able to refer to the first findings from CEINAV on cultural encounters in interventions against child abuse and neglect.

Porto Seminar Video

While we had the 5 day working Seminar in Porto we videorecorded some of our discussions. We would like to share some highlights and interesting thoughts with you to give you a little insight into our work:

Working Seminar in Porto - A major milestone

CEINAV Porto 5 Days Seminar, 28th Sept—4th Oct 2014

From September 28 to October 4, researchers of the Project CEINAV met in FPCEUP, University of Porto, to share preliminary findings of the 1st stream of the research.

Based on a total of 24 workshops with professionals, the five partners wrote working papers on the intervention patterns and approaches to the different forms of violence in each country. These papers will be revised after the discussions in Porto and then made public online.

With an intense and productive work, the team reviewed similarities and specificities among the four countries concerning intervention in domestic violence, child physical abuse and neglect, and trafficking of human beings for sexual exploitation. The debates focused sequences of intervention in different countries, the interpretative frames of the legal and professional practices, and cultural premises that configure the relationship between professionals and survivors in each country.

Public Presentation of CEINAV - October 1, 2014

Within the Porto Research Meeting, a Public Presentation of CEINAV was held in FPCEUP, with - Prof. Maria José Magalhães, national coordinator of CEINAV, researcher in FPCEUP

- Prof. Doutora Liz Kelly, coordinator of research team in UK, researcher in London Metropolitan University

- Prof.  António Magalhães, vice-president of Scientific Board of FPCEUP

- Prof. Fátima Machado, vice-rectoress of University of Porto

- Prof. Emeritus Carol Hagemann-White, Project Leader CEINAV, and researcher in Department of Educational and Cultural Studies, University of Osnabruck, Germany

- Prof. Vlasta Jalusic, coordinator of the Slovenian team and researcher in Peace Institut de Ljubliana Eslovénia

- Thomas Meysen, coordinator of the research team of Heidelberg, researcher in German Institute for Youth and Human Sciences

from left to right in the picture:

Meeting with Associate Partners, October 1 and 2, 2014

The 5 Days Seminar included a Meeting with the Associate partners, held on the 1st and 2nd of October, with representatives from Black Association of Women Step Out Ltd. (BAWSO), Cardiff, Wales; IMKAAN, London, England; Association for Non Violent Communication, Ljubljana; Society KLJUC – Centre for fight against trafficking in human beings, Ljubljana; Association against sexual abuse, Ljubljana Slovenia; IGFH - Internationale Gesellschaft für erzieherische Hilfen (Federation of Educative Communities), Germany; Federation of Women’s Counselling Centres and Hotlines (bff), Germany; Associação Projeto Criar – Association against child abuse, from Porto, Portugal, and UMAR-Association of Women, Alternative and Answer, from Portugal.

In the meeting, researchers and representatives of the APs debated the preliminary results of the first stream of the research, especially with regard to ethical issues that could be explored further, and their implications for next streams, in the pathway to understand the cultural premises in intervention.

Future directions of fruitful cooperation were built having in mind the artistic process that will go parallel with the next streams of the CEINAV research.