A high level meeting between the IJCC project team and the Romanian National Agency for Equal Opportunities between Women and Man

Improving Justice in Child Contact (IJCC)/Community Safety and Mediation Centre Foundation (CSMC). Image of a high level meeting between the IJCC project team and the Romanian ANES.

Within the context of continuous collaboration and dialogue between the National Agency for Equal Opportunities between Women and Men (ANES) and representatives of non-governmental organisations working in the fields of equal opportunities between women and men and preventing and combating domestic violence, the first meeting took place after the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic on July 28^th 2020 at ANES venues in Bucharest. The meeting was attended by: Mrs. Luminița Popescu, Secretary of State of ANES; Mrs. Monalisa Cîrstea, Director of ANES; Mrs. Laura Albu, Vice President European Women’s Lobby, President of the Romanian Women’s Lobby, and Executive President of the Community Mediation and Security Center Foundation (CSMC); Daniela Drăghici, Vice President of the Romanian Women’s Lobby, Vice President Sexul vs Barza, Advocacy Consultant & Trainer, member of IPPF-EN Regional Executive Committee, and member of the Central and Eastern European Network for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (ASTRA) and the Society for Education on Contraception and Sexuality (SECS); and Andreea Fedor, PhD student and Director of Communication of the Women’s Get Involved Association.

The discussions mainly focused on future ways of collaboration and project proposals that can ensure compliance with and application of national legislation in the areas of competence of ANES.

IIJCC/CSMC. Image showing participants of the meeting, including Mrs. Luminița Popescu, Mrs. Monalisa Cîrstea, Mrs. Laura Albu, Daniela Drăghici and Andreea Fedor.

Current projects and actions presented by non-governmental partners covered a number of important topics such as: completing and improving the current legislation for child witnesses exposed to domestic violence (IJCC EU project), ways to finance social services organised by private providers, the possibility of involvement in the development of future guidelines for operational programs in the programming period 2021-2027, the implementation of a project to support victims of domestic violence through pharmacies, using a code and informing women by distributing informational materials in supermarkets, developing a project on the prevention and reduction of sexism, and actions on the representation of women in sports and in political life.

Similarly, the ANES highlighted the steps taken so far, that help to achieve common objectives. These steps include: organising a Technical Working Group ‘Equality, rights and values’ in partnership with the Ministry of European Funds, in which non-governmental organisations in the sector will be invited to participate in order to be able to discuss future funding opportunities; elaboration of a new project grant, funded by the Norwegian Financial Mechanism, in which, according to the law, partners from NGOs will be selected to initiate discussions with the Ministry of Transport Infrastructure and Communications on the necessary measures to prevent and combat cyber violence.

At this meeting, the Secretary of State, Luminița Popescu, highlighted the importance and the efficiency of a permanent and direct communication, and emphasised the essential contribution of non-governmental organisations in providing more information and the necessary support to improve the social status of women in our country. She noted that “this meeting, a real success, opens a new horizon, which allows us to think and plan the ways in which our individual or combined interventions can create in the future an adequate answer to the current problems facing contemporary Romanian society.”

IJCC/CSMC. Image showing participants of the meeting.

To follow up, it was agreed that the next stakeholders’ meeting involving specialists in working with children and women victims of violence in Court child contact cases will be held in Bucharest, and possible legislative modifications in this area will be discussed, supported and sent to the Romanian Parliament this autumn.

Click HERE to see the official press release on the ANES social media page.