Association SOS Help line for Women and Children – Victims of Violence, Slovenia Ljubljana, 18th November 2019 A word of Survivor Fourteen years of surviving sexual abuse by my grandfather left many consequences. It is precisely for the sake of minimizing abuse, quickly detecting it and effectively protecting victims, that I publicly share my message, a survivors' message: »I wish we could get globally together and be aware of the power of child sexual abuse. The power that the perpetrator abuses against the victim and the power of the victim to survive and speak of them. It was extremely painful for me to repeat the testimony of what was happening to me. I felt abused and played out by those who ran the procedures. They did not realise that the act of sexual abuse is not equal to  "car accident and recovery after it. " Sexual abuse is an act that marks a human being from the inside out. They mark us and live inside for the rest of our lives. Wounds left by sexual abuse are not healed. The story of sexual abuse goes with us to the grave. With the experience, you can – with tremendous effort, processing, engaging with yourself, with your feelings and experiences – learn to live. But we will never be as we were before we became survivors of sexual abuse. It is unfortunate that only few stories of sexual abuse come as far away as mine has come. Too much is about proving and testimonial. Sexual abuse is the content that should be approached differently because there are not many witnesses in this type of action. Sexual abuse is not happening before the eyes of observers. Survivors are extremely injured, weak, full of disgust, misery, uncertainty, doubts, feelings of guilt, fear, which affects…

The European Women’s Network against Sexual Violence marks 18 November, the European Day on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, by paying public attention to the urgency of precise implementation of the Lanzarote Convention in the best interest of child survivors of sexual violence in European countries. In particular, we call for the necessity of putting in accordance national legislations with the Lanzarote Convention and organizing the whole of child-friendly judiciary – all that will prevent re-traumatization of child survivor during criminal prosecution. The most significantly, and in the line with the Council of Europe theme of the marking 18 November this year: Empowering children to stop sexual violence, we alarm European countries on urgency of introducing systemic learning on sexual violence issue as a hate crime, on gender and diversity issues within national curricula of kindergartens, primary and secondary schools in order to equip children and their guardians to recognize risk of sexual abuse and use available resources to get protected. We learned from sexual abuse survivors that no social change and improvement of their position in society cannot take place without having professional and general public trusting their disclosures, without understanding the sexual violence as a hate crime and without attitude change will reflect respect for survivors. The authentic social transformation begins when the child’s word and experience of sexual trauma is valued by us as responsible adults. No gender equality will be achieved in any society without safety provided by relevant social actors for survivors to speak openly and freely about their experiences and afterwards be treated with dignity. If you are a survivor, we encourage you to speak out and trust your Inner Voice. You deserve nothing less of protection than a survivor of any other crime. You know the best what you…

The European Women’s Network against Sexual Violence (EWNASV) supports the minor girl from the “Case Zadar” in Croatia and women human rights defenders from the Women’s Room, Zagreb, who have been presently exposed to attacks by ultra-right and retrograde groups.To remind, the Women’s Room is one of 4 EWNASV’s co-founders. Public announcement can be found HERE.

Incest Trauma Center – Belgrade, Serbian and the European Women's Network against Sexual Violence organized and held International Conference against Sexual Violence from 27th to 29th September, 2019 in Belgrade, Serbia. Conference opened with presentation of European Women’s Network against Sexual Violence VIDEO. After that, president of the European Women's Network against Sexual Violence, Dušica Popadić, welcomed all participants and lecturers. The Conference consisted of a total of 13 sessions, during which survivors of sexual violence and numerous experts from all over the world spoke about sexual violence and raised a number of important issues and topics. The detailed program and information about all the lecturers can be found HERE. We emphasize that Honorary Speaker on the Conference was Judith Lewis Herman, M.D. who gave a lecture on the topic „Truth and Reconciliation: Justice from Victim’s Perspective.” The Conference contributed to openly and decisively speaking about sexual violence and to raising numerous issues related to legislation and ensuring access to justice for all survivors of sexual violence. Furthermore, numerous models of quality direct work with survivors of sexual violence were presented, and need for education and supervision of persons working directly was presented.  In addition, the importance of networking and multisectoral cooperation in the field of sexual violence and ethical journalistic coverage of cases of sexual violence was emphasized. During the Conference work of European Women’s Network against Sexual Violence was presented, also as its co-founders and members. Presentations were held numerous representatives of the European Women’s Network against Sexual Violence:  Ljiljana Bogavac, Incest Trauma Center, Serbia, topic: „Speaking Publicy on Sexual Violence – the Road to gender Equaliy“; Maja Mamula, Women’s Room, Croatia, topics: „Sexual Violence – Unpacking the Contex“ and „Impact of Direct Work with Sexual Abuse Survivors on Helpers“; Nada Koprivica, SOS Center for Women and Children…

The European Women's Network against Sexual Violence will hold the International Conference against Sexual Violence in Belgrade, Serbia, from 27th until 29th September of 2019. Conference of the European Women’s Network against Sexual Violence is financed by the European Union under the Support to Civil Society Facility 2015. More about program, guest speakers and topics can be found on the link: 2019 EWNASV Belgrade Conference Program

During 2018, upon the call of Founding Team, the European Women's Network Against Sexual Violence was joined by six new organizations that are active in the area of ​​prevention and combating of sexual violence and in providing direct support  to the of ​​survivors of sexual violence. Below you can find out more about organizations that have joined the European Network. RCNI Irish national information and resource centre is a specialist information and resource centre on rape and all forms of sexual violence with a proven capacity in strategic leadership. They are the representative, umbrella body for their members Rape Crisis Centres who provide free advice, counselling and support for survivors of sexual abuse. More information about them can be found on ther web (https://www.rcni.ie/) and Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/RapeCrisisNetworkIreland/). DIXI Ressurssenter for voldtatte i Stavanger –  DIXI Resource Center Against Rape is an easy accessible information and counseling service for all persons who have been victims of rape and/or other sexual forms of violence. They also provide information for health workers, teachers and social services, and they are some of the most known advocates on this field in Norway. More information about their work can be found on their web (https://www.dixi.no/)  and Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/DixiKampenMotVoldtekt/). Support Centre Against Incest and Sexual Abuse Oslo (SMISO Oslo) is a private self-help organization that offers a range of programs to youth and adults who have been subjected to incest or other form for sexual abuse in their childhood. The Centre works as well with non-offending family members such as caregivers, siblings and partners. In addition to direct work toward the target group, the Centre also carries out preventive work aiming to raise awareness and change behaviors/attitude on sexual assault. Follow their Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/SMISOslo/) and find out more about their wwork! National Psychotrauma Center…