Presentation

In recent years, we have seen an effort in order to increase institutional help for women in situations of violence with the creation of the National Plans for Equality and Against Domestic Violence (PNCVD), the creation of more shelters, the multiplying of support structures, the formation of polices, and an increasing awareness raising by health professionals. Besides these measures, the policies developed in Portugal have been going through a strong commitment to change the law. Women are ever more encouraged by the different institutions to make a formal complaint against their aggressors. But, what real help do these women receive?

It is essential to identify and characterized the institutions present in the courses taken by women victim of domestic violence - state or civil society -, to know in what stage they appear, to analyse they operation, to understand what networking mechanisms, both formal and informal, they establish among themselves, to assess the persisting problems, and the present and future challenges.

Thus, this colloquium aims at thinking about the role of the State and civil society in helping women in situations of domestic violence, and how the institutions interact, dialogue and establish, or not, action dynamics capable of speeding processes which contribute to overcoming the structures and social relationships that promote or perpetuate the violence against women.
Gathering professionals and researchers from different fields, we intend, with this colloquium, to contribute toward the discussion about the necessary measures to be implemented in order to guarantee an efficient, swift, decent and just institutional itinerary from the complaint until the court decision, without forgetting the post-court decision period.

This colloquium includes open sessions and paper presentations. Papers must focus on the event's general theme, presenting results from researches, theoretical reflections or interpretative proposals which contribute toward a wide debate about the portrait of domestic violence in Portugal, as well as the dilemmas and challenges faced by the State and Civil Society in the struggle against this problem. These sessions are intended to promote a interdisciplinary discussion, crossing perspectives from several fields of study.

Program

9 am - 9.30 am – Opening session

9.30 am -11 am – State, politics and domestic violence
Marta Silva (Portuguese Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality)
Madalena Duarte and Ana Oliveira (CES)
Cecília Santos (CES and University of San Francisco)
Chair- Sílvia Portugal (CES)

11.15 am - 12.45 pm – Law, gender and violence against women
Teresa Féria (Judge. Portuguese Association of Female Legal Professionals)
Plácido Conde Fernandes (Centre for Judicial Studies))
Chair - João Paulo Dias (CES)  
                          
12.45 pm - 14 pm – Lunch

14 pm - 15.15 pm – Parallel sessions 1 through 4 [FULL DETAILS]

15.30 pm - 17.30 pm – Women in situations of domestic violence: building narratives of hope
Maria José Magalhães (Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Porto)
Yvette Taylor (London South Bank University)
Catherine Donovan (University of Sunderland)
Chair - Ana Cristina Santos (CES)

17.40 pm - 19 pm – Parallel sessions 5 through 8 [FULL DETAILS]

19 pm – End

Registration is open [*]
Students  - 10 euros
General public - 15 euros

[*] The organization does not guarantee that registrations made after October 23rd will receive the colloquium's material.

Organization: Madalena Duarte e Ana Oliveira (Within the scope of the Project Trajectories of Hope: institutional itineraries of women in situation of domestic violence, coordinated by Boaventura de Sousa Santos and funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology).