MORE THAN A ROOF OVER YOUR HEAD

The present survey focuses on those eleven minimum standards for women's shelters which were defined by a group of experts at the Cologne conference in March 1999. Our principal concern was to ascertain whether the women's shelters in the EU and candidate countries already complied with these standards. The raw data were obtained by means of a questionnaire which was sent first and foremost to WAVE's national network partners, the Focal Points. For the most part these Focal Points are national shelter networks or organisations with extensive experience in the field of prevention. Where such organisations do not exist, it proved difficult and in some cases impossible to obtain answers to the questionnaire.







Apart from presenting the results of this survey, we also set out to give a concise account of the important role played by shelters in preventing violence against women, of the principles upon which their work is based, and why ? almost thirty years after the founding of the first feminist women?s shelter ? they remain indispensable facilities for protecting women ? providing more than just a roof over their heads.

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