Tackling Violence Against Women in Peru

Project: Tackling Violence Against Women in Peru: Strengthening Policies and Practices

Location: District of San Juan de Lurigancho and Huancavelica and Lima Regions

Partner: DEMUS

Although the Peruvian constitution provides equality on paper for women and men, the reality is very different. Women have less access to power and resources, and endure abuse and discrimination in their homes, the workplace, and in politics. In Peru, these attitudes, along with a lack of political will and widespread violence against women, have undermined the social and economic development of communities and the country as a whole.

What Womankind is doing

With funding from DFID, from the Department of International Development, we are working to reduce poverty, exclusion and the marginalisation of women and their families in Peru. We are achieving this by strengthening government policies and practices.

With our partners we are:

• Building the capacity of women’s organisations to monitor government policies and programmes to tackle violence against women to ensure that their demands and proposals are included at local and regional level
• Improving the development and implementation of laws, policies, and programmes to tackle violence against women in Peru
• Supporting government officials and parliamentarians to improve their performance in tackling violence against women

What we have achieved so far

Womankind partners make women’s voices and needs heard 

In 2011 our partner DEMUS waged a public campaign demanding that government fulfil its obligations with regards to reparations for victims of sexual violence during the armed conflict and implement the National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women.  This campaign reached an estimated 362,000 members of the public

Influencing decision-making bodies 

After intense lobbying and alliance building, the President of the Supreme Court of Peru agreed to create a joint committee with DEMUS to promote changes in the judiciary system to improve women’s access to justice. DEMUS has already proposed a formal set of criteria for judging cases of sexual violence across the country which is currently under review by the Supreme Court

Improving services for women

533 local and national officials and decision makers have improved their level of awareness and understanding on the national programme to tackle violence against women, as a result of DEMUS sensitisation programmes

Empowering women to participate in their communities  

To date 70 women’s leaders and 853 women from grassroots organisations were trained to actively monitor and propose changes in local and regional decision-making spaces. 14 of these women are now members of the Commission on Coordination and Implementation of the Local and regional Plans on Violence Against Women in the district of San Juan de Lurigancho and Huancavelica, and are in consultation with the Regional Government for the development of National Plan of reparation for victims of the armed conflict