Algeria prepares strategy to deal with domestic violence

2006-03-07

Violence against women is no longer a taboo subject in Algeria. Recent studies suggest this phenomenon has grown and requires a serious response.

By Mohand Ouali for Magharebia in Algiers – 07/03/06

[File] Algeria does not have enough facilities to care for battered women

An Algerian National Centre for Public Health nationwide inquiry in 2002 and 2003 among 9,333 female victims of violence showed that in 60 per cent of cases studied, the violence was family based. Many victims were prompted to run from their marital or family home. The study also shows the emergence of a new type of violence committed by children against their own mothers.

Some women find sanctuary in refuges, but there are far too few facilities available. While the National Refuge Centre for Women Victims of Physical and Mental Violence was able to take in 107 women last year, it also had to send around 100 of them to other facilities because of a lack of space, according to director Hanifa Benghanem. Most young women who are victims of violence and come to the centre are either from parents who have divorced or cases in which the mother has died and they have been thrown out of their father's home by their stepmother. The centre has taken in more than 540 women since opening in 1998.

The development of a strategy to combat the scourge requires an inquiry at the national level by the Centre for Social and Cultural Anthropological Research of the Ministry of Family and Women's Issues. The survey will cover 2,000 homes in the regions of Oran, Algiers, Constantine, and Adrar. Its objective is to identify the various forms of violence, determine the causes and consequences of the phenomenon and to analyse the distinctive characteristics of violence towards women.

The project forms part of a programme of co-operation with the UN Development Fund for Women, UN Population Fund and UN Children's Fund. The programme aims to promote human rights through a reduction in violence towards women and its consequences for children and the family. In concrete terms, an improvement in care given to women victims of violence through a global integrated approach is expected. Along with that would be strengthening of the technical and institutional capabilities of the ministry, to create a governmental, parliamentary and professional coalition, and implementation of a network within civil society. An effort will also be made to better educate Algerian women about their rights.