What Maple has done against domestic violence

Beijing Maple Women's Psychological Counseling Centre was founded in 1988. In 1992 we set up the first hotline for women in China. After that we have received many calls from victims of domestic violence. Maple’s mission is: to care about physical and mental health of women and promote their comprehensive development. Among all the calls on domestic violence about 70% of them are about husband beating wife. Therefore, it has always been a focus of Maple to care about abused women’s physical and mental health and promote their growth and development.

We believe that there are three parts necessary to fight against domestic violence. First, legislation; it is first of all the governments’ responsibility to prevent domestic violence. One important task for governments is to formulate laws and regulations against domestic violence, so women’s legitimate right can be protected, their personal safety can be guaranteed and abusers can be punished.

  

The second part is building one social assistance system and mechanism for abused women, which provides one-stop service covering crisis intervention, violence elimination, and assistance to abused women so that they can start their lives anew.

 

The third part is creating a new social custom of respecting women and gender equality. It is critical to abandon the discrimination against women and cut off the chain through which domestic violence is passed on from generation to generation.

 

What Maple has done centers on the above three parts:

1.     To promote legislation Maple has made substantive researches and investigations;

After Maple set up the first hotline for women in 1992, we have received a lot of calls on domestic violence. Since 1994 we have started investigations and studies on domestic violence in China, four of our major research projects covering issues such as why men will abuse women, why women don’t leave after abused and how we can prevent domestic violence, and so on. We have also held conferences and forums national wide, published our findings and submitted numerous proposals for legislation on domestic violence to National People’s Congress (NPC) and National Committee of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Maple plays an active role in adding laws on prohibiting domestic violence in the process of promoting the revision of Marriage Law and Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women. We have also offered suggestions and opinions to improve regarding the issues abused women have in law enforcement and the problems in the judicial interpretation by the Supreme Court. When the NPC put legislation against domestic violence on agenda, we submitted to the NPC proposals that abusers who are charged with misdemeanor should be incriminated.

 

2.     To provide social assistance for abused women Maple has played a unique role;

a.     The abused women’s needs are of two aspects: physical and legal ones as well as psychological and mental needs. Maple offers psychological and social support for abused women through hotlines. In 2004 Maple set up a hotline specifically for domestic violence, providing follow-up service for those victims in need such as face to face consultation, escorting them to the police station, referring them to the legal aid agencies etc.;

b.     Maple creates Half-sky Home, a new pattern for abused women to protect their rights and develop in communities

Maple has launched the 5-year pilot project of Community Intervention in Family issues, in cooperation with Women’s Federation of Tianjin since 2001. This project aims to build up community supporting network based on preventing domestic violence, and advocates the key concepts of gender equality and women-oriented. Consequently not only complaints about domestic violence have decreased sharply, but also women’s self-awareness and their family position have been increased significantly, which as a whole have promoted harmony of family. Half-sky Home is said to be “a new standing point for harmonious Tianjin”. Since early 2008 Tianjin Municipal government decided to promote the pattern of Half-sky Home to all communities of Tianjin. By earlier 2012, Half-sky Home project has covered all communities in urban area of Tianjin, and been introduced to suburban counties. All China Women’s Federation (ACWF) has also valued the brand of Half-sky Home.

3.     To publicize the concepts of gender equality and anti-domestic violence Maple has made great efforts in educating people

a.     Community is the priority of Maple to advertise domestic violence and spread the idea that domestic violence is illegal. In 2010, Maple launched a campaign of “building home into a safe harbor” in 50 communities of three districts in Beijing. Some male residents volunteered to organize a guard to persuade men prone to domestic violence to treat their wives equally, which as a result nipped domestic violence in the bud. In 2012 Maple launched a major public campaign to “speak out” domestic violence in major cities including Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Chengdu, as well as some cities in Hebei province.

b.     On the International Anti-domestic Violence Day, Maple holds various activities to advertise about domestic violence, such as distributing leaflets or brochures in the streets, parks or shopping malls; offering free legal and psychological counseling; convening forums and so on. Maple also works with the media to increase the influence of our work.

c.     One important reason why domestic violence is difficult to eliminate is because of the influence of old customs and views passed on from generation to generation. In 2011 Maple launched the project of “Inheriting No Domestic Violence” in Guangping County, Hebei Province. We informed students the danger of domestic violence and the concepts of gender equality through lectures in primary schools and middle schools, hoping they understand how to face domestic violence and form new concepts of respecting females and treating females equally.

 

Our prospect:

 

The term of domestic violence is imported from western countries. In the past it was common for husband to beat wife in China. Unless wife was beaten dead or severely injured, no government officials would interfere. In the past decade tremendous progress has been made against domestic violence though, there’s still room for improvement, such as no specific legislation for prevention of domestic violence or no systematic mechanism of social assistance for victims. Some women’s organizations and non-government organizations have made some efforts voluntarily, though; they are not possible to provide integrated service for victims of domestic violence. As for the change of social discrimination against women, it would be an even arduous task that can’t be fulfilled shortly. Therefore, there’s a long way to go.

 

Maple has always been a pioneer in anti-domestic violence in China. In the future, we will make efforts in the following two fields: first, to set up temporary shelters that are badly needed and can be acceptable for victims; second, to stop domestic violence against children; We are looking forward to your support and cooperation, so we can be a better back-up for abused women and children and offer them better service.