OSCE supports seminar on domestic violence for judges in Kazakhstan

The OSCE Programme Office in Astana supported a training seminar on presiding over cases of domestic violence for judges in the framework of the judges’ annual retraining courses in Astana on 3 April 2017.

The training course was co-organized with the Justice Academy under the Supreme Court of Kazakhstan. Some 35 participants involved in providing social services to victims of domestic violence in Astana were acquainted with the newly-adopted standards of relevant services.

The standards, which entered into force in January 2017, detail practices and procedures that state and non-governmental organizations should observe when offering assistance to victims, including temporary shelter.

Experts and participants reviewed the legal basis for the provision of social services to victims of domestic violence, conditions for the admission and identification of victims as well as the minimum standards of care and services to be provided to victims. The training course also included some practical exercises and simulations to help judges better understand the victims’ specific needs and ways to interact, when a domestic violence victim is identified.

The social services standards have been developed this year by the inter-department working group partially supported by the OSCE Programme Office. The document was drafted in accordance with current national legislation and in line with the OSCE commitments, especially the OSCE Action Plan on the Promotion of Gender Equality (2004) and OSCE Ministerial Council Decision on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women (2005.)

The training seminar is part of the Programme Office’s multi-year efforts to assist the host authorities and civil society in preventing and combating domestic violence and in offering qualitative social services to victims.