HYMENAEUS - improving legal response and access to the law for victims of domestic violence

HYMENAEUS

What did this initiative focus on?

It is already forseable the need of bilateral legislative and policy changes concerning criminal law and procedure protection of the victims of domestic violence. In particular, in order to fully understand the procedure and their rights, victims need to have access to simple language they can fully understand.

So, after conducting a survey on victims of domestic violence’s level of understanding of the language used by the law and by practitioners, we will produce a sample on how to improve the communication of the legal system with the victims of domestic violence, by simplifying language, and present it to the competent authorities to be implemented. We will also hold a seminar in Oporto Law School to draw attention to the importance of the use of accessible language when addressing the victims of domestic violence and how to achieve that goal.

Target subjects will be professionals who interact with these victims, such as police officers, public prosecutors, and lawyers. Finally, we will present legal and policy change recommendations to the Portuguese Parliament and CIG and the same will happen in Norway. With this initiative, we expect to deepen the knowledge on domestic violence intervention, improve de legal response and access to the law for victims of domestic violence in both countries and deepen the academic relations between the researchers of both Universities and establish new paths of joint research concerning vulnerable victims.