On June 10-14, a training entitled "A Power and Control Model:   Working with Perpetrators and Supporting Victims of Domestic Violence" was held in Minsk. 

The training was attended by 40 experts, to include psychologists working in the penal enforcement system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, staff members of territorial social services centres, as well as non-governmental organizations. In the course of the training, the delegates were introduced to the most common domestic violence scenarios, learned techniques for interviewing the perpetrators and methods of risk assessment in a typical conflict situation. 

The model of an integrated approach to countering domestic violence, which includes support for female victims and psycho-corrective work with male perpetrators, was presented in Belarus for the first time by the British experts Liz Ostrowski and Jaskaran Sandhu, who are staff members of the Domestic Violence Intervention Project (DVIP), which has been running in the UK since 1992. DVIP sets benchmarks for public programs working with perpetrators in the UK.  A similar model, adjusted to the specific local context, will be used in Belarus. 

“Just like any other, the presented model also requires internalization - awareness, understanding and adaptation - in order to make it work in the country and in the specific conditions.  Today, we are taking our first step”, said Tatyana Haplichnik,  UNFPA Belarus Programme Analyst, at the opening of the training. 

Liz Ostrowski emphasized that domestic violence was a global problem and not specific just to Belarus or the UK. 

“In the UK, this problem has not been solved yet, and we have come a long way - in the field of social policy, healthcare policy and government funding for projects that help to stop domestic violence, as well as in the recognition by every citizen of the impact of domestic violence on women, children and on society as a whole”. 

Tatyana Haplichnik said that not all countries focused on working with perpetrators. 

“As a rule, the highest priority is given to addressing the problems of women who suffered from domestic violence – by establishing shelters, hotlines, and crisis centres.  But everyone understands that you cannot work with only one side, you need to address both sides and resolve the problems of violence and aggression”. 

In the practice of some countries, undergoing psychological counseling designed after this model serves as an alternative to administrative penalty or results in remission of a certain level of criminal penalty. 

In their work the trainers used the Duluth model (USA), which sees the root cause of domestic violence in the gender stereotypes. This model is used in at least 26 countries to help male perpetrators change their beliefs and learn new ways of interacting with their female partners.  A key element of the Duluth model is the Power and Control Wheel.  This diagram illustrates the relationship based on the dominance of one of the partners and allows for comparing them with equal relationships. 

The underlying principles of the training were as follows: domestic violence is always unacceptable, it is intentional and the abuser is 100% responsible for the violence. 

Staff members who work with people involved in domestic violence have to meet a number of specific requirements, such as a high level of self-awareness, an understanding of the probability of reproducing  gender stereotypes and avoidance of such reproduction in their work.  Group work should be conducted by a male/female pair of moderators, while support to female victims must be provided exclusively by a female specialist. 

The program included work in small and large groups and used role play to model and understand the "victim-abuser” relationship.   The training materials included a manual with instructions for individual and group work with men and women, optional questionnaires for the participants of psycho-corrective work, criteria for evaluation of the completed work, and general risk assessment factors.  In addition to this, comprehensive information was provided on the support for female victims, up to the point of how to make phone calls. 

The training materials will form the basis for determining the mechanisms of a model for working with male perpetrators in Belarus, which will be tested in Brest oblast in the framework of the international technical assistance project “Developing National Capacity to Counteract Domestic Violence in Belarus in the Context of Increased Gender Equality".