Why the federal government must do more to protect against violence

The Federal Council has proposed various measures in a report on violence against people with disabilities in 2023.
Among other things, the data situation and data quality as well as access to counseling and protection services should be improved.

Representatives of members of associations and institutions of disabled people’s organizations and industry associations welcomed the report.
However, they criticized that the recommendations were not binding enough.
And they called for an effective implementation plan.

Specifically, these demands were made:

• The disability perspective must be taken into account in all relevant violence statistics.
  And a research mandate is needed for a prevalence study so that the population’s experiences as victims can be recorded.
• The target group should be addressed proactively by those offering advice.
  The offers must become known.
• Quality criteria for protective measures must be defined and demanded so that the cantons can fulfill their supervisory duties in a uniform manner.
• An awareness-raising campaign for people with disabilities, professionals and the general public must be launched.
• Financial support is needed to develop and introduce protection concepts and reporting structures for service providers for people with disabilities.

Ms. Witness,
Disability associations and institutions have welcomed the Federal Council’s report presented in June 2023, but have called for further measures.
How do you assess the situation of people with disabilities affected by violence today?

Bettina Zeugin: There is a great dependency.
People with cognitive impairments who need help cannot get it themselves.
He or she is dependent on support.
In general, there is a lack of awareness and knowledge about existing support services.
And the services are not barrier-free.

What is the situation in our region?
Based on your experience, where do you see the greatest need for action?
Specialist agencies such as victim support need additional financial resources in order to adapt their services specifically for the target group of people with disabilities and to actively approach them.

Disability associations and institutions are demanding that counseling providers such as Opferhilfe beider Basel proactively approach the target group of people with disabilities.
How can this be done in practice?
Victim support could communicate with us via our channels: online via our website, newsletter and social media.
And also offline via events, general meetings, by handing out material at information events about our services such as vacation weeks or leisure groups and training courses for our volunteers.

What protective measures do you implement in your offers?
Insieme Switzerland, our umbrella organization, has signed the “Charter for the Prevention of Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Other Boundary Violations”.
We sensitize our volunteers accordingly and request a special private extract from the Federal Office of Justice.
This provides information on any judgments with a ban on occupation, activity, contact or area.

How can insieme and Opferhilfe beider Basel work more closely together?
As soon as target group-specific offers exist, we can implement joint measures.
One example is information events for vacation week participants and articles in our media.

Link: Insieme Baselland

Further information

• Interview with Necla Parlak, Managing Director of Insieme Basel
• Demands from insieme Switzerland to protect people with disabilities from violence
• “Charter for the prevention of sexual exploitation, abuse and other border violations”