Conference organizers plan to disseminate widely the conclusions, along with specific recommendations for actions, hoping to stimulate governments and civil society to take a more integrated view of family violence and, accordingly, to take broad steps to address it.
Among the specific recommendations were: to provide additional support and training for front-line child-care givers aimed at treating and preventing family violence; to sensitize, train and mobilize UN agencies and government and law enforcement officials to give greater consideration to the mental health, economic and social consequences of family violence; to stimulate the development of educational materials, texts and even toys that emphasize gender equality; and to work on passing legislation that criminalizes all forms of domestic violence and provides for monitoring and enforcement mechanisms.
Already bearing fruit is the aim to stimulate international networking among NGOs.
Teresa Rodriguez, coordinator of the Violence Against Women Networking Program at Isis International in Santiago, Chile, said the Symposium opened the door to contacts with NGOs in other regions who have new and interesting approaches.
"For example, we are talking now with people in South Africa,
where they are just beginning a new government, and our hope is we can
exchange ideas and we can help the work there," said
Ms. Rodriguez after she had returned to Chile. "So you can say
that the conference is already helping to stimulate networking across
the world."