Second Action Plan of the Federal Government to Combat Violence against Women

Abstract

In the first action plan to combat violence against women, published in 1999, the Federal Government agreed upon and implemented an overall concept that included measures within its area of responsibility. It provided impetus for a number of projects that have since proved very successful in practice. These include the Protection against Violence Act, Intervention Projects against Domestic Violence, material on dealing with victims of domestic violence in inpatient medical care, and the Act on Raising Children without Violence. The results of the broadly based study entitled “Health, Well-Being and Personal Safety of Women in Germany”, commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (Representative Study) illustrated that women are affected by many forms of violence to a great extent. The perpetrators are for the most part men, and many of the acts take place in the immediate social context. All of the acts have extensive health and social consequences. With the Second Action Plan, the questions and challenges posed by this study, as well as by other research and information from everyday practice shall be confronted.