Woman and children with disabilities

Project Background & Rationale

Gender-based violence and violence against children in vulnerable situations is both overlooked and under-reported, and the recent COVID-19 pandemic further aggravated these issues. The global report of the COVID-19 Disability Rights Monitor recorded numerous testimonies suggesting a dramatic increase in gender-based violence against women and girls with disabilities, including rape, sexual assault, and harassment at the hands of law enforcement authorities and family members.

Women and children with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities are often seen as lacking credibility; and perpetrators can believe that there is minimal risk of being discovered and punished. Harmful stereotypes concerning disability and gender exacerbates the problem: persons with disabilities are not considered as sexual beings who experience intimacy, personal autonomy, shame, and privacy.  

Denial of their legal capacity in sexual and reproductive healthcare decisions is commonplace and obtaining their informed consent is often not considered necessary. This overlap between gender and disability contributes particularly to the high levels of violence against women and girls with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities.

Between 2023 March and 2025 February, FORUM with an international foundation VALIDITY and three other national partners and implemented an EU-funded project called Disability-based Connected Facilities and Programmes for Prevention of Violence against Women and Children (DIS-CONNECTED). This project focused on improving ways that women and children can report violence and abuse, can access support services, and can move to a safer place. FORUM was the implementing partner in respect of Slovakia.

The project built on the expertise and experience of the Validity Foundation and the Consortium partners, which have previously: created practical tools for people with disabilities-victims of crime, to facilitate their participation in criminal justice processes in the Voices for Justice project; have investigated access to justice for children with mental disabilities; exposed abuses against children with disabilities in institutions in the CHARM project; and developed tools to enhance the skills of legal professionals to represent children with mental disabilities in a project titled ‘Innovating European Lawyers to Advance the Rights of Children with Disabilities‘. Validity has also been involved at the COVID-19 Disability Rights Monitor and the Global Coalition on Deinstitutionalization initiatives. 

Project Description & Objectives

The DIS-CONNECTED project focused on women and children with intellectual disabilities who were victims of violence in facilities and programmes designed to serve them. The project created a multi-disciplinary cooperation and response protocol with law enforcement, service providers and victim support workers to enable prevention, early identification, protection and response against violence that women and children with psychosocial and/or intellectual disabilities faced. Specifically, the project objectives were to:

  • Strengthen reporting and monitoring of violence in care settings; 
  • Train independent professionals to prevent, detect, and respond to abuse; 
  • Establish cross-disciplinary cooperation through practical response protocols; 
  • Improve access to support services with clear, accessible guidance and geo-location maps. 

Project Activities

The project achieved this though combined implementation of the following activities, which were implemented in 5 EU countries over 2 years:

  • Development and implementation of tools for identifying and preventing exploitation, violence, and abuse. This included developing monitoring methodologies and tools, creating a training manual, and training multidisciplinary monitoring teams to monitor services and programs. These tools were pilot tested and later used by trained observers to monitor services or programs in individual countries.
  • The development of multidisciplinary protocols for reporting and responding to allegations of violence, exploitation, and abuse, developed by national working groups of relevant stakeholders, which promoted a coordinated practical approach to improving access to support, reporting, and redress for victims;
  • Promoting access to support services, resources, and research findings through the publication of a national report in each country mapping existing legal and policy measures relating to violence against women, violence against children, and mental disability, along with an online map of available resources and recommendations for women and children with mental disabilities who have experienced violence and abuse.
  • The project also produced an international summary report and convened an international conference to further disseminate the tools and recommendations at the international level.

Project Research & Outcomes

Research conducted in Bulgaria, Czechia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Portugal assessed:

  1. the barriers defendants with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities face in the criminal justice system in accessing information, support and procedural accommodations that prevent them from participating, and
  2. the extent and manner in which law, policy, and/or practice (including promising practices) allow them to overcome these barriers, particularly through the provision of procedural accommodations.

Wee undertook group interviews with female clients of the facilities, as well as with selected staff members. The national report on our research findings (Slovakia) can be downloaded in Slovak and English language here:

National report SVKDownload
National report ENGDownload

At the same time, we have compiled our findings into an easy-to-read leaflet with information for people with disabilities, available (only in Slovak) for download here:

EASY_Fieldwork-findings_SVKDownload

Project leaflet_SVKDownload
Monitoring-Report_Slovakia_ENDownload
Monitorovacia-Sprava_Slovakia_SVKDownload

Training_Handbook and Monitoring Toolkit_SVKDownload
Cross-Disciplinary-Protocol_SVKDownload
Monitoring-methodology_SVKDownload

 Support Services Map – Slovakia

Additionally, we developed an accessible online support services map, listing available services for women and children with disabilities in the project countries. The map is searchable by location and type of service, making it easier for those in need to find support. 

Legal Background 

The project’s objectives and activities were grounded in the international and EU standards on access to justice for persons with disabilities. More information about the framework can be accessed here:

Consortium Partners 

Each participating country was represented in the consortium by an experienced NGO involved in the implementation of the project, as follows:  

Full Name of the Project 

Disability-based connected facilities and programmes for prevention of violence against women and children (101049690 – CERV-2021-DAPHNE).

This project was co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and did not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.