Last week the conference Stop the backlash – Stop domestic violence was held in Helsinki. WAVE’s president Pille Tsopp-Pagan, together with the general secretary of The Federation of Mother and child homes and Shelters Riitta Särkelä presented the Helsinki Declaration to the representatives of current and upcoming EU-Presidencies: Finland (Minister of foreign affairs Pekka Haavisto) and Croatia (State Secretary, Croatian Ministry for Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy, Marija Pletikosa).

The Conference welcomed Tuula Haatainen, president of the Federation of Mother and child homes and Shelters, Tarja Halonen, former president of Finland, Neil Datta, Secretary of the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual & Reproductive Rights and Marceline Naudi, GREVIO president and longstanding WAVE Member.

The themes of the conference covered the implementation of the Istanbul Convention as well as an expert panel discussion on ways to stop domestic violence in the European Union. The second day tackled the rights of the child and domestic violence as well as the Helsinki Declaration message to the Finnish and Croatian EU presidencies. The declaration encouraged EU member states, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament and European Commission to take urgent and concrete actions against the backlash against women´s rights and gender equality.

This is a huge initiative and we are extremely proud of our sisters in Helsinki who passed on the declaration !

More information on the declaration here.