ON AUGUST 24, the cabinet passed a national action plan helping to prevent and eliminate violence against women. The plan should strengthen women's access to legal protection.
The plan, submitted by the Labour Ministry, is designed to prevent rights violations of victims of violence. The plan ensures that Slovak law grant free, safe and dignified life for female victims of violence by the end of 2008, the SITA news agency reported.
The action plan defines violence against women as including physical, sexual and mental violence as well as threatening, exerting pressure and restricting a woman's right to personal liberty.
The plan also assigns new tasks for the Labour Ministry. For example, it will offer assistance to victims of domestic violence through its website by the end of the year. A group of experts on the prevention and elimination of violence against women and domestic violence, which is part of the cabinet's crime prevention council, will convene in October to coordinate the plan's fulfilment.
