Gaps and good practices of the systems to respond to gender-based violence on LGBTIQA+ people and the needs of the LGBTIQA+ communities
The recent pandemic situation of COVID-19 (declared worldwide in March 2020) has aggravated inequalities in society, a fact that represents a challenge to be faced jointly. Considering data from the IE SOGI (2020), it was stated that the pandemic has had a negative impact on LGBTQIA+ people, generating a high rate of social exclusion and violence. This fact, together with the lack of protection of LGBTQIA+ people or failures in its implementation, gave rise to the European project FREE-ALL in order to make visible the current situation of LGBTQIA+ survivors of gender-based violence (considering the intersectionality of risk factors, such as being young, migrant, woman, and/or trans) and to respond to their needs. To achieve these goals the project focuses on improving the response to LGBTQIA+ people’s needs in different areas such as health, education, legal and social. In addition, another fundamental pillar in the project is to increase the awareness, welfare, and training regarding the intervention through the
different activities that are developed. Some of the fundamental actions of the project are aimed at achieving networking for inclusive services. For this, the activities are directed at:
- strengthening existing networks of institutions and service providers at the national and international levels to improve the protection and social response to gender-based violence (GBV) survivors among LGBTQIA+ people;
- and exchanging good practices and inclusive approaches among relevant health, judicial, social, and educational services in relation to protection and support for LGBTQIA+ persons at risk or victims of GBV.
One of these activities is the present document, the State-of-the-Art Report that provides stakeholders’ analysis at the national level, the ways of working and the identified areas of improvement and will guide the organisation of the inclusive networking meetings to address the gaps of the protection system for LGBTQIA+ victims of GBV. The report combines the results of a desk analysis on national and international laws and conventions for the protection and rehabilitation of GBV victims among the LGBTQIA+ community, good practices in their protection and existing services available, as well as the research findings, that emerged from the focus groups implemented (Figure 1), to analyse the gaps and the good practices of the systems in the participating countries to respond to GBV against LGBTQIA+ people and the needs of the LGBTQIA+ communities.
