Ethical Guidelines for Counselling Women Facing Domestic Violence
This document lays down ethical principles and guidelines (translation of these principles) to inform counselling practice in the best interest of the client. Ethical principles include Autonomy, Beneficence, Non-maleficence, Veracity and Fidelity and Justice. The inclusion of principles that guide processes implies that the processes or acts involved during counselling and how these are undertaken are as important as the outcomes. In this sense, the end does not justify the means. Find out more →

Responding to Sexual Violence Evidence-based Model for the Health Sector
This paper is based on the results of establishing a comprehensive health-sector response to sexual violence. Eliminating existing forensic biases to rape and the neglect of healthcare needs of survivors, the model uses gender-sensitive protocol for medico-legal documentation of sexual violence, which focuses on informed consent, documentation of the nature of sexual violence, and collection of relevant forensic evidence.Find out more →

The Crucial Role of Health Services in Responding to Gender-Based Violence
The statistics are staggering: At least one out of six women worldwide—and a majority of women in some places—is physically assaulted or forced to have sex at some point by their husbands or intimate partners. Usually the violence is not reported, nor is it detected by those in a position to respond. Such violence is both a health and human rights concern: It inflicts physical and emotional harm and prevents women from achieving their full potential. Find out more →

Routine Screening for Domestic Violence in Health Services
Battered women often seek medical attention for abuse-related injuries as well as health problems that appear unrelated to any specific injury or predisposing health condition. In many cases a physician or nurse may be the only person women feel comfortable talking to about their partner’s violence. This provides health care providers with a unique opportunity to identify and assist domestic violence survivors. Find out more →

Ethics Boundaries - Sexual Boundary Violations - Who would you believe?
Sexual boundary violations (SBVs) in the doctor patient relationship encompass a much broader area than sexual harassment. It is hoped that this film be used primarily as a medical ethics educational tool to sensitize medical students to sexual boundaries. While the film focuses on one particular doctor patient profile, some of the broad issues of sexual harassment are similar in any power imbalanced relationship- whether it is teacher- student or senior- junior employee. Find out more →

Tackling Domestic Violence: The role of Health Professionals
This report has been written for a range of health professionals. It is intended to raise awareness of the scale of the health problem represented by domestic violence and to alert health professionals to the contribution they can make to tackling this issue. The report explains how health professionals can make an important contribution to tackling domestic violence: ? by asking women directly about whether they have experienced abuse; ? by enabling women to access specialised services; and ? by supporting them in changing their situation. In order to achieve this, training is necessary, and the report describes the nature of this training. Find out more →

Domestic Violence Toolkit for Health Care Providers
It discusses the importance of training for various sectors, including healthcare professionals, in order to understand and respond to domestic violence as well as better support victims (PODV, 2014). Healthcare providers are in a unique position to make a difference in the lives of women experiencing violence (WHO, 2010; Black 2011).Find out more →

Domestic Violence and the Role of the Healthcare Provider
Domestic violence, or intimate partner violence (IPV), is a pattern of assaultive and coercive power and control tactics used to emotionally, physically, sexually and/or economically abuse a past, current or potential romantic partner. This abuse is perpetrated in order to establish and maintain control over the victim.Find out more →

How Well Does the World Health Organization Definition of Domestic Violence Work for India?
Domestic violence (DV) is reported by 40% of married women in India and associated with substantial morbidity. An operational research definition is therefore needed to enhance understanding of DV epidemiology in India and inform DV interventions and measures. To arrive at a culturally-tailored definition, it aimed to better understand how definitions provided by the World Health Organization... Find out more →