Family Violence – Theoretical And Practical Aspects

Romania’s integration into the European Union caused a growing preoccupation with the protection of fundamental human rights whereas the fight against family violence became a central topic of the national policy. In this context, both the legislation and strategies adopted in the field have been modified in order to prevent and fight against this serious phenomenon. At both national and local levels, efforts have been made to conceive a series of instruments considered as absolutely necessary for the evaluation of this phenomenon and for the opportune intervention in due time, in order to guarantee better ways of protecting the most vulnerable categories, namely women and children. At the same time, there have been various efforts to incorporate the national legislation within the limits established by the international law in the field and to make the working methods used in the case of family violence meet the current European standards. The emphasis is laid on both the teamwork of the professionals who try to identify, take over and deal with the cases of family violence, but also on all the activities for preventing family violence. The fight against family violence represents also a fight for the protection of children and human rights as they are established in the UN Convention on the rights of the child, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.