Women’s shelters are at their breaking point

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Many Swiss shelters and women’s shelters are bursting at the seams – sometimes overcrowded. An increase in domestic violence has come up against stagnant federal and cantonal funds. This is despite Switzerland committing itself to doing more to protect women from domestic violence by signing the Istanbul Convention.

Research shows that the operators of the women’s shelters feel left alone with their fate. Women who have been through hell often suffer the most.

Switzerland is lagging behind in implementing the Istanbul Convention

The Istanbul Convention is an agreement by the Council of Europe to do more, even decisively, to combat violence against women. Switzerland joined the convention in 2018.

But implementation is slow. De Grevio, a supervisory body of international experts, sees a lot of potential for improvement. An October 2022 report states that Switzerland continues to provide “insufficient resources” for the fight against violence against women. As a result, there were “too few crisis centers for victims of abuse and sexual violence in this country, for short, medium and long-term shelter”.

Switzerland-wide problem

In many cantons, women’s shelters are therefore overburdened, as the “Zürichsee Zeitung” noted last week for the canton of Zurich. However, the problem also exists in many other cantons.

For example, when asked in a women’s shelter in the canton of Fribourg: “Unfortunately, we cannot process your questions in detail – we are just too busy.” However, an employee confirms a “utilization of more than 90 percent in 2022”, which has increased further since the beginning of this year. The aim was to achieve a maximum occupancy rate of 75 percent in order to have capacity for calamities on the one hand and to guarantee adequate shelter for the victims on the other.

It sounds similar in women’s shelters in Zug, in Aargau and in St. Gallen. They are all fighting an ever-growing problem with too few resources. In 2022, the police recorded 19,978 domestic crimes – and the number of unreported cases is likely to be much higher. The nearly 20,000 actions correspond to an increase of 3.3 percent compared to 2021.

Cantons too stingy

But how do women’s shelters manage to survive despite under-resources and over-utilisation? “We often rent demolished buildings or look for a temporary destination. This saves money and also allows us to regularly change the secret locations of the shelters,” says Lelia Hunziker of the Bureau of Trafficking in Women and Migration, which operates six shelters.

However, many non-governmental organizations that run women’s shelters feel that the authorities are increasingly failing them. “With the Istanbul Convention, the state has committed itself to protecting victims of violence, but implementation is delegated to NGOs with specialist knowledge. So we bear the risk,’ says Hunziker.

The shortage of healthcare providers is already great. The lack of financial resources makes it even more difficult for the shelters to find well-trained staff. According to Hunziker, however, some take their responsibility seriously, others barely. “Some cantons also refrained from paying inflation adjustments last year – that puts additional pressure on our budget,” she says, describing the situation, which has worsened since the beginning of the year.

Source:Blick