Violence within family units is a scourge that requires an overarching and innovative judicial approach to deal with the civil and criminal issues involved, to protect victims and punish perpetrators. When faced with these situations, justice professionals need to have a shared knowledge base that allows them to understand the mechanisms of these types of violence and the systemic solutions that need to be implemented. This training course offers an extensive overview of violence within the family. It will present the most recent legislative initiatives on the protection of victims of intrafamilial violence, the management of perpetrators and the role of children within the institutional framework. It will also provide an analysis of the underlying psychological and sociological mechanisms, whilst extending the discussion to civil mutual legal assistance in international child abduction cases. Participants will have an opportunity to reflect together on possible policies for courts, covering both the civil and the criminal aspects as part of a process of setting up institutional partnerships

Training objectives 

• Participants will be familiarised with the instruments used to combat intra-familial violence;
• They will also be trained to use the main instruments of criminal and civil mutual legal assistance concerning international child abduction cases;
• They will acquire a working knowledge of the procedures introduced by the actors concerned in the public and private sectors;
• Finally, they will be made aware of the notions of psychological trauma and the victim support issues.