“Help with One Click” – petition for helping domestic violence victims
From all over the country, we’ve been receiving some disturbing information about the negative results of isolation, which on the one hand, caused sense of impunity for the domestic violence perpetrators, and on the other, due to frustration, brought domestic violence to homes, which had always been free from it. We have to act fast in order to help people, for whom their own home poses a bigger threat than coronavirus.
HumanDoc Foundation has issued a petition, in which we appeal to the Polish Police to create a way of quick and safe contact, thanks to which a person experiencing violence will be able to notify the nearest police station in a different way than calling the emergency numbers 112 or 997. Being in one house with the perpetrator of domestic violence, such a phone call may be impossible. We suggest a quick but safe way of informing the police via a dedicated e-mail address.
Our petition was widely discussed in the media – some main stations like Wirtualna Polska, RMF FM, Gazeta Wyborcza or even Super Express informed about it. The information was also published on smaller portals and parenting blogs, like Mamamdu.pl or Psychologists for the Society – a group gathering over three thousand specialists.
This action of HumanDoc Foundation was also described in “Duży Format” in a reportage by Ewa Wilczyńska, “Violence under Quarantine”.
signatures under the HumanDoc’s petition “Help with One Click” addressed to the Chief Commander of the Police.
– In France, Great Britain, China, Australia, Spain and New Zealand has been observed an increase in number of notifications regarding domestic violence of 30 – 50 percent during the epidemic. Similar information has reached Polish organizations, which help domestic violence victims, but at the same time, Polish Police observed a drop in the number of notifications in comparison to last year – in March 2019, 6373 blue cards were issued, while in March 2020 – 5307. This means that for some reasons – whether it’s fear or lack of possibility to make a phone call – victims do not seek that kind of support – says Izabela Żbikowska from HumanDoc Foundation, who is collecting the signatures under the petition to the police to open the quick and safe way of contact for domestic violence victims, e.g. a safe and dedicated e-mail address.