The 11th WAVE conference “Stop violence against women and children” was held at the Vienna University of Technology from September 24th to 26th, 2009 to exchange expertise among WAVE’s Focal Point delegates.

The first part of the meeting was dedicated to WAVE Public Conference and the second – to WAVE Network Meeting. Through September 24-26, 2009 the Silent Witnesses Campaign was hosted by the WAVE conference too.

Experts of Domestic Violence, shelter workers and counselors met to discuss several topics on international measures to end violence against women, rights of migrant and refugee women. Policies and legislation on violence against women as well as implementation of national and international law were also core topics of the public WAVE conference. Participants of panel discussions showed active participation and commitment to improve the situation of violence against women in their countries. 

Parallel workshops on improving the protection of children from domestic violence, secure social-economic rights of women survivors of violence (focus on migrant women), standards of quality services for women survivors of violence (focus on migrant women) as well as strategies to end impunity of (sexual) violence against women were held during the WAVE Network Meeting for members.

The 11th WAVE conference also hosted a Silent Witnesses campaign from September 24-26, 2009 that commemorated women who were murdered by their partners or former partners. Each figure of the exhibition represented a woman who was killed in Austria in past years. These women were full of life, they had families, friends – and dreams. Now they are silent, forever. They cannot tell what happened. It is upon us not to forget their stories and to remember them. All the stories that were told in the context of the campaign had one aspect in common: the murders did not happen out of the blue. Each of these women had been abused and threatened by their partners for a long time, some of them for many years. And a few of the murders had been announced.

At the end of the conference, WAVE Network meeting participants were invited to discuss future networking: goals, activities, responsibilities as well as planning of the 2010 & 2011 WAVE conferences.

Participants were also provided with an opportunity to make study visits to Viennese Women’s Shelter, Austrian Women’s Shelter Network, and Domestic Abuse Intervention Centre in Vienna.