Published on November 13, 2024, 9:34 p.m
/ ©KPÖ/KK
From left to right: Elke Kahr (Mayor of Graz), “Milkman” Lubomir Surnev and Claudia Klimt-Weithaler (KPÖ club leader in the state parliament); enclosed for free use.
From left to right: Elke Kahr (Mayor of Graz), “Milkman” Lubomir Surnev and Claudia Klimt-Weithaler (KPÖ club leader in the state parliament); enclosed for free use.
With an action in Herrengasse in Graz today, the KPÖ drew attention to the fact that one in three women will still be victims of domestic and/or sexual violence in the course of their lives.
von Anja Mandler
2 minutes reading time(347 words)
As part of the campaign, the KPÖ distributed milk cartons to draw attention to the new central emergency number for domestic violence, which was opened after years of efforts by the KPÖ club chairwoman Claudia Klimt-Weithaler was set up in the spring and is now being printed on milk cartons from some manufacturers in order to reach as many households as possible. “The fact that women affected by violence have low-threshold access to offers of help can be important for their survival. The central Styrian emergency number, which has finally been available since this year, is therefore a very important step. I am also very pleased that the state government has implemented my suggestion to print this number on milk cartons. This is how the emergency number finds its way into hundreds of thousands of Styrian households,” says Claudia Klimt-Weithaler.
Appeal: “Expand violence clinics!”
The communist sees a need for improvement in the violence clinics: There are currently only one in Vienna and Graz. These are of central importance so that those affected by violence can document their injuries in a way that can be used in court and can also receive advice from experts and refer them to support organizations. “Knowing that violence against women happens everywhere, this important offer of violence clinics would actually be needed in all district capitals,” said Claudia Klimt-Weithalerwhich would like to see more commitment in this regard from the state and federal governments in the coming years.
What Graz does to protect against violence
In Graz, Elke Kahr, a communist, has been mayor and women’s city councilor for three years. Since then, she has launched a number of projects, campaigns and initiatives to focus on protecting against violence in the state capital: “I see it as the task of all of us to take action against violence against women. What I often notice is that women affected by domestic violence are ashamed of the humiliation and suffering that happens to them. We work to ensure that these women receive all the empowerment and support they need to escape violence. And the perpetrators, not those affected, should be ashamed!”, so Elke Kahr.
Some of the violence protection projects that exist in Graz:
- STOP violence boards with emergency numbers on streets and squares
- Info screens in shopping centers (Citypark, Murpark) with emergency telephone contacts
- FRiTZi brings it – the women’s department’s mobile information stand in parks, shopping centers, housing estates and playgrounds
- Transitional housing for women affected by violence and their children
- Advice and help in violence protection and women’s facilities (information: graz.at/gewaltschutz)
- “Don’t look away” campaign in Graz cinemas as well as on buses and Bim
- Information brochure on protection against violence in six languages from the women’s department
- Free pocket alarms at the women’s department
A notice: This post was updated on November 13, 2024 at 10:35 p.m
