Some 100 gather to protest violence against women

Prague, Feb 14 (CTK) - Some 100 people, most of them women, joined in Prague centre yesterday the international symbolic One Billion Rising against violence against women with which the organisers say every third woman has some experience and which Czech society does not sufficiently condemn.

"We hope that the symbolic rising may help start up political discussion and recognise that violence against women is a serious social problem that must be dealt with, not ridiculed and belittled," Jana Smiggels Kavkova, chairwoman of the Czech Women's Lobby, told CTK.

On the other hand, fathers who are locked in lawsuits for the right to their children, protested against being maltreated by women.

Zdena Prokopova, from Rosa association that helps domestic violence victims, said some legislation has already changed for better, but yet a non-stop crisis line and free legal help for the victims of domestic violence are still missing.

Prokopova and other activists called on the government to ratify the international convention on fighting violence against women that 23 states have done to date.

The event organisers said violence against women is much more spread than what statistics say.

Smiggels Kavkova said 554 cases of women's maltreatment and 632 cases of rape were statistically registered in 2011. She said, however, only 3 percent of victims report violence according to the findings of the sexological institute.