Changing Attitudes and Changing Laws on Domestic Violence in Central Europe

FAIN: FT-52529-04

Katalin Fabian
Lafayette College (Easton, PA 18042-7625)

Communist Eastern Europe denied domestic violence but post-communist social movements have achieved its public acknowledgment, including legislative action. I compare the Polish, Czech, Slovak, and Hungarian governmental responses and explore the differences of value orientations and policy measures. I contend that Central European NGOs developed a complex set of arguments to reflect the lessons learned from the gender politics of the communist past and the developments in human rights and feminist discourse. This proposed study aims to provide a systematic analysis, currently lacking, of the public and governmental reactions to domestic violence in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary.