File is not found

Police manual to prevent cases of violence against women in Guatemala

Guatemala, 15 October 2019. The "Police Didactic Manual for the Prevention of Cases of Violence against Women", aimed at children and parents in Guatemala, was prepared in a technical round table held with the Sub-Directorate General for Crime Prevention (SGPD) of the National Civil Police and the technical support of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime for Central America and the Caribbean (UNODC).


This round table analysed the main issues and violence experienced by girls in school settings, in the community and within the family.  
Violence factors were also observed and in this way the modules (self-esteem, types of violence and police role) were included in the document, since the objective is to generate a culture of prevention of violence against women.
To train police units in the use of this manual, Karen Vargas, a consultant specializing in security and justice, held a workshop for 35 units of the Sub-Directorate
General for Crime Prevention (SGPD) working on the prevention of violence against girls and women in schools.


Vargas explains that, in order to implement the manual efficiently, "it was necessary to create training spaces to teach the use of the materials proposed in the manual and to implement them in schools".


The document has been created to work with children in the classroom and includes reinforcement activities to be carried out with parents. Parents' meetings in schools will be also used to cover issues of violence against women and reporting routes.
The purpose of the workshop given by UNODC ROPAN consultant is to develop skills among SGPD police personnel on the use of participatory teaching methodologies in the prevention of violence against women.
For Vargas, the most important thing that a police officer should keep in mind when faced with the crime of violence against women is "the immediacy of response in the attention and activate the referral network when faced with a case of violence against girls and boys in the school environment, reducing revictimization".
The UNODC consultant points out that the policemen who participated in the workshop were part of the elaboration of the didactic material; that the themes of the manual are contextualized to the realities where the police officer does his work and that they are also part of the validation of the materials.
This training takes place within the framework of the Essential Services Package for Women and Girls Suffering Violence (PSE) project and the UNODC Guidelines for Module 3 Judicial and Police Services.
As of October 2019, the Guatemalan National Civil Police has dealt with 10,766 cases of violence against women.