Women victims of gender-based violence in Cyprus villages must have easier access to help from state services, the president of the Pan-Cyprian Association of Single-Parent Families and Friends, lawyer Argentoula Ioannidou, stressed on Saturday, 15 November 2025, at a pioneering event in Kellaki, Limassol, on violence against women.
The Association’s event, which took place at the Kellaki cultural centre in collaboration with the community council, was supported by the Eastern Limassol Community Services Cluster, which, apart from Kellaki, includes the villages of Asgata, Vikla, Vasa (Kellaki), Monagrouli, Moni, Parekklisia, Pentakomo, Prastio (Kellaki), Pyrgos and Sanida.
It was also supported by the Amathus Community Services Cluster which includes the villages of Agios Konstantinos, Agios Pavlos, Akapnou, Arakapas, Dierona, Eptagonia, Zoopigi, Kalo Chorio Limassol, Klonari, Louvaras and Sykopetra.
Greetings were delivered by the president of the Limassol Communities Union Lefteris Perikli, the president of Kellaki Community Council Konstantia Antzouli and the president of the Amathus Cluster, Panikos Karkalis. Due to an unforeseen impediment, the president of the Eastern Limassol Cluster, Menelaos Menelaou was not present.
Key speakers, apart from Argentoula Ioannidou, were Aristos Tsiartas, president of the National Coordinating Body for the Prevention and Combating of Violence against Women of the Justice Ministry (under whose auspices the event took place); Anastasia Anthousi, former deputy minister of Social Welfare and president of the Mountain Areas Social Support Network; and Ifigeneia Papaleontou, deputy head of the Zakaki Social Services Office.
The interventions were coordinated by the vice president of the Pan-Cyprian Association of Single-Parent Families and Friends Chryso Cheimonidou, who recalled that the Association marks 30 years of life and action this year.
The discussion was particularly concerned with the implementation of the Istanbul Convention in the Republic of Cyprus for the prevention and combating of violence against women, domestic legislation and protective mechanisms for victims. A similar event on violence against women was expected to take place yesterday, Saturday 22 November 2025, in Pelendri (Mountain Pitsilia Troodos Cluster).
Community leaders learn about it first…
Local government has an important role to play on the issue of gender-based violence, since it is the authority with the most direct contact with the citizen and the woman victim, Ioannidou said, among other things.
Community leaders and generally local authorities may even be the first to learn in which homes violence is being exercised, but they do not have victim protection mechanisms, she added.
Local government has not been involved, despite the fact that the problem exists in all local communities, since there are no funds, but also because the local authority is still considered competent only for solving problems of roads and the village square and generally traditional works, according to Ioannidou.
The Istanbul Convention has already been incorporated into legislation in Cyprus, which prohibits all forms of violence – psychological, physical and economic – by a spouse.
However, the adoption of laws, the tightening of penalties, are not by themselves enough to stop the crime, she said.
The state needs to set up the necessary protection mechanisms in the Police for the effective prosecution of crime and in Social Welfare Services with victim support programmes to remove them from the violent environment, she added.
Family law needs to change radically so that women and children victims of violence are protected with immediate removal from the perpetrator, Ioannidou said. Education needs to change so that the next generation is better taught, she added.
The Pan-Cyprian Association of Single-Parent Families deals daily with cases of gender-based violence that destroys women and ruins the lives of women and children and that leads to femicides as the most extreme crime of gender-based violence, according to Ioannidou.
The Association faces the inability of state authorities to act immediately and support the victim, she said. Many times they could not prevent the crime, whilst they knew about it and underestimated it, she added.
Steps have been taken, we must acknowledge this, under the pressure of international conventions and society itself, Ioannidou said. Special domestic violence units have been set up in all district Emergency Response Centres, she noted.
But they are far from women who may live in remote neighbourhoods or villages, she added. The Welfare Office acts slowly and ineffectively and there is no immediate victim access, she said.
There are also no effective social and economic victim support programmes, according to Ioannidou.
The welfare state needs money to be set up and protect the citizen, and in the times we live in, this is considered a luxury, she said. So all excuses are put forward until we mourn victims, and then the responsible authorities come out to cry until the crime is forgotten, she added.
Violence against women has ceased to be a private matter we do not get involved in but concerns us all as a crime against human life and dignity, which when it happens next to us we must prevent, because otherwise we become accomplices, Ioannidou said.
At the same time we expect the state to proceed with more drastic measures and upgrade the handling of violence against women cases by the Police, strengthening violence units, training officers and recruiting all the necessary specialities for reinforcing investigation and victim support, she added.
We expect and call on the Social Welfare Sub-ministry and Social Welfare Services to go out to the countryside to set up women’s support mechanisms, Ioannidou said.
Parliament has an important role to play, which needs to upgrade its intervention and demand that the recommendations of the Grevio Committee be implemented and women’s organisations and bodies be heard, she added.
The president of the Limassol Communities Union, Lefteris Perikli, agreed with her, stressing in his greeting that communities constitute the closest level of administration to the citizen, since it is the space where there can be direct contact, trust and timely intervention.
We can and must in turn contribute with information and awareness actions and training of officials and community councils so that they recognise and deal with such phenomena of gender-based violence, with cooperation with state services, the Police, counselling centres, Perikli said.
Protection of women from violence is not only a legal obligation, it is a moral and social duty, a matter of humanity, respect and justice, he added. A society that tolerates violence against women cannot be considered either just or progressive, he said.
A window of escape and hope and support
Aristos Tsiartas, president of the National Coordinating Body for the Prevention and Combating of Violence against Women, assured in his intervention that the Body supports and will continue to actively support such events as this organised by the Pan-Cyprian Association of Single-Parent Families with the contribution of the Kellaki community and the support of a broader local government cluster.
As the National Coordinating Body, we recognise the obvious need to overturn deeply rooted mentalities and perceptions, but also the obligation to offer a window of escape, hope and support from a violent and oppressive life, from a threatening daily life which many women experience, Tsiartas said among other things.
Shaking off the fear, shame and guilt that many women trapped in the vicious circle of violence and abuse feel is not an easy matter, he added.
But it is the first step towards claiming their security, freedom and autonomy, he said. Survivors of all forms of violence are entitled to care and support to be able to heal their wounds and continue their lives under decent conditions, according to Tsiartas.
Tsiartas also assured that the Body recognises the difficulties and tremendous pressure suffered by women who are in conditions of multiple vulnerability, rural women, single-parent family mothers, elderly women with meagre incomes and generally women who are in conditions of fragile survival.
“One service alone cannot…”
Ifigeneia Papaleontou, deputy head of the Zakaki Social Services Office, referred in her speech, among other things, to the actions and programmes of Social Welfare Services and their officials, as well as to legislation concerning violence against women.
As she noted, in several cases violence victims avoid reporting the violence or do not decide to leave home and the abusive environment permanently. Or they may proceed with the report and then withdraw it, she said.
We know from our experience that one service alone cannot satisfy the multiple needs of victims, but the coordinated action of many services, state and non-state, is needed to support victims, Papaleontou said.
The state officially recognises the need for multidisciplinarity, and after a recommendation from Social Welfare Services, district multidisciplinary teams and the central multidisciplinary team have been set up, where all competent bodies are called upon so that there is a common intervention plan in violence cases, she said.
She concluded by saying that every form of violence constitutes a violation of the person’s personality and dignity.
Violence victims must be treated with empathy and respect and receive special treatment according to their personal circumstances, needs and difficulties, she stressed.
Each woman victim’s story is different, and each woman violence victim must receive separate individual support based on her own personal conditions, which are very special for her, according to Papaleontou.