The theme of the parallel forum co-organized by The Garden of Hope Foundation (GOH) and the Global Network of Women’s Shelters at the NGO CSW62 was “Providing Shelter Services for Rural Women After Violence.” Representatives from various countries shared challenges faced by women in remote villages and the status of service delivery in their respective countries.

The forum began with a speech by UN CEDAW Commissioner Bandana Rana. She emphasized that in today’s world, the funding and number of women’s shelters are still insufficient. 24-hour hotline services had not increased, and the one-stop facilities were insufficient, so the road ahead is still very long. She expressed hope that women-oriented NGOs would strengthen their initiatives so that women could receive more subsidies and live dignified lives.

Then, Australian representative Julie Oberin and Canadian representative Lise Martin shared the dilemma and challenges faced by women in remote rural areas in their countries. The common points were a lack of resources, a lack of government attention, and difficulty in obtaining services due to geographical factors. Therefore, these organizations had to try to train more social workers to teach survivors how to use mobile phones and satellite positioning to find the locations of shelters and related services.

Margarita Guille, the representative from Central and South America, said that the current plight of women in her region has not improved much. Besides traditional values and discrimination against women in society leading to gender-based violence, political instability in the region had worsened human trafficking.

European representative Rosa said that European countries have the Istanbul Convention and the protection of women’s rights, but not every European country has incorporated domestic laws and regulations or specific services for female victims of violence. For example, helplines and shelter beds are often too scarce. In this regard, she called on European countries to develop a more complete shelter system for women and suggested that educational agencies should start instilling the concept of gender equality in primary school.

At the end of the event, a new trend of shelter was discussed, that is, long-term shelter institutions and social housing that satisfy women’s economic rights and housing rights. Taiwanese representative Chi Hui-jung, CEO of GOH, said that women were forced to return to violent environments because of insufficient resources. Survivors need economic empowerment and housing rights so that they can truly escape from the environment of violence, live independently, and look forward to the future.