One-Stop Centres (OSCs), established both in private and public spaces in some countries around the world, provide integrated, multidisciplinary and cost-free support/assistance under one roof to women, girls and children affected by violence and abuse. These centres facilitate immediate access, both for emergency and non-emergency situations, to a range of services, including medical, legal aid, temporary shelter, police assistance, and psychological counselling support for survivors of abuse. In cases where these centres are unable to offer such multidisciplinary services on-site, they employ a referral approach, directing survivors of abuse or violence to their identified partners who provide specific support services while ensuring mutual coordination.
Most of the One Stop Centres in the world are either hospital-based as in Thailand and Zambia or police/justice-based as in Denmark and Mexico. Hospital based OSCs are far more effective at delivering medical care and behavioural and mental health services. Police-based or justice centres are far more effective at addressing legal issues, but often not that effective at connecting victims/survivors to healthcare or mental health providers.
In India, One Stop Centres have been established in every district of the country which provide integrated support and assistance to women affected by violence and in distress. The needy women including those affected by violence along with their children (girls of all ages and boys upto12 years of age) can avail temporary shelter at the OSC for a maximum period of five days. For long-term shelter requirements, arrangements are made by OSC in coordination with Shakti Sadan. In case, girls below the age of 18 years are referred to the Centre, they are also provided services in coordination with concerned authorities/institutions.
Multidisciplinary collaboration in the investigation of criminal cases against women and children has been recommended in multiple international directives, conventions and reports. Many countries and regions have developed strategies to promote cross-agency, multidisciplinary collaboration among the professionals engaged in prevention, recognition, intervention, investigation and prosecution of abuse/violence cases, so that trauma-informed, woman- and child-centred, culturally responsive and rights-based care to victim/survivor could be ensured. The aim of the multidisciplinary collaborative response in abuse/violence cases is to provide speedy justice to victims/survivors of varying age and developmental abilities, minimize their re-traumatization and assist them for provision of legal, medical, shelter and psycho-social services.
Multidisciplinary collaboration in abuse/violence cases is not exercised by law enforcement agencies in Pakistan. They don’t involve other stakeholders/agencies to share their information/experience in these cases and tend to keep the information to themselves which seriously jeopardize the process of provision of justice to victims in such cases. Although the multidisciplinary collaboration in terrorism cases has improved in recent years, but further cooperation and coordination is desired in abuse/violence cases regarding medical evidence examination and its preservation, perpetrators detection and intelligence sharing etc.
One Stop Centres are a very important platform for provision of multidisciplinary (legal, medical, shelter, financial and psycho-social) collaborative services to victims of abuse at a one place, but unfortunately such centres are missing places at city or district level across Pakistan for general public. It is, therefore, recommended that such OSCs should be established in every city where the representatives of law enforcement agencies, forensic medical experts, lawyers, psycho-social councillors/psychologists are present along with other state-of-the-art resources and equipment, so that the instant medical, legal, psycho-social and shelter services be provided to the victims for their rehabilitation and preservation of forensic evidence. At the same time the representatives of the multidisciplinary agencies in OSCs should be well trained and capable of handling the cases of abuse and violence skilfully.
The Standard Operating Procedures, rules and regulations to handle the cases of abuse by the representatives of multidisciplinary agencies in OSC should be well drafted and comprehended by the representatives. The SOPs/rules describe the roles and duties of the multidisciplinary agencies’ representatives in OSCs and key services offered by the OSCs with mutual collaboration of its multidisciplinary members. The system to respond the cases of abuse/violence in OSC should be like that, as soon as the case is reported to the OSC, the representatives of relevant agencies in OSC would be intimated instantly about the case if the information relates to them and appropriate action be taken by them instantly.
A good start to implementing the OSC project involves piloting it in any city or town and monitoring its performance delivery. Any deficiencies and loopholes in its functioning should be critically examined and eliminated. Once the OSC is fully operational and its loopholes and defects are removed, these successful practices should be replicated in other cities and towns, ultimately spanning across the entire country. As the communities in cities and towns become aware of the functions of OSC, it will automatically create awareness in general public about how to seek the multidisciplinary collaborative response at one place in abuse and violence cases. In this way, reporting and response rate in abuse/violence cases will also be increased and survivors will receive all the necessary support services at one place.
—The writer is a former Programme Policy Advisor at National Commission on the Rights of Child, Govt of Pakistan, Islamabad.
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