The Daphne Programme was set up to combat violence against children, young people and women in Europe, and to support victims and reduce vulnerability to violence. The Daphne Programme is one of the building blocks of the European Commission's fight against crime within its priority programme to establish an area of freedom, security and justice. The programme has brought together the experience of hundreds of individuals and organisations and has broken new ground in research and action in favour of Europe's most vulnerable citizens. Since the first initiative in 1997, Daphne has become an important part of NGO and public authority action in Europe.
It was estimated that around 3 500 children under the age of 15 would die in 2008 as a result of physical assault and neglect in the world’s richest nations. One in every ten school children faces violence at school – some of it so traumatic that suicide seems the only way out. Moreover, recent studies on gender based violence suggest that an estimated fifth to a quarter of all women in Europe have experienced physical acts of violence at least once during their adult lives, and more than a tenth have suffered sexual violence involving the use of force. One particularly serious form of violence is human trafficking, whose estimated number of victims in the EU is over 100 000 per year, 80% of which are women and girls.
Actions to fight these and other forms of violence are supported through the third generation of the Daphne Programme, with a budget of EUR 116.5 million. The general objectives of Daphne III are to contribute to the protection of children, young people and women against all forms of violence and to attain a high level of health protection, wellbeing and social cohesion.
These objectives contribute to the development of Community policies, in particular those related to public health, human rights and gender equality and actions aimed at the protection of children’s rights, and the fight against trafficking in human beings and sexual exploitation.
The programme's specific objective is to contribute to the prevention of and the fight against all forms of violence occurring in the public or private domain against children, young people and women. This includes sexual exploitation and trafficking in human beings. The EEA EFTA States have been participating in Daphne since the programme was established in 2000. Under the 2006 selection of project proposals, six projects have partners from the EEA EFTA States.
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