The Union of Women Associations of Heraklion prefecture (UWAH), is an established Civil Society Organization (CSO) since 2001, which falls under the voluntary non-governmental, non-profit category.

It is actively involved in addressing Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) and safeguarding the rights of women and children, with a primary mission of promoting, implementing, and overseeing the application of the Istanbul Convention (Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, 2011) on local, national, and European fronts.
The organization’s primary focus is on delivering support services to individuals affected by VAWG. In particular, the organisation operates 1) a counselling center, certified in accordance with the ISO 9001:2008 protocol 2) a 24/7 emergency helpline 3) a shelter catering to women who have experienced violence and their children.

The organisation extends its support beyond the mentioned services by promoting the improvement of the quality of services provided by private and state institutions involved in addressing VAWG. This involves advocacy actions, specialised training (eg. Trauma-Informed Care, Risk Assessment) to front-line professionals, targeted collaborations and cooperation protocols etc.

In the realm of violence prevention, UWAH consistently organizes awareness-raising initiatives aimed at the general public, schools, women’s groups, and other relevant communities. It also operates a perpetrators’ intervention programme, in collaboration to the Prosecutor’s Office.

UWAH is working in close collaboration with like-minded organisations in Greece and Europe and participates in national and international networks for the protection and promotion of Human Rights, namely the “Women Against Violence Europe” (WAVE Network), the European Family Justice Centers Alliance (EFJCA), the “Work With Perpetrators European Network” (WWP EN) and the EUROCHILD.