Mission Statement

The history of the women‘s shelter Cocon (former “4^th autonomous women’s shelter”) goes back to the autumn of the year 1989. A group of five women from the Eastern part of Berlin came together to set up an association with one particular purpose: to raise awareness about violence against women and children in Eastern Germany and open up a women’s shelter which would offer protection, counselling and support for women and children affected by violence. In 1992 the women’s shelter started to operate.

Since then, we have been working on combatting violence directed at women. In the context of our work as a women’s shelter we are particularly committed to fight gender-based violence in the immediate social environment of any kind. Women from all walks of life are affected as violence against women is always embedded in social and structural power relations that disadvantage women and promote dependency. We therefore see violence against women not only as an individual problem, but also as a problem for society as a whole. Children, too, are always affected by violence and we offer them ways to express their own individual needs. The welfare of children is always at the core of our work.

In our work with the residents we pursue the approach of self-empowerment with the effect that women can find their own strength and free themselves from violent relationships. Building on their resources, we support them in developing and pursuing a non-violent and safe perspective for themselves and their children. We see ourselves as facilitators who pass on information on rights and how to access support systems so that their users can make self-determined decisions based on knowledge.

We are active in a number of working groups committed to facilitate the bureaucratic channels that women and their children affected by violence have to struggle with. Our goal is to exert our political influence so that society becomes aware of their life realities and thus we help to strengthen their rights.
We regard discriminatory structures such as patriarchal violence, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, racism, classism, ableism and ageism as characteristic features of our society. From our point of view and in the context of our work in the women’s shelter it is necessary to look at discrimination from an intersectional perspective.

We are committed to a discrimination-sensitive environment in our house.
We understand our commitment to fight domestic and gender-based violence, which we face on an individual as well as on a structural level, as part of our political work.

We call for the binding implementation of the legal norms of the Istanbul Convention. The Convention is an international treaty of the Council of Europe to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence. In addition, German courts shall take the necessary legislation or other measures to ensure that, in the determination of custody and visitations rights of children, incidents of violence within partner relationships are taken into account (Art. 31). As a party to the treaty, Germany undertakes, among other things, to provide sufficient shelters (Art. 23) and to prevent gender-based violence through educational work and campaigns (Art. 14, para. 1).

For us, the term woman includes everyone who defines themselves as women – regardless of the gender assigned to them at birth.