Greece on Friday toughened penalties for home violence in an effort to handle a surge in reported cases, although critics stated the brand new laws didn’t go far sufficient and overlooked essential measures aimed toward prevention.
Throughout fiery debates in Parliament, opposition legislators stated that the conservative authorities, led by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, had concentrated an excessive amount of on punishment. The brand new legislation extends pretrial detention and permits sentences to be suspended solely in distinctive instances, whereas victims will now not be obligated to look in court docket.
The invoice additionally seeks to align Greek legislation with a European Union directive from 2024 aimed toward lowering home violence. However attorneys, judges and girls’s teams have argued that the brand new laws is simply a fragmentary software of that framework and leaves out preventative measures reminiscent of consciousness campaigns and higher entry to authorized help.
Earlier than the vote, Ioannis Bougas, the deputy justice minister, rejected that view, saying the invoice “deepens the framework of safety for victims of home violence.” The laws finally handed on Friday with 157 votes within the 300-seat Greek Parliament, largely reflecting the federal government’s majority.
Anna Vouyioukas, an advocacy officer on the Diotima Heart, an Athens-based nonprofit that provides help to victims of home violence, stated the invoice was a “missed alternative.”
“It leaves out, with none justification, provisions aimed toward enhancing safety for weak teams together with lesbians, older individuals, migrants and the poor,” she added.
Official figures have proven a major rise in reviews of home violence in Greece lately. Final 12 months, there have been 22,080 instances — virtually double the quantity from a 12 months earlier, in accordance with the police. Arrests additionally roughly doubled over the identical interval, reaching 13,503.
Whether or not these will increase are as a result of a worsening underlying drawback or a larger willingness to report stays unclear. The police didn’t maintain particular statistics on home violence till 2020 — signaling how attitudes have solely lately modified and making long-term comparisons tough.
“It’s a fancy phenomenon, it is going to take years of analysis to isolate the causes,” Ms. Vouyioukas of the Diotima Heart stated, citing the shortage of information.
A landmark second got here in 2021 when Mr. Mitsotakis and the nation’s president, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, expressed their help for Sofia Bekatorou, an Olympic crusing champion who accused a top sporting official of sexual abuse.
The Greek union of judges and prosecutors referred to as the brand new legislation “harmful” and stated that it will “grow to be a pretext for a brand new narrowing of particular person rights.” In an announcement on Monday, the union took challenge with a variety of provisions, together with the truth that defendants may very well be convicted with out having the ability to query plaintiffs.
Attorneys have additionally objected to the invoice and staged a walkout on Thursday and Friday as a result of they are saying elements of the laws — reminiscent of extending pretrial detention — violate constitutional protections together with the presumption of innocence and the appropriate to a good trial.
Clio Papapadoleon, a lawyer who has represented victims of home violence, stated the emphasis on incarceration was shortsighted and will have “disastrous” penalties.
“The automated detention of defendants will make it tougher for victims to return ahead,” she stated. “You must consider the psychology of those individuals: If somebody has three youngsters together with her associate she’ll assume twice about reporting him if she is aware of he’s going to go jail instantly.”
Michalis Chrysochoidis, the general public order minister, stated final month that tackling home violence was a nationwide precedence. Final 12 months, after a 28-year-old girl was fatally stabbed exterior an Athens police station by her former boyfriend, his ministry began an initiative to open dozens of state shelters for victims of such assaults.
Though change goes in the appropriate course, most authorities motion has been a response to particular person tragedies, Ms. Papapadoleon stated, including that the brand new legislation ought to have taken a extra holistic strategy.
“If it’s after the homicide, or it’s after the rape, it’s too late,” she stated.
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