Greece on Friday toughened penalties for home violence in an effort to handle a surge in reported instances, although critics stated the brand new laws didn’t go far sufficient and ignored essential measures geared 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 not be obligated to seem in courtroom.
The invoice additionally seeks to align Greek legislation with a European Union directive from 2024 geared toward lowering home violence. That framework places an emphasis on prevention and requires member states to criminalize acts like cyberstalking and different types of on-line sexual harassment.
Legal professionals, judges and girls’s teams have argued that the brand new Greek laws is simply a fragmentary utility of the directive, they usually have known as for measures reminiscent of public consciousness campaigns, higher entry to justice for victims, and improved knowledge assortment and cooperation amongst officers, nongovernmental organizations and different consultants.
Whereas defending the invoice in Parliament, Ioannis Bougas, the deputy justice minister, stated that the legislation “deepens the framework of safety for victims of home violence.” The invoice ultimately 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.” The middle had criticized the laws for not reflecting the “holistic and long-term insurance policies” of the European directive.
“It leaves out, with none justification, provisions geared toward bettering safety for susceptible teams together with lesbians, older individuals, migrants and the poor,” Ms. Vouyioukas added.
Official figures have proven a major rise in experiences of home violence in Greece not too long ago. Final 12 months, there have been 22,080 instances — virtually double the quantity from a 12 months earlier, in keeping with the police. Arrests additionally roughly doubled over the identical interval, reaching 13,503.
Whether or not these will increase are attributable to a worsening underlying drawback or a higher willingness to report stays unclear. The police didn’t hold particular statistics on home violence till 2020 — signaling how attitudes have solely not too long ago modified and making long-term comparisons troublesome.
“It’s a posh phenomenon, it’s going to take years of analysis to isolate the causes,” Ms. Vouyioukas stated, citing the dearth of knowledge.
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 high sporting official of sexual abuse. That episode prompted a wave of ladies to report sexual and home abuse.
The Greek union of judges and prosecutors known as the brand new legislation “harmful” and stated that it might “grow to be a pretext for a brand new narrowing of particular person rights.” In a press release on Monday, the union took concern with a variety of provisions, together with the truth that defendants could possibly be convicted with out having the ability to query plaintiffs.
Legal professionals have additionally objected to the invoice and staged a walkout on Thursday and Friday as a result of they are saying components of the laws — reminiscent of extending pretrial detention — violate constitutional protections together with the presumption of innocence and the suitable 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 more durable for victims to come back ahead,” she stated. “You must consider the psychology of those individuals: If somebody has three youngsters along with her companion she’ll suppose 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 lady was fatally stabbed exterior a police station in a suburb of Athens by her former boyfriend, his ministry began an initiative to open dozens of state shelters for victims of home violence.
Though change goes in the suitable 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.
