Domestic violence: specialized centers, emergency orders… Dupond-Moretti details new measures

These tracks had already been mentioned. This Monday, the Keeper of the Seals, Éric Dupond-Moretti, detailed a series of measures to combat domestic violence following the submission of a parliamentary report to the Chancellery. “We hope to be much more effective” in the face of “this violence which shames us” and is “everyone’s business”, indicated the Minister of Justice during a press briefing. with Isabelle Rome, Minister Delegate for Equality between Women and Menand the two authors of the report.

These measures, which will be the subject of decrees or bills in the coming months, had already been announced in March by the Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, as part of her plan in favor of gender equality, “great cause” of the quinquennium. Among them, the creation of a “pole specializing in domestic violence” in each of the 164 French courts. They will all include a team coordinated by senior magistrates from the head office and the public prosecutor’s office, with adaptation to local specificities. A decree will be published on the subject “at the end of this summer”, specified Éric Dupond-Moretti.

The government also wants to allow a judge to pronounce, in the event of “extreme urgency”, a protection order in 24 hours, demanded for a long time. The deadlines for these orders, authorizing the eviction of the violent spouse or a ban on contact, had been reduced to six days in 2019 (45 days on average previously). This procedure, provisional, will have to be re-examined by a judge “within six days”, specified the Keeper of the Seals, adding that it would appear in a bill planned “in the fall”.

Regional differences

The announcements of Éric Dupond-Moretti took place within the framework of the delivery of a parliamentary report on domestic violence. Their authors, Émilie Chandler (Renaissance MP for Val-d’Oise) and Dominique Vérien (Senator for Yonne, UDI), begin by noting the doubling of complaints since 2016 “in a context of freedom of speech and improvement reception conditions for victims”, as well as the “rapid” judicial response (doubling of convictions before the correctional courts, + 218% of removal measures between 2017 and 2021), even if the progress is not “at same level” throughout the country.

In their 59 recommendations, they emphasize the need to improve the “coordination” between the actors – shortcomings in the follow-up of violent and recidivist spouses have been revealed during several feminicides in recent years. Upstream of judicial treatment, it takes “a network of people trained at all levels of the chain” (doctors, social workers, civil servants, etc.) to do not “miss out” of dangerous situations, underlined Isabelle Rome. The mandatory danger essment grids are “far from being” systematically completed, note the parliamentarians, also suggesting to take inspiration from Spain, a pioneering country in this area, and to ess “on the basis of ‘an algorithmic calculation’ the risk of taking action.

The Spanish model

The authors of the report also recommend the creation of a file bringing together information on perpetrators – on which the Chancellery and the Interior are already working – and a better treatment of violent men (dedicated prevention campaigns, follow-up after prison to avoid recidivism, etc.).

Concerning children confronted with intra-family violence, they propose to professionalize the ad hoc administrators, who represent their interests, and to “allow the judge in certain extreme situations to deprive the violent parent” of his parental authority.

The report also recommends further expanding the issuance of “serious danger telephones”. Nearly 3,500 are active (+ 471% since 2019) but they remain three times less awarded than in Spain. As for the “anti-reconciliation bracelets” (1000 active), weighed down by technical problems, a new model adapted to the 5G network and with a more reliable battery will be deployed next month, promises the Chancellery.

The Ministry of the Interior has identified 207,743 victims of domestic violence in France in 2021, mostly women, an increase of 21% compared to 2020. 122 were killed by their spouse or ex-spouse that same year, according to the ministry. About forty women have already been killed since the beginning of the year, according to the ociations. Figures which do not drop, despite the measures taken in particular since the Grenelle of 2019, notes the report aimed at “Improving the judicial treatment of domestic violence”, submitted to the two ministers.

ociations disappointed

ociations defending women victims of violence considered the measures detailed on Monday “disappointing” or “incomplete”. “We have been waiting for this report for seven months and it gives birth to a mouse. He is very timorous, very unambitious in relation to the problem of family violence, which is mive,” Anne-Cécile Mailfert, president of the Women’s Foundation, told AFP.

While the government intends to bet on specialized poles, the ociations are asking for “a specialized court on domestic violence, a one-stop shop that would take into account all aspects of a case: violence, divorce, custody of children, compensation… With specialized judges who know the situations well and avoid aberrant legal decisions”, she added.

If the National Women’s Solidarity Federation (FNSF), which manages help line 3919 considers for its part that the parliamentary report draws up “a good inventory”, it would also have “wished that it would go further”, with specialized courts “which deal with cases at the same time in criminal and civil cases”.