European Economic and Social Committee Adopts Opin
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
On 16 March 2006, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) adopted an own-initiative opinion on domestic violence against women. The opinion states that “[d]omestic violence by men against women, whether physical or psychological, is one of the gravest violations of human rights…” (para. 1.1). It follows with a comment to the EU Council presidencies and Commission that calls for the safety and equal treatment of women to be a condition and minimum requirement for all EU member and candidate countries. The opinion recognizes the need for a pan-European strategy to combat domestic violence and calls for a preliminary study across the EU to look at the occurrence of domestic violence and its impacts. It also calls for Member States to create national action plans to combat domestic violence against women and to collect statistics on the problem. Finally, the opinion makes several recommendations relating to:
- Documentation of the laws for preventing domestic violence and prosecuting offenders and their implementation on the national level;
- Collection of data on domestic violence against women and other statistical trends
- Prevention of domestic violence against women;
- Promotion of intervention and cooperation initiatives, including help, working with offenders and empowerment of victims;
- Increased attention to the situation of migrant women
- Increased involvement of legal, law enforcement, educational, mental health, medical and welfare workers;
- Review of access and contact injunctions, including the need to provide a legal basis for expelling offenders from the home so the victims may remain;
- Increased attention to the situation of older women;
- Social inclusion of victims in general and in the employment sector.
Compiled from: Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on Domestic Violence against Women (own-initiative opinion) (SOC 218) (2006)
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