Greece on Friday toughened penalties for home violence in an effort to handle a surge in reported cases, although critics mentioned the brand new laws didn’t go far sufficient and ignored essential measures aimed toward prevention.
Throughout fiery debates in Parliament, opposition legislators mentioned 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 circumstances, whereas victims will now not be obligated to seem in court docket.
The invoice additionally seeks to align Greek legislation with a European Union directive from 2024 aimed 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 ladies’s teams have argued that the brand new Greek laws is just a fragmentary utility of the directive, they usually have referred to as for measures corresponding to public consciousness campaigns, higher entry to justice for victims, and improved information assortment and cooperation amongst officers, nongovernmental organizations and different specialists.
Whereas defending the invoice in Parliament, Ioannis Bougas, the deputy justice minister, mentioned 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 Middle, an Athens-based nonprofit that provides assist to victims of home violence, mentioned the invoice was a “missed alternative.” The middle had criticized the legislation for not reflecting the “holistic and long-term insurance policies” of the European directive.
“It leaves out, with none justification, provisions aimed toward bettering safety for susceptible teams together with lesbians, older individuals, migrants and the poor,” Ms. Vouyioukas added.
Official figures have proven a big rise in experiences of home violence in Greece not too long ago. Final yr, there have been 22,080 circumstances — nearly double the quantity from a yr earlier, in response to 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 preserve 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 mentioned, citing the shortage of information.
A landmark second got here in 2021 when Mr. Mitsotakis and the nation’s president, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, expressed their assist for Sofia Bekatorou, an Olympic crusing champion who accused a top 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 referred to as the brand new legislation “harmful” and mentioned that it could “change into a pretext for a brand new narrowing of particular person rights.” In an announcement on Monday, the union took difficulty with a variety of provisions, together with the truth that defendants could possibly be convicted with out with 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 elements of the laws — corresponding to extending pretrial detention — violate constitutional protections together with the presumption of innocence and the fitting to a good trial.
Clio Papapadoleon, a lawyer who has represented victims of home violence, mentioned 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 mentioned. “You need to consider the psychology of those individuals: If somebody has three youngsters along with her companion she’ll assume twice about reporting him if she is aware of he’s going to go to jail instantly.”
Michalis Chrysochoidis, the general public order minister, mentioned final month that tackling home violence was a nationwide precedence. Final yr, after a 28-year-old girl was fatally stabbed outdoors 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 fitting route, most authorities motion has been a response to particular person tragedies, Ms. Papapadoleon mentioned, 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 mentioned.
