40 Amendments of Pina PICIERNO related to 2019/2166(INI)
Amendment 5 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 5 a (new)
Citation 5 a (new)
— having regard to the Hague Convention of 25 October 1980 on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction,
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 5 b (new)
Citation 5 b (new)
— having regard to the Hague Convention of 29 May 1993 on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption,
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 5 c (new)
Citation 5 c (new)
— having regard to the Directive 2012/29/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime,
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 5 d (new)
Citation 5 d (new)
— having regard to the Directive (EU) 2016/800 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2016 on procedural safeguards for children who are suspects or accused persons in criminal proceedings,
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 15 a (new)
Citation 15 a (new)
— having regards to its resolution of 21 January 2021 on the EU Strategy for Gender Equality (2019/2169(INI)),
Amendment 63 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
C a. whereas between 70% and 85% of children know their abuser and the vast majority of children are victims of people they trust;1a _________________ 1ahttps://www.coe.int/en/web/human- rights-channel/stop-child-sexual-abuse- in-sport
Amendment 72 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas the lockdown and social distancing measures during the COVID-19 pandemic have been associated with an exponential increase in the prevalence and intensity of intimate partner violence cases in many Member States, resulting from forced confinement within the home and making it difficult for women to access effective protection and, support and justice; whereas in spite of the prevalence of the phenomenon, intimate partner violence against women remains under-reported in the EU for various reasons and there is a significant lack of comprehensive data;
Amendment 76 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D a (new)
Recital D a (new)
D a. Whereas domestic and gender- based violence has increased as a result of the lockdown measures put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic and according to the latest Europol Report1a child sexual abuse online in the EU has dramatically increased; _________________ 1a https://www.europol.europa.eu/publicatio ns-documents/exploiting-isolation- offenders-and-victims-of-online-child- sexual-abuse-during-covid-19-pandemic
Amendment 88 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
E a. Whereas education plays a fundamental role in building children’s and young peoples’ skills to form healthy relationships, notably by addressing gender norms, gender equality, power dynamics in relationships, consent, respect for boundaries, and helps to combat gender-based violence; whereas according to the UNESCO International technical guidance on sexuality education, curriculum-based programmes on comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) enable children and young people to develop knowledge, attitudes and skills, including respect for human rights, gender equality, consent and diversity and it empowers children and young people;
Amendment 115 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H a (new)
Recital H a (new)
H a. Whereas anonymous complaints and complaints later retired by victims may hamper further investigation by the authorities and present an obstacle to the prevention of further violence;
Amendment 120 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I a (new)
Recital I a (new)
I a. whereas the right of the child to be heard and fully informed in a child- friendly manner at all stages of the criminal proceedings should always be a primary consideration in accordance with Art. 4 and 16 of the Directive (EU) 2016/800;
Amendment 122 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I b (new)
Recital I b (new)
I b. where the best interest of the child should always be the primary consideration in all decisions concerning children, including family disputes;
Amendment 155 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital P a (new)
Recital P a (new)
P a. Whereas article 83(1) of the TFEU provides for the possibility to establish minimum rules concerning the definition of criminal offences and sanctions in the areas of particularly serious crime with a cross-border dimension resulting from the nature or impact of such offences or from a special need to combat them on a common basis; whereas on the basis of developments in crime, the Council may adopt a decision identifying other areas of crime that meet the criteria specified in the paragraph, after obtaining the consent of the European Parliament. Whereas article 83 (2) of the TFEU provides for the possibility to establish minimum rules with regard to the definition of criminal offences and sanctions, in order to ensure the effective implementation of a Union policy in an area which has been subject to harmonisation measures
Amendment 161 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Strongly condemnCondemns in the strongest possible terms all forms of violence against women and deplores the fact that women continue to be exposed to intimate partner violence which constitutes a serious violation of their human rights and dignity;
Amendment 164 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Points out that the Istanbul Convention is a pivotal instrument against gender-based violence; deplores the fact that the Convention has not been ratified by the European Union yet; regrets that to this date only 21 EU Member States have ratified it; notes with great concern that the effective implementation of the Convention is still patchy across Europe; calls therefore on the Member States that ratified the Convention to step up their efforts in ensuring its full implementation;condemns the attempts at setting back progresses made in the fight against gender-based violence, including domestic violence, that are going on in some Member states; supports the Commission’s plan to continue pushing for the EU-wide ratification of the Istanbul Convention; calls on remaining Member States to swiftly complete the ratification process; underlines, in this context, the need for specific measures to address the existing disparities in laws, policies and services between Member States and the increase in domestic and gender-based violence during the COVID- 19 pandemic; warmly welcomes, therefore, the Commission’s intention to propose a directive to tackle all forms of gender-based violence to complement and achieve the objectives of the Istanbul Convention, as the EU’s accession remains blocked; calls on the Council to add gender-based violence to the list of criminal offences in the EU;
Amendment 166 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Calls for ratification and implementation of the Istanbul Convention at a national and EU level; calls on the Member States to take all the necessary legislative or other measures to ensure that, in the determination of custody and visitation rights of children, incidents of intimate partner violence are taken into account and that the exercise of any visitation or custody rights does not jeopardise the rights and safety of the victim or children; commends all campaigns advocating the ratification and implementation of the Istanbul Convention and strongly condemns all attempts to discredit it;
Amendment 169 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. stresses the importance to fully and swiftly implement the EU Gender Equality Strategy and its key objectives on stopping gender-based violence;
Amendment 171 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1 b. Calls on the Commission to add gender-based violence to the list of EU areas of crime under Article 83(1) TFEU, taking into account the special need to combat this crime on a common basis; calls on the Commission to use this as a legal basis to propose binding measures and a holistic EU framework directive to prevent and combat all forms of gender- based violence, including the impact of intimate partner violence on women and children, and contain uniform standards and due diligence obligation to collect data, to prevent, to investigate, to protect the victims and the witnesses, and to prosecute and punish the perpetrators; recalls that such new legislative measures should in any case be coherent with the rights and obligations of the Istanbul Convention and should be complementary to its ratification; recommends that the Istanbul Convention should be seen as a minimum standard and aspire to make further progress to eradicate gender- based and domestic violence;
Amendment 172 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1 b. Welcomes the EU Strategy on victims’ rights (2020-2025) which will address the specific needs of victims of gender-based violence, in particular a specific approach for psychological violence against women and the impact on their mental health on the long run; stresses the need to address the current gaps in the EU legislation and asks the Commission to put forward, without delay, a proposal for a review of the Victims’ Rights Directive with regard to international standards on violence against women, such as the Istanbul Convention, with a view to enhancing the legislation on victims’ rights and the protection and compensation of victims; stresses the need for all victims to have effective access to justice through the implementation of the Victims’ Rights Directive, which is still lacking in some Member States; asks for the continued promotion of victims’ rights also through existing instruments such as the European Protection Order;
Amendment 175 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 c (new)
Paragraph 1 c (new)
1 c. Calls on the Commission to develop a European Union protocol on violence against women in times of crisis and emergency to prevent violence against women and to support victims of gender- based violence during emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic; highlights that this protocol should include essential protection services for victims; Calls on the Commission to coordinate the sharing of best practices between the Member States, to promote accurate and comparative data collection, to accurately measure the extent of such violence, to consider the possibility of producing forecasts, and to assess the impact of COVID-19 on the provision of key services to victims; stresses the need to urgently collect harmonised data on gender-based violence and calls on the Member States to collect and provide the relevant data when requested, including to Eurostat; welcomes the Commission’s commitment to carry out a new EU survey on gender-based violence with the results to be presented in 2023; underlines the urgency of completing such a survey due to the spike in gender-based violence, and especially domestic violence, during the COVID-19 pandemic;
Amendment 178 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 d (new)
Paragraph 1 d (new)
1 d. Encourages the exchange between Member States of guidelines, good practices and protocols that have resulted to be effective in addressing intimate partner violence, especially during emergencies; stresses that arrest in flagrante delicto should be compulsory and that, if legal conditions for arrest are not met, the alleged abuser should nonetheless be immediately removed from the victim's house and kept away from the victim's workplace to prevent the risk of further violence;
Amendment 182 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 e (new)
Paragraph 1 e (new)
1 e. Points out that education is pivotal to eradicate gender based violence, and intimate partner violence in particular; calls on Member States to include issues such as equality between women and men, non-stereotyped gender roles, mutual respect, non-violent conflict resolution in interpersonal relationships, gender-based violence against women and the right to personal integrity, age appropriate sexuality education, adapted to the evolving capacity of learners, in formal curricula and at all levels of education;
Amendment 183 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 f (new)
Paragraph 1 f (new)
1 f. Urges the Member States to continue analysing data on and tendencies in the prevalence of and reporting on domestic violence, as well as the consequences for children; asks the Member States to establish safe and flexible emergency warning systems, offer new assistance services by phone, email and text message for direct police outreach and online services such as helplines, concealed apps, digital platforms, pharmacy networks, and provide emergency funding to support services, non-governmental organisations and civil society organisations (CSOs); calls on the Member States to ensure that support services take a coordinated approach to identifying women at risk, to ensure that all these measures are available and accessible to all women and girls within their jurisdiction; invites the Member States to share national innovations and best practices in addressing gender-based violence to better identify and promote efficient practices, and calls on the Commission to promote those practices;
Amendment 192 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Notes that, in principle, shared custody and unsupervised visits are desirable in order to ensure that parents enjoy equal rights and responsibilities, as well as to safeguard the best interests of the child; underlines, however, that intimate partner violence is clearly incompatible with shared custody and care, owing to its severe consequences for women and children, including the risk of extreme acts of femicide and infanticide; stresses that when establishing the arrangements for custody allocation and visitation rights, the protection of women and children from violence and the best interests of the child must be paramount and should take precedence over other criteria; stresses, therefore, that awarding exclusive custody to the non-violent partner, most frequently the mother, represents the best alternativeonly way in order to prevent further violence and secondary victimisation of the victims;
Amendment 202 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls for mandatory targeted training for judicial and law enforcement officers, including judges, about domestic violence and its mechanisms, including coercion, manipulation and psychological violence, and about the relevance of intimate partner violence to children’s rights, and to their protection and well- being, as well as to provide adequate skills to enable the officers to assess the situation using reliable risk assessment tools; recalls the importance of European Judicial Training Network (EJTN) in this respect;
Amendment 214 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Strongly recommends that Member States establish specialised courts and judicial offices, as well as appropriate laws, training, procedures and guidelines for all professionals dealing with the victims of intimate partner violence, including raising awareness of gender- based violence, in order to avoid discrepancies between judicial decisions and discrimination or secondary victimisation during judicial, medical and police proceedings, ensuring that children and women are duly heard and their protection is given priority; emphasises the need to strengthen dedicated judicial offices and child and female victim- friendly justice, limiting the excessive discretionary powers of practitioners and establishing checks on child custody procedures by qualified professional figures;
Amendment 242 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to provide quality, gender- segregated and comparable EU-wide data on the prevalence, causes, consequences and management of intimate partner violence and custody rights, making full use of the capacity and expertise of the EIGE; stresses the key role of Eurostat and of Member States’ statistical institutes in producing high quality, timely and reliable statistics on gender-based violence, including intimate partner violence; recalls that such action is eligible for funding under the Single Market Programme for the period 2021- 2027, which should contribute in speeding up such production by Member States even in the ones where such data is still not collected or such statistics not produced yet;
Amendment 285 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
Amendment 291 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Calls on the Member States to promote betterfull access to legal protection, effective hearings and restraining orders, counselling and victim funds for women victims of intimate partner violence, and to apply particular procedures based on common minimum standards and give support to mothers who are victims of domestic violence, in order to prevent them from becoming victims again as a result of losing custody of their children;
Amendment 297 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10 a. highlights for this reason the key role of economic support for the victims in order to reach financial independence from the violent partner; for the same reason, calls on Member States to provide rapid and effective decisions on paid child support to avoid dependence of the victim and potentially dangerous situations also for the child;
Amendment 306 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 b (new)
Paragraph 10 b (new)
10 b. Highlights the need for special attention and specific procedures and standards for cases in which the victim or the child involved is a person with disabilities or belongs to a particularly vulnerable group;
Amendment 309 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 c (new)
Paragraph 10 c (new)
10 c. Welcomes the initiative of the Commission to put forward an EU strategy on the rights of the child (2021- 24); underlines the need to protect the rights of the most vulnerable children, with particular attention to children with disabilities, the prevention of and fight against violence and the promotion of child-friendly justice; calls for a full and swift implementation of the strategy by all Member States;
Amendment 311 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Calls on the Commission to promote EU-wide public awareness campaigns as a necessary measure in the prevention of domestic violence and the creation of a climate of zero tolerance towards violence; highlights the strategic role of media in this regard; stresses, however, that in some Member States femicides and cases of gender violence are still presented in absolutory terms with regard to the violent partner; emphasizes that instead the media should strongly condemn this type of violence and abstain from treating the violent partner with an absolutory tone;
Amendment 320 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Amendment 331 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 b (new)
Paragraph 11 b (new)
11 b. Encourages good practices already existing in some Member States to prevent further violence, such as the recording of the victims' telephone numbers in special lists related to stalking and intimate partner violence, in order to give absolute priority to possible future calls during emergencies and facilitate effective law- enforcement interventions;
Amendment 333 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 c (new)
Paragraph 11 c (new)
11 c. Emphasises that the certainty of punishment of abusers is essential to both deter further violence, and reinforce trust in public authorities especially by the victims; however, further points out that prison term by itself is not enough to prevent future violence and that specific rehabilitation and re-education programs are necessary; calls on the Member States to set up or support programmes aimed at teaching perpetrators of domestic violence to adopt non-violent behaviour in interpersonal relationships with a view to preventing further violence and changing violent behavioural patterns; highlights that the safety of, support for and the human rights of victims are of primary concern and that, where appropriate, these programmes should be set up and implemented in close coordination with specialist support services for victims
Amendment 339 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Emphasises that thearing from the child is important child has the right to be heard, which is a key element in order to establish what is in the best interests of the child while examining custody cases; points out nevertheless that in every case, but crucially in cases where intimate partnership violence is suspected, such hearings should be conducted in a child- friendly environment, with no pressure or influence from parents or relatives, by trained professionals, including those qualified in child neuropsychiatry, to avoid deepening the trauma and victimisation; calls for minimum EU standards on how such hearings should be conducted;
Amendment 344 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12a. Calls on the Member States to adopt, as provided for in Article 26 of the Istanbul Convention, the necessary legislative and other measures to ensure specific protection and support for child witnesses of violence, including age- appropriate psychosocial counselling; calls on the Member States, in addition, to introduce special measures concerning so-called witnessed violence, including provisions for specific aggravating circumstances;
Amendment 350 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Underlines the importance of the exchange of information between courts, the central authorities of Member States and police bodies, especially in relation to cross-border custody cases; hopes that the revised rules under Council Regulation (EU) 2019/1111 of 25 June 2019 on jurisdiction, the recognition and enforcement of decisions in matrimonial matters and the matters of parental responsibility, and on international child abduction7 will enhance the cooperation between judicial systems to effectively determine the best interests of the child; calls, in this context, on the Commission and the Member States to implement the Brussels IIa Regulation effectively; ensure enforcement and effective application of the Brussels IIa Regulation; regrets in this regard that its latest revision failed to extend the scope to registered partnerships and unmarried couples; is of the opinion that this leads to discrimination and potentially dangerous situations for victims and children of registered partnerships and unmarried couples; _________________ 7 OJ L 178, 2.7.2019, p. 1.
Amendment 362 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14 a. Points out that fair remuneration and economic independence are key factors for enabling women to leave abusive and violent relationships; calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote and support such an independence, including through the support of women entrepreneurs and workers; welcomes the proposal for a directive on adequate minimum wages and the proposal for binding pay transparency measures;