Activities of Elena KOUNTOURA related to 2019/2166(INI)
Plenary speeches (2)
The impact of intimate partner violence and custody rights on women and children (debate)
The impact of intimate partner violence and custody rights on women and children (debate)
Reports (1)
REPORT on the impact of intimate partner violence and custody rights on women and children
Amendments (72)
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 7
Citation 7
— having regard to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) adopted on 18 December 1979, and General recommendation No. 35 on gender-based violence against women, updating general recommendation No. 19 of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women,
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 7 a (new)
Citation 7 a (new)
— having regard to General recommendation No. 35 on gender-based violence against women, updating general recommendation No. 19 of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee),
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 7 a (new)
Citation 7 a (new)
Amendment 12 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 7 b (new)
Citation 7 b (new)
— having regard to European Parliament resolution of 29 November 2018 on the role of the German Youth Welfare Office (Jugendamt) in cross- border family disputes (2018/2856(RSP)),
Amendment 13 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 7 b (new)
Citation 7 b (new)
— having regard to the European Pillar of Social Rights and, in particular, its principle 2,
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 10 a (new)
Citation 10 a (new)
— having regard to the Directive 2012/29/EU, establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime (the Victims' Rights Directive),
Amendment 22 #
— having regard to Directive 2011/99/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 on the European protection order,
Amendment 25 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 17 a (new)
Citation 17 a (new)
— having regard to the European Parliament Resolution of 21 January 2021 on the EU Strategy for Gender Equality,
Amendment 26 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 17 b (new)
Citation 17 b (new)
— having regard to the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) Gender Equality Index 2020 report,
Amendment 35 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas gender equality is a fundamental value and an key objective of the EU; whereas gender-based violence in all its forms constitutes an extreme form of discrimination against womennd a violation of human rights entrenched in gender inequality, which it helps to perpetuate and reinforce; whereas this kind of violence is entrenched in and supported by social and cultural beliefs about stereotypical gender roles and by patriarchal structures and practises, and is one of the biggest obstacles to achieving gender equality;
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas, in spite of numerous instances of formal recognition and progress having been made on gender equality, women and men do not enjoy the same rights in practice and social, economic and cultural inequalities persist; whereas according to the EIGE Gender Equality Index 2020, no EU country has yet fully achieved equality between women and men; whereas the EU’s progress on gender equality is still slow, with the index score improving on average by one point every two years; whereas at this rate, it will take over 60 years for the EU to reach gender equality;
Amendment 50 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas, in spite of numerous instances of formal recognition and progress having been made on gender equality, women and men do not enjoy the same rights in practice and social, judicial, economic and cultural inequalities persist;
Amendment 58 #
C. whereas intimate partner violence refers to any act of physical, sexual, psychological or economic violence that occurs between former or current spouses or partners, whether or not the perpetrator shares or has shared a residence with the victim; whereas intimate partner violence is one of the most prevalent forms of gender-based violence, with an estimated 22 % of women having experienced physical and/or sexual violence, and 43 % having experienced psychological violence by their partner6 ; whereas women and children are disproportionately affected by this type of violence; whereas domestic violence is a serious and often hidden social problem that can cause systematic physical and psychological trauma with serious consequences for the victims, as the perpetrator is a person the victim should be able to trust; whereas victims are subjected to coercive control from their abuser, characterized by intimidation, control, isolation and abuses; _________________ 6FRA report of 3 March 2014 entitled ‘Violence against women: an EU-wide survey’.
Amendment 95 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas, in order to address the issue of the eradication of gender-based violence, it is necessary to rely on consistent and comparable administrative data, based on a robust and coordinated framework of data collection; whereas the current available data collected by the Member States’ law enforcement and justice authorities fail to reflect the full extent of intimate partner violence, as most Member States neither collect sex-and gender- segregated comparable data on gender- based violence nor do they recognise intimate partner violence as a specific offence;
Amendment 104 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas in some Member States intimate partner violence against women is often neglected and the default rule of joint custodshared custody or parental authority appears to prevail in cases of child custody, access, contact and visitation arrangements and decisions based on the flawed assumptions that violence will end with the dissolution of the marriage/relationship, or that a violent partner can be a good parent; whereas disregarding such violence can leads to dire consequences for women and children, which may escalate into femicide and/or infanticide; whereas victims of intimate partner violence need special protection measures; whereas the victims’ situation is likely to worsen if they are economically or socially dependent on the perpetrator;
Amendment 106 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G a (new)
Recital G a (new)
G a. whereas in the context of intimate partner violence, the reference to parental alienation syndrome and to similar concepts and terms puts into question victims’ parental skills, dismisses their word and disregards the violence to which children are exposed; whereas accusations of parental alienation by abusive fathers against mothers must be considered as a continuation of power and control by state agencies and actors, including those deciding on child custody;
Amendment 108 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G b (new)
Recital G b (new)
G b. whereas law enforcement risk assessments in most Member States do not systematically include information provided by children about their experiences of intimate partner violence;
Amendment 109 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G c (new)
Recital G c (new)
G c. whereas fair remuneration and economic independence are an essential prerequisite for enabling women to leave an abusive and violent relationship; whereas in some Member States the enforcement of court decisions granting financial compensation from the abusers are to be pursued by the victim and this practice forces the victim to stay in contact with the abuser, putting her at further physical and emotional risk;
Amendment 118 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I
Recital I
I. whereas criminal proceedings arising from a complaint of domestic violence are often dealt with completely separately from separation and custody proceedings; whereas this can mean that shared custody of the children is ordered and/or visitation rights imposed that endanger the rights and safety of the victim or the children;
Amendment 124 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J
Recital J
J. whereas it is preferable to avoid all mediation in cases of violence against women, either before or during the judicial process, where the safety of the victim needs to be the primary considerationwould be at risk;
Amendment 139 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L a (new)
Recital L a (new)
Amendment 140 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L b (new)
Recital L b (new)
L b. whereas, helplines are a critical channel to reaching support but only 13 Member States have implemented the EU 116 006 helpline for all victims of crimes, and only few Member States have specialist helplines for intimate partner violence;
Amendment 149 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital O
Recital O
O. whereas transnational separation proceedings are more complex in nature; whereas increased mobility within the EU has led to a growing number of cross- border disputes on parental responsibility and child custody; whereas the Commission must step up its efforts to promote in all Member States the consistent and concrete implementation of the principles set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by all EU Member States;
Amendment 152 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital O a (new)
Recital O a (new)
Amendment 153 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital O a (new)
Recital O a (new)
O a. whereas Member States, as parties to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, must hold the best interests of the child as a primary consideration in all public action, including when dealing with cross-border family disputes;
Amendment 154 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital O b (new)
Recital O b (new)
O b. whereas the competent German institutions including the German Youth Welfare Office (Jugendamt) systematically misinterpret the best interests of the child as being and remaining on the German territory, even in cases where abuse and domestic violence against the non-German parent have been reported;
Amendment 165 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. deplores the lack of appropriate emergency and temporary accommodation solutions for victims of domestic abuse and their children; underlines the feeling of insecurity of the women accommodated in mixed centres and which welcome many different types of people; calls on Member States to open emergency accommodation spaces specific to situations of domestic violence; calls on Member States to have emergency accommodation places available at all times, including at night and on weekends; stresses courts must not use the fact that victims stay in emergency, temporary or social housing as an argument to transfer custody right to the violent partner;
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 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 173 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1 b. stresses that the majority of women get poorer during separation; stresses that this impoverishment is also the result of strategies put in place by the violent parent to preserve the capital accumulated by the couple and to preserve their income, to the detriment of the mother; also stresses that some women give up asking for their fair share over fear of losing custody; calls on Member States to pay particular attention to the risk of victims of domestic violence becoming more precarious throughout the separation process; considers that Member States can contribute to preventing this issue by providing sufficient legal and psychological aid to women in need, as well as by ensuring that they can receive sufficient social assistance;
Amendment 176 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 c (new)
Paragraph 1 c (new)
Amendment 184 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 f (new)
Paragraph 1 f (new)
1 f. alerts on the inadequacy of the protection granted to women, as evidenced by the cases of feminicides and infanticides which take place after the woman has reported domestic violence; calls on Member States to strengthen care, monitoring and protection of women who report domestic violence;
Amendment 185 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 g (new)
Paragraph 1 g (new)
1 g. deplores the under-funding by the Commission and the Member States of the fight against domestic violence given the scale of the phenomenon; notes that the Member States which have significantly increased these funds have obtained results, in particular in terms of reducing feminicides; calls on the Commission and Member States to increase the funds dedicated to the fight against domestic violence; alerts on the fragmentation of funding, short-term funding and administrative burden which can reduce the access of associations to funding and therefore impact the quality of support for victims of domestic violence and their children; calls on the Commission and Member States to favour stable and long- term financing;
Amendment 188 #
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; underlines, therefore that the rights or claims of perpetrators or alleged perpetrators during and after judicial proceedings, including with respect to property, privacy, child custody, access, contact and visitation, should be determined in the light of women’s and children’s human rights to life and physical, sexual and psychological integrity and guided by the principle of the best interests of the child; stresses, therefore, that awarding exclusive custody to the non-violent partner, most frequently the mother, represents the best alternative in order to prevent further violence and secondary victimisation of the victims;
Amendment 193 #
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 mothermother victim of gender-based violence, represents the best alternative in order to prevent further violence and secondary victimisation of the victims;
Amendment 196 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Considers that Member States must develop initial and continuing training on preventing and responding to situations of domestic violence; Calls for mandatory targeted training for judicial and law enforcement officers about domestic violence and its mechanisms, including coercion, manipulation and, hold, psychological violence and coercive control meaning strategies to isolate, intimidate, control and assault, 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; stresses the importance of also training non-judicial agents who intervene in child protection, emergency accommodation and social assistance in particular; considers that these officers should also be subject to targeted and mandatory training; calls on Member States to develop and finance such training;
Amendment 197 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls for mandatory targeted training for judicial and law enforcement officers 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; stresses that the training should improve knowledge and understanding of the existing protection measures as well as of safety, the impact of the crime, the needs of the victims, of how to address those needs and the soft skills required to best communicate with victims and support them;
Amendment 200 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls for mandatory targete, recurrent and effective capacity-building, education and training for the judicialry, lawyers and law enforcement officers about domestic violence and its mechanisms, including coercion, manipulation and psychological violence, including forensic medical personnel, legislators, health-care professionals about violence against women from a gender and a human rights perspective covering national, regional and international standards, 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;
Amendment 203 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. calls on Member States to better finance their police and justice services to ensure adequate handling of complaints of domestic violence; regrets that the underfunding and budgetary cuts in these services resulted in the dehumanization of procedures, procedural defect, a lack of information for complainants on the progress of the procedure and excessive delays which are not compatible with the imperative of protection of victims and their reconstruction; stresses that having social and psychological workers in police stations can facilitate concrete and human support for victims of domestic violence;
Amendment 209 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
Amendment 210 #
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, 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 establishto set up comprehensive assessment units on gender-based violence composed of forensic medical personnel, psychologists and social workers and to work ing checks on child custody procedures by qualified professional figureoordination with the public services specialised in gender- based violence in charge of assisting victims;
Amendment 211 #
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 and common tools to assess both risk and coercive control for all professionals dealing with the victims, 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 judicial practitioners and establishing checks on child custody procedures by qualified professional figures;
Amendment 224 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Stresses the importance in these procedures of the role of the doctorall relevant forensic experts and professionals such as doctors, forensic clinical psychologists, and social workers, providing forensic expertise in caring not only for women victims of domestic abuse or violence, but also for the children involved, in particular when the environment in which they live is not suitable to protect their health, dignity and quality of life; recalls, therefore, the need for the forensic practitioners and professionals involved to be able to benefit, inter alia, from guidelines drawn from a set of data, practice and best practices at European level;
Amendment 226 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Stresses the importance in these procedures of the role of the doctorforensic medical personnel providing forensictheir expertise in caring not only for women victims of domestic abuse ointimate partner violence, but also for the children involved, in particular when the environment in which they live is not suitable to protect their health, dignity and quality of life; recalls, therefore, the need for the forensic practitioners and professionals involved to be able to benefit, inter alia, from guidelines drawn from a set of data, practice and best practices at European level;
Amendment 227 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5 a. underlines the importance, in these procedures, of a multitude of actors who are not judicial agents, whether they are public officers or associations; regrets that too often, female victims find themselves without the appropriate social, health, and psychological support; calls on Member States to develop comprehensive support for victims of domestic violence, covering health, social and psychological aspects; considers that having structures and places which can deal with all the aspects linked to situations of domestic violence improves the quality of support for victims; calls on Member States to finance and raise awareness for such support, starting by providing the necessary means to associations helping women victims and their children;
Amendment 228 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5 a. Calls on the EU to urgently address the increase in intimate partner violence during the COVID-19 pandemic; calls, in this regard, on the Commission to develop a European Union Protocol on gender-based violence in times of crisis and to include protection services for victims, such as helplines, safe accommodation and health services as ‘essential services’ in the Member States, in order to prevent gender-based violence and support victims of domestic violence during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic;
Amendment 230 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5 b. Calls on the Members States and local authorities and exchange best practices to support victims of gender based and domestic violence by guaranteeing them safety and economic independency through the access of specific housing and to essential public services such as health, transport as well as professional and psychological support;
Amendment 232 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Stresses the importance of action at both EU and national level to reach agreement on common legal definitions, as this type of witnessed violence is not recognised in many legal systems and has a direct impact on data collection in the police and judicial sectors, and on cross- border cooperation; stresses the need to assign the status of victim to the children who were not only directly exposed to domestic violence, but who were also witnesses to violence in criminal and investigation proceedings;
Amendment 235 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Stresses the importance of action at both EU and national level to reach agreement on common legal definitions, as this type of witnessed violenceviolence against women, in many cases witnessed by their children, is not recognised in many legal systems and has a direct impact on data collection in the police and judicial sectors, and on cross- border cooperation;
Amendment 244 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to provide harmonised, 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 and the Eurostat; insists on the importance of Member States collecting statistical data on the administrative and judicial proceedings concerning child custody involving foreign parents, particularly on the outcome of the judgments;
Amendment 259 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Expresses its concern about the fimpact that discriminatory gender bias often leads to a lack of trust in women, in particular concerning presumed false allegations of child abuse and of domestic violenceof gender stereotypes and bias, leading to inadequate responses to gender-based violence against women; stresses that the so-called “parental alienation syndrome”, which has no scientific basis and is based on gender stereotypes, works to the detriment of women victims of intimate partner violence, blaming mothers for alienating their children's narrative, putting into question victims’ parental skills, disregarding the child’s testimony and the risks of violence to which their children are exposed, jeopardizing the rights and safety of the mother and the children; is worried about the fact that accusations of parental alienation by alleged abusive fathers against mothers are a continuation of power and control by state agencies and actors, including those deciding on child custody and often lead to the denial of child custody to the mother and to the granting to a father accused of intimate partner violence or sexual abuse of the child; calls on the Member States to prohibit its use by judges, psychologists, child protection state agencies and psychosocial cabinets and to introduce disciplinary measures against those who make use of it;
Amendment 261 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Expresses its concern about the fact that discriminatory gender bias often leads to a lack of trust in women, in particular concerning presumed false allegations of child abuse and of domestic violence; calls on Member States to monitor and fight a culture of denigration of women voices;
Amendment 262 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Expresses its concern about the fact that discriminatory gender bias often leads to a lack of trust in women, in particular concerning presumed false allegations of child abuse and of domestic violence due to insufficient training of the judges, prosecutors and law enforcement;
Amendment 267 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Amendment 273 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Highlights that perpetrators often use litigation to extend their power and control, and to continue to intimidate and incite fear in their victims; stresses that perpetrators often abuse, or threaten to harm or to take the children, in order to harm their partners and ex-partners; notes that the withholding of maintenance payments can be used by perpetrators as a threat and a form of abuse against their victims; highlights that this practice can cause great psychological harm to the victims and create or aggravate financial difficulties;
Amendment 274 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Highlights that perpetrators often use litigation to extend their power and control, and to continue to intimidate and incite fear in their victims; stresses in this regard that the child and requesting shared custody are often manipulated by the violent parent to continue reaching the mother after the separation; stresses that perpetrators often abuse, or threaten to harm or to take the children, in order to harm their partners and ex-partners;
Amendment 278 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9 a. alert on the use of scientifically unreliable concepts, such as parental alienation syndrome, by law enforcement, judicial and psychiatric agents to analyse situations of domestic violence; stresses that the parental alienation syndrome has been disowned by the WHO in the absence of serious scientific evidence; calls on the Commission and Member States to show the greatest discernment vis-à-vis organizations which defend unreliable concepts and whose main objective is to defend the interests of violent partner; calls on Member States not to recognize the parental alienation syndrome in their judicial practice and law;
Amendment 279 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9 a. Urges the Commission to ensure that all Member States translate the ‘Victims’ Rights Directive’ into national legislation and fully implement it, in particular by adopting measures ensuring the full access to a range of support services, across their territory including through specialist and generic services as well as the 116 006 helpline for victims of crime.; calls on the Commission, in its evaluation of the EU Victims’ Rights Directive, to examine whether the gender aspect of victimisation, in particular intimate partner violence, is properly and effectively taken into account;
Amendment 282 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 b (new)
Paragraph 9 b (new)
9 b. Stresses that failing to address intimate partner violence in custody rights and visitation schedule decisions is a violation by neglect of the human rights to life, to a life without violence, and to the healthy development of women and children; strongly urges that any form of violence, including witnessing violence against a parent or close person, be considered in law and in practice as a violation of human rights and as an act against the best interest of the child;
Amendment 283 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 c (new)
Paragraph 9 c (new)
9 c. Calls on the Commission to take all necessary measures to tackle the issue of unreported crimes, in particular by supporting Member States to improve how to identify victims of domestic and intimate partner violence and empower them to come forward and report the crime;
Amendment 284 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Calls on the Member States to promote better 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 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; considers that the Member States must cover the legal costs (both cirminal and civil including children's judge) of victims of domestic violence when they do not have sufficient resources and guarantee them proper defence by lawyers specialized in situations of domestic violence; calls on Member State to provide such targeted and mandatory training to lawyers working on legal aid cases;
Amendment 286 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Calls on the Member States to promote better access to adequate legal protection, effective hearings and restraining orders, counselling and victim funds for women victims of intimate partner violence, and to apply particular procedures 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; calls on the Member States to directly provide maintenance payments to victims through victims funds, to avoid financial abuse and risk causing further harm to the victim; calls on the Commission to assess the establishment of minimum standards for protection orders across the EU;
Amendment 296 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10 a. Recommends that Member States provide alternative mechanisms for victims who do not file a complaint so that they can exercise the rights recognised to victims of intimate partner violence, such as social and labour rights, for example through expert reports drawn up by specialized public services accrediting the status of victim of gender-based violence;
Amendment 303 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 b (new)
Paragraph 10 b (new)
10 b. Is worried that specialist support services are not provided equally within each Member States and calls on them to ensure adequate geographical distribution, immediate, short- and long- term specialist support services to any victim, as enshrined in the Istanbul Convention; these services should be provided irrespective of women’s residence status and their ability or willingness to cooperate in proceedings against the alleged perpetrator;
Amendment 308 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 c (new)
Paragraph 10 c (new)
10 c. Calls on the Member States to provide effective reparation to women victims, going beyond monetary compensation and including provision of legal, social and health services including sexual, reproductive and mental health for a complete recovery; also to establish reparation funds and to set up a mechanism to coordinate, monitor and assess regularly the implementation and effectiveness of the measures to prevent and eliminate intimate partner violence and other all forms of gender-based violence against women;
Amendment 314 #
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; calls on the Commission to support activities in schools and other settings which raise the awareness of children and those working with children of crime and trauma issues, where to find help, how to report issues, and how to build resilience;
Amendment 340 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Emphasises that hearing from the child is important to establish what is in the best interests of the child while examining custody cases, unless a hearing is considered inappropriate having regard to his or her age or degree of maturity; 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;
Amendment 341 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Emphasises that hearing from the child is important 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;
Amendment 351 #
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; recalls that the scope and objectives of the Brussels IIa Regulation are based on the principle of non-discrimination on the grounds of nationality between citizens of the Union and on the principle of mutual trust between the Member States’ legal systems; _________________ 7 OJ L 178, 2.7.2019, p. 1.
Amendment 354 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Stresses the need to recognise the interconnectedness of criminal, civil and other legal proceedings in orderDeplores the poor interconnectedness of criminal, civil and other legal proceedings, which does not prevent further violence and protects mother and child; deplores the fact that events of domestic violence are not taken into account properly by civil proceedings, to not replace the criminal judge; stresses that when inconsistencies between court decisions occur, it is the responsibility of the victim to appeal to the problematic decision, which entails additional costs and burden on her; insists on the need to coordinate the judicial responses to intimate partner violence and to avoid discrepancies between judicial decisions that are harmful to children and women victims;
Amendment 355 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Stresses the need to recognise the interconnectedness of criminal, civil and other legal proceedings in order to coordinate the judicial responses to intimate partner violence and to avoid discrepancies between judicial decisions that are harmful to children and women victims; deplores the lack of provisional measures to protect women victims and children and the lack of temporary mechanisms to suspend the parental authority of the violent parent during legal proceedings, which usually lasts for several years; calls on Member States to experiment and develop such protective measures;
Amendment 358 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Stresses the need to recognise the interconnectedness of criminal, civil and other legal proceedings in order to coordinate the judicial and other legal responses to intimate partner violence and to avoid discrepancies between judicial and other legal decisions that are harmful to children and women victims;