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MEDIA RELEASE |
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Communications |
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Ref. DC 202(2022) Germany: Council of Europe experts find serious gaps in protecting women and girls from gender-based violence Strasbourg, 07.10.2022 – In its first baseline evaluation report on Germany, the Council of Europe Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO) welcomes criminal law measures taken before and after Germany’s ratification of the Istanbul Convention in 2018, but also points out urgent steps that Germany should take to better protect women and girls from gender-based violence. Based on a detailed questionnaire and evaluation visit last year – meetings with relevant federal and state (Länder) government officials, parliamentarians and representatives of over 40 NGOs – GREVIO’s report, published today with the German government comments, covers the period up to September 2021. Where available, significant legislative and policy developments up until June this year have been considered. Among positive developments, GREVIO praises the consent-based definition of rape and sexual violence and the successful operation of a national telephone helpline. It commends the explicit criminalization of technology-facilitated abuse (such as cyber stalking, unauthorised taking of pictures of private bodily parts, sharing of images online and stalker ware) as having “contributed in recent years to a solid legal framework applicable to the digital dimension of violence against women.” But serious gaps must be addressed, from a poor level of risk assessment and a need to improve the use made of protection orders and emergency barring orders, to lacking support services and shelters. An overarching issue is the lack of a national action plan, or coordination at the national level, as required by the Istanbul Convention. While some plans to stop violence against women at the state level are praised with examples, GREVIO is concerned by the “disparity” in levels of service, which vary “significantly” between the 16 federal states, or Länder, as well as within each federal state. This disparity is reflected for example in lacking rape crisis/sexual violence referral centres and dedicated women’s shelters for domestic violence. Geographic coverage and availability of specialist services vary. In rural areas, specialist support services are much less established, or focus mainly on domestic violence, leaving victims of other forms of violence without adequate support. While services in principle exist for most or all forms of violence in larger cities, the ratio between staff and clients often leads to long waiting lists. In Berlin, for example, a city of 3.7 million inhabitants, only one counselling centre for rape victims exists, with fewer than nine employees and an average waiting time of two months for an initial session. The report highlights cases of custody and visitation rights granted to abusive fathers, without sufficient consideration for women’s safety concerns. Frequent non-granting of protection orders can result in the victim’s safety and that of her children being compromised. The low use of standardised risk-assessment procedures prevents state officials from fully identifying all relevant risk factors. If it is suspected that a homicide might have occurred as a result of a possible breach of duty by a public authority, the public prosecutor's office is obliged to investigate whether this was due to an official’s disregard for their due diligence obligation. But information on the number and outcome of such investigations is unavailable. Furthermore, the report determines that “harmful gender stereotypes and attitudes of victim blaming seem to persist among the German judiciary”. For example, GREVIO was made aware by lawyers active in the field of domestic violence that committing sexual violence against a former or current spouse/partner tends to be considered as a mitigating factor rather than an aggravating one, despite a judgment by the Federal Court of Justice to the contrary. As healthcare workers are often the first to come into contact with victims, GREVIO welcomes that the subject of “prevention of and support in cases of abuse and violence” was included in the Quality Management Guidelines of the Joint Federal Committee on Health, meaning that clinics, doctors in private practice and therapists, among others, have been required since November 2020 to offer a safe environment for victims of violence and to act as points of contact. But NGOs active in the field indicated to GREVIO that guideline implementation lacks uniformity across the country. For example, co-operation between the healthcare sector and specialist support services is lacking and reliable care and standardised referral pathways are missing. The report criticizes a “general disconnect” between the healthcare sector and other services and institutions for victims of gender-based violence. While GREVIO welcomes plans by the November 2021 formed coalition government for a multi-agency, political strategy against violence, as well as other goals to strengthen implementation of the Istanbul Convention, the report urges the German authorities to conduct an “independent comparative analysis” of existing national, federal and local measures and programmes on violence against women, including domestic violence, with a view to identifying gaps, as well as promising practices that can be recommended throughout the country. Improved training for professionals who deal with women and girl victims of violence is urgently needed. For example, while almost all police academies at the level of the federal states offer training units on dealing with domestic violence, women’s rights groups and experts active in the field indicated that this knowledge is too basic and not always implemented in practice. More in-depth training would be necessary, not only on domestic violence and its dynamics, including its gendered nature, but also more specifically on sexual violence and how to respond to victims. Noting that Germany has been a destination country for asylum seekers for many years and recognising efforts made to offer accommodation, the report further points to “persistent safety concerns” for women and girl asylum seekers in collective reception and accommodation centres, which in addition lack sufficient specialist counselling and support. GREVIO expresses “grave concern” over allegations of danger, which organisations representing asylum-seeking women’s perspective have voiced. These include accounts of unsafe washing facilities, un-lockable dormitories, mixed-sex dormitories, poor lighting, lack of safe rooms, abuse by security staff and poor management of incidents of harassment and abuse by male residents, including the non-enforcement of protection orders against abusive spouses. Urgent GREVIO findings in the report to the German authorities include the following: · Introduce a system, such as a domestic homicide review mechanism, to analyse all cases of gender-based killings of women, with the aim of identifying possible shortcomings in institutional responses to violence against women. · Improve co-operation between family courts and specialist services that assist victims and their children in proceedings concerning custody and visitation rights. · Increase available shelter places and rape crisis/sexual violence referral centres with an adequate geographical distribution throughout the country and ensure that all women victims of violence have free-of-charge access to dedicated domestic violence shelters. · Establish one or more national co-ordinating bodies that are fully institutionalised and mandated to fulfil all functions set out in the treaty, and that are provided with the necessary financial and human resources. · Ensure that all professionals dealing with victims or perpetrators of violence covered by the Istanbul Convention receive training on identifying and responding to all forms of violence against women. · Ensure that women and girl asylum seekers who live in reception centres have access to adequate support services. · Assess the need for further support services for victims of forced marriage. · Ensure that specialist services also cater to LBTI women. The Executive Summary includes more recommendations (German version of the executive summary). Based on this report, the Committee of the Parties, which is composed of the representatives of the State Parties to the Convention, will publish its recommendations to the German Government in December this year. |
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Press Contact |
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Panos Kakaviatos, Spokesperson/Media officer, Tel. +33 3 90 21 50 27 |
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Council of Europe, Media Assistance Unit |