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Marie Lanen
Head of parenting section (baby, pregnancy, family)
Thursday, December 1, the National Assembly narrowly voted in favor of the creation of a court “specialized in domestic violence”. The text of LR deputy, Aurélien Pradié was therefore adopted despite a tense climate in the hemicycle.
According to the Collectif Solidarité Femmes, in 2021, with the team of the national hotline 3919 Violences Femmes Info, 92,674 calls were answered, i.e. +14% compared to 2019. Domestic and intra-family violence is therefore an emergency for the victims. If the Government has planned a parliamentary mission responsible for working on a “specialization in litigation related to violence against women”, the deputy LR, Aurélien Pradié has anticipated the first conclusions by proposing a text of law to create a court specialized in intra-family violence . Moreover, many associations demanded this creation.
Domestic violence: a specialized jurisdiction based on the Spanish model
Adopted narrowly with 41 votes for and 40 against, the text of the law of deputy Aurélien Pradié (LR) is based on the Spanish model, ahead in this fight. This “specialized court” should combine “the powers of the civil judge and the criminal judge” by relying “on referents within each prosecution”, detailed the deputy Aurélien Pradié. “There is at least one court for domestic violence within the jurisdiction of each court of appeal”, provides for the bill. With at least one judge for domestic violence who can be replaced if necessary by “a magistrate appointed by the president of the judicial court”. The objective of this court being to be able to judge more quickly and to be able to be seized more easily by the victims, according to the reasons for the text.
“This is good news because there was a lack of coordination between the different procedures domestic and intra-family violence. Now, we have to see what this will give in terms of deployment on the territory and whether there will be enough magistrates to manage this new jurisdiction” specifies Françoise Brié, Director General of the National Federation Solidarity Women. “Children who are often co-victims of domestic violence must also be protected. Unfortunately, there is not always a concomitance with court decisions on domestic violence and women are always in (violent) contact with their husbands because of child custody, for example. This jurisdiction would also make it possible to smooth out all these procedures and to be more in tune with the reality of the victims and their families” insists Françoise Brié.