“We hope to be much more effective” in the face of “this violence which shames us” and which is “everyone’s business”. This Monday, May 22, the Keeper of the Seals detailed, with Isabelle Rome, Minister Delegate for Equality between Women and Men, a series of measures to fight against domestic violence, after the submission of a parliamentary report to this subject.
“Specialized poles” in the courts, new models of anti-reconciliation bracelets, emergency measures taken in 24 hours… These measures, which will be the subject of decrees or bills in the coming months, had been announced in March by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne as part of her plan for gender equality, “great cause” of the five-year term.
“Specialized poles”, protection orders in 24 hours
About 200 “poles specializing in domestic violence” are to be created within the 164 judicial courts and 36 courts of appeal, coordinated by referring magistrates. These creations will take place through a decree “at the end of this summer”, specified Eric Dupond-Moretti. Each center will include a team coordinated by senior magistrates from headquarters and the public prosecutor’s office, with adaptation to local specificities.
The government also wants to allow a judge to pronounce, in the event of “extreme urgency”, a protection order in 24 hours, demanded for a long time. The deadlines for these orders, authorizing the eviction of the violent spouse or a contact ban, had been reduced to six days in 2019 (compared to 45 days on average previously). This procedure, provisional, will have to be re-examined by a judge “within six days”, specified the Keeper of the Seals, adding that it would appear in a bill “in the fall”.
As for the “anti-reconciliation bracelets” (1,000 active), weighed down by technical problems, a new model adapted to the 5G network and with a more reliable battery will be deployed next month, promises the Chancellery.
A file to identify the authors?
The Ministry of the Interior identified 207,743 victims of domestic violence in France in 2021, mainly women. An increase of 21% compared to 2020. 122 were killed by their spouse or ex-spouse that same year, according to the ministry. About forty women have already been killed since the beginning of 2023, according to the associations. Figures which do not fall despite the measures taken, in particular since the Grenelle of 2019, notes the report submitted to the two ministers.
Their authors, Emilie Chandler (Renaissance MP for Val-d’Oise) and Dominique Vérien (Senator for Yonne, UDI) spoke of the doubling of complaints since 2016 “in a context of freedom of speech and improvement of conditions reception of victims”, as well as the “faster” judicial response (doubling of convictions before the criminal courts, + 218% of removal measures between 2017 and 2021), even if the progress is not “at the same level “over the whole territory.
In their 59 recommendations, they underline the need to improve “coordination” between actors – shortcomings in the follow-up of violent and repeat offenders have been revealed during several feminicides in recent years. They also recommend the creation of a file containing information on the perpetrators, on which the Chancellery and the Interior are already working, as well as better care for violent men (dedicated prevention campaigns, follow-up after prison to avoid the recidivist…)
The question of algorithmic evaluation
Concerning children confronted with domestic violence, they propose to professionalize the ad hoc administrators, who represent their interests, and to “allow the judge in certain extreme situations to deprive the violent parent” of his parental authority. Upstream of the judicial treatment, it is necessary “a network of people trained at all levels of the chain” (doctors, social workers, civil servants, etc.) so as not to “miss out on” situations of danger, underlined Isabelle Rome, taking up a recommendation from the report.
The mandatory danger assessment grids are “far from being” systematically completed, note the parliamentarians, also suggesting to take inspiration from Spain, a pioneering country in this area, and to evaluate “on the basis of ‘an algorithmic calculation’ the risk of taking action. Finally, they propose to further expand the issuance of “serious danger telephones”. Nearly 3,500 are active (+ 471% since 2019) but they remain three times less awarded than in Spain.
For associations, a report that “gives birth to a mouse”
For their part, associations for the defense of women victims of violence have deemed the announced measures “disappointing” or “incomplete”. “We have been waiting for this report for seven months and it gives birth to a mouse. It is very timorous, very unambitious in relation to the problem of domestic violence, which is massive”, declared to AFP Anne-Cécile Mailfert, president of the Women’s Foundation, deeming the measures announced “very disappointing”. “Women, when they file a complaint, engage in a legal labyrinth: they will have multiple interlocutors for the same case of domestic violence”, she explains.
“The associations are asking for a specialized jurisdiction on domestic violence, a one-stop shop that would take into account all aspects of a case: violence, divorce, child custody, compensation… With specialized judges who are familiar with the situations and avoid aberrant legal decisions”, she adds.
“The report rejects this solution of specialized jurisdiction, which has proven itself in other countries, such as Spain, on the grounds that it would be too expensive. But at the same time, we free up resources for other things in justice It’s a political refusal. We don’t have a government that wants to solve the problems,” said Anne-Cécile Mailfert. According to her, “a specialized pole, asking judges to talk to each other, is the minimum, and this is already the case in certain dynamic jurisdictions”.
Judging that the parliamentary report submitted on Monday is “a good inventory”, the National Federation of Women’s Solidarity (FNSF), which manages the listening line 3919, would also have “wished it to go further”, with jurisdictions specialized “which deal with criminal and civil cases at the same time”. The specialized poles “with referent magistrates to improve the coordination of the actors”, “it is a stage, but we are in the middle of the ford”, estimates its president, Françoise Brié.