ITALIA

PROGETTO EUROPEO
ROAD TO EUROPEAN
PARLIAMENT
Empowering a new generation of EU citizens
 Road to European Parliament 2019
Empowering a new generation of EU citizens (REP2019)

DIRECTIVE PROPOSAL

GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE

November 25th is the international day against violence towards women. This day was fixed by the
General Assembly of the United Nations in 1999 to invite Governments, international organizations
and ONGs to promote activities in order to raise awareness of one of the worst violations of human
rights. This month we couldn’t omit to focus on the gender-based violence which has dramatically
increased in recent years and has reached such high levels that lots of National and supranational
organisations want to stop this phenomenon.
Gender-based violence is still a plague for Europe. Inquiries show that about one-third of women in
EU underwent sexual and physical abuse, about 50 women lose their lives due to domestic violence
every week and 75℅ women in the professional field underwent sexual harassment. The main
victims of such violence are women and girls but men and LGBTQ+ people can be affected as well.
The Istanbul Convention defined gender-based violence as "any form of discrimination against
women, including all the acts of violence that cause or might cause physical, sexual, physiological
or economic suffering, along with threats to commit such acts, coercion or deprivation of freedom,
both in public and private life".
When people talk about gender-based violence they immediately think about femicide but femicide
is just the most extreme form of gender-based violence and we mustn’t underestimate all other
behaviors: - beatings, threats, harassments, stalking, abuses, sexual violence, arranged marriage,
female genital mutilation, abortion or forced sterilization, aimed to harm women's dignity and to
underline discrimination and legal inequality between sexes.
Gender-based violence must be considered as a direct consequence of discrimination based on sex
and as a violation of fundamental human rights. Gender-based violence has long or short-term
negative effects on the victim’s physical, mental, sexual, and reproductive health. Consequences
can determine for victims isolation, inability to work and to relate in society, limited ability to take care
of themselves and their kids, emotional and behavioral problems.
The effect of gender-based violence's goes beyond the directly affected victims since it influences
families, communities, and society in general. The situation got worse during the pandemic with the
increase of the cases of violence against women, in their own houses, due to the lockdown and to
the difficulties for the victims, living with the perpetrator, to report and to call on support services. At
the same time, the increasing use of the internet during the pandemic has increased online gender-
based violence and the number of online sexual abuse of children, especially girls.
The emergency has amplified already existing criticalities, such as: difficulties in interacting with
women and in activating local services for any need, difficulties in finding host structures, lack of
sufficient resources for anti-violence centers and safe houses, suitable for victims' needs, the
necessity to provide economic support for the victims of violence, directly and indirectly, lack of
uniform legislation to prevent and to fight gender-based violence with common protection measures
and penal sanctions in all the countries of EU.
In Europe, simple recommendations and guidelines have been provided to face situations of violence
in case of emergency and Governments are active to implement further measures to oppose gender-
based violence.
We believe, however, gender-based violence is a systemic phenomenon and cannot be treated in
an emergency way.
All the adopted measures must be structural and the EU must adopt a uniform legislation which
provides for coordinated and synergistic actions among the member States, suitable to support the
victims of gender-based violence and to inspire trust in the Authorities that fight against this kind of
violence and in the judicial system that can offer effective answers both regarding prevention and
protection measures and regarding the certainty of punishment.
We wish the European Parliament to approve a directive that takes into account the following points:

1. Minimum and specific rules for sanctioning gender-based violence

Most European Member States have laws to oppose gender-based violence or sexual orientation.
However, the absence of a single definition and common rules doesn’t allow us to face the problem
in an effective way. Gender-based violence is considered like a Community crime of transnational
value, similar to other crimes, such as slave trafficking, terrorism, drug and arms trafficking and
cybercrime. For this reason, the EU State Members should adopt a common policy in order to face
in an efficient way all the problems related to this phenomenon, modifying the penal law system.
On the contrary, it often happens that the actions of the States aren’t effective, so that’s why the
victims don’t trust them and there is a decrease in the number of complaints. Very long processes,
mild sentences, condemnation not taken into consideration, sexist interrogations, are just some of
the reasons why women don’t declare the abuses and threats they suffered.
Member States should, therefore, ensure that victims have more confidence with the judicial system,
intervening on the criminal procedure.
Alarming is also the so-called "secondary victimization", that is the phenomenon that consists in
reviving the victim’s condition of suffering experienced at the time of consumption of the crime,
determined, very often, by the procedural arrangements carried out by the institutions that manage
the post-complaint stages. Police forces and personnel delegated to the first reception of the victim
often follow standard and customary practices acting, in this way, with an unconscious carelessness
in confronting the offended person, whose demands for justice are taken into account, sometimes
even after many months. Time-dilatation forces the victim to travel through her painful experience
multiple times, in order to write it as a statement which must be completed through the time with
other statements by other subjects. Other aspects that discourage the victims from denouncing the
violations are the delays related to the subscription of the instances and the incompetence of those
who collect the information. These aspects cause the victims’ renunciation to claim their rights and
to defend their security. It is also essential to pay attention to the phenomenon of witnessed violence
that in most cases involves children. Many times children are vulnerable spectators of aggressive
behaviours that are invisible to their parents, to their teachers and to the institutions. Sometimes,
indeed, they aren’t able to give the right importance to their psychological condition and their
behavioural disturbances related to the climate of tension at home. The European Parliament must
adopt a directive that deals with all these problems in order to allow the State Members to adopt
further measures aimed to prevent gender-based violence.

2. Preventive measures to protect victims

Violence against women and domestic violence are among the most serious and widespread human
rights violations; the victims are women from any social, cultural, religious, economic or geographical
origin. According to estimates by the World Health Organization, one in three women worldwide are
victims of gender-based violence throughout their lives. The seriousness of the criminal events has
devastating effects not only for people at risk but for society as a whole. Recognising the scale and
complexity of events is not, however, enough to reduce their impact. In fact, despite the combined
and integrated efforts by the legislative and judicial bodies of several Member States, the spread of
the phenomenon is increasing sharply.
The analysis of the links between the aggression cases against women, the structural discrimination
possible factors and the institutional response to mistreatment types that preceded them, leads to
identifying as a further strategic objective to fight against gender-based violence, the prevention of
the phenomenon and the removal of obstacles to its implementation.
In this regard, general reference is made to the preventive intervention measures introduced by the
Council of Europe Convention about the Prevention of and Fight against Violence against Women
and Domestic Violence, also known as the 2011 Istanbul Convention, mainly times:
• to promote changes in socio-cultural behaviour and to eliminate all forms of prejudice, use,
custom, tradition based on the concept of inferiority of women and discrimination of roles
between men and women
• to avoid that culture, customs, religion and traditions can be used to justify acts of violence
and any form of discrimination between various parts of the human species

There is a need to share and implement awareness-raising, education and training programmes
aimed at a wide audience and particularly at men, especially young people.
The dissemination of information campaigns, promoted by institutional and/or accredited sector
associations, allows to develop knowledge and skills necessary to cope with "unhealthy" attitudes
that develop in environments where gender-based violence is possible and even tolerated or
forgiven.
Furthermore, considering that patterns of violence and victimisation can develop in early
adolescence, thus becoming difficult to correct, it is appropriate to implement prevention pathways
in the formal and non-formal school environment, and in other educational centres where gender
socialization takes place, attitudes towards oneself and towards others are formed and strengthened.
This type of work underlines the importance of funding programmes within the European Union
which give priority to gender equality and to the fight against gender violence, including primary
prevention programmes which aim at providing young people throughout Europe with the necessary
tools to live a healthy and more responsible life.
Training is a further and important prevention of gender-based violence. It is aimed at workers in
social and health structures, to improve initial reception, to identify early signs of violence, to improve
techniques of listening and approaching to victims, and to plan specialist aid interventions.
Training is also aimed at professionals working in contact with victims and at persons at risk, such
as public security authorities, judicial authorities, prosecutors, law enforcement authorities and
lawyers. In this area, it is necessary to encourage participation in further training and/or training
courses because there is a lack of training and a low percentage of membership.

3. Protective measures to protect victims

Aggression against women is a phenomenon that has very deep roots and, in most of the cases, is
a combination of several types of violence, transversal to all moments of expression of individual
freedom. In fact, it significantly affects victims' dignity, autonomy, self-image and self-esteem, since
it is a form of power and control which can be expressed through acts or threats of physical,
psychological, sexual, economic or persecutory abuse (stalking).
Interrupting a relationship that seems compromised, does not always guarantee the victim's safety.
Sometimes it Is possible that the violence not only could continue but could even be taken to the
extreme, in the form of revenge towards the victim who managed to denounce. The current
epidemiological emetgency situation is getting worse and worse the gender-based violence,
particularly violence towards women.
Infact, factors such as the forced sharing of living space and socio-economic instability, have led not
only to a large number of episodes of violence, but also to their worsening, significantly limiting the
freedom and autonomy of the victims. Although the centers of violence and the agencies present in
the area guaranteed a continuity of the service offered during the pandemic, the reduction in external
contacts made it even more difficult the emerging of domestic and assisted violence conditions:in
Europe, in recent times, there has been, especially in the period of health emergency, decrease not
only in the physical access of women to the centers anti-violence and at the help desks, but also in
the number of complaints for ill-treatment, as well as a contextual and consequent reduction of the
interventions of the Forces of the order.
Obviously this drop in complaints and accesses does not mean that violence against women has
regressed, but only that women victims of violence, in forced coexistence due to the epidemiological
emergency, found themselves more exposed to aggression and to the control of partners. and have,
therefore, suffered from less freedom of action. To cope with this emergency in the emergency, the
institutional bodies should prepare additional economic resources to activate more streamlined
procedures aimed at guaranteeing protection, support and reception measures for the women and
minors involved, ensuring, in particular, the effectiveness of anti-violence measures. also in the
phase immediately following the submission of complaints. It is desirable, in fact, that measures are
taken to avoid any possibility of contact between the victim and the perpetrator of the violence and,
likewise, that mechanisms are provided, for monitoring compliance by the recipient of the measures
with the obligations imposed. Victims of violence should be made safe immediately and inserted,
then, in a protection network that provides for the application of precautions and precautionary
measures against the perpetrator of the crime, as well as the application of protection instruments
both in administrative and in criminal proceedings.
The non-uniformity of the legislative frameworks of the different countries of the European Union, on
the other hand, means that victims of gender-based violence do not have the same treatment within
the Union for the different protection mechanisms actually adopted. It is therefore necessary to
strengthen protection measures, standardizing them in all Member States and to provide for a
minimum and essential level of protection of the victims so as to allow better collaboration among
countries in the investigation and execution of the punishments.

4. Provisions in support of victims and compensation measures

The determined fight against gender-based violence and domestic violence cannot be separated
from the financial commitment that EU countries must make to create and improve the network of
services to support and compensate victims and witnesses of violence. The Instanbul Convention
provides for this obligation to be translated into priority budgetary appropriations required in the
economic programmes of national policy, aimed at structuring measures to support women who are
victims of violence and to increase their freedom and financial independence. Each State can
delegate its local and regional authorities to carry out tasks of planning, of qualification of
interventions and integration of protection and support services to victims, in different areas of
competences. The local anti-violence network must provide for the presence of qualified local
agencies, whether public or private, working to define the exit from violence project, shared with the
victim but not subordinated to his willingness to take criminal proceedings or to testify against her
offender. The network model must be focused on the needs of the victim and witnesses of domestic
violence, anti-bureaucratic, flexible and open, to activate in progress the inclusion of additional,
functional "service links" to support the multiproblematic situation that the woman usually lives. The
anti-violence network has the task of accompanying the victim of ill-treatment and/or injury towards
the conscious decision to interrupt the cycle of violence, to protect her right of citizenship and social
integration and to build her own alternative and autonomous path of "life". In order to achieve these
objectives it is important that the different local forces (public or private), while maintaining their
specific competence, have to work in synergy to pursue a common perspective of actions to combat
violence and to share procedures and lines of activity. In this way, a reticular aids system is created
to guarantee to the victim and witnesses of domestic violence a greater perspective of psychological,
relational, social and economic recovery, going back to the "normality of life". This system, in line
with European regulatory requirements, is structured in various areas of intervention, including:

AREAS OF ACTION ACTION

- to provide the first information

- for the analysis of the situation and needs
1 Reception
- to define the objectives
- to structure the path of exit from violence

- for psychological advice

2 First specialist assistance - for medical and legal advice (especially for victims of sexual
violence)

- to provide asylum, including for children who have witnessed

3 Hospitality violence, in sheltered facilities guaranteeing secrecy and
anonymity

- to facilitate the use of services, access to bureaucratic

4 Flanking
administrative procedures, the judicial process

5 Financial assistance - to cover the costs of the recovery and exit phase

- for employment integration (for non-employed women) or for

6 Accompanying / Research the recognition of the rights of working women
- for the search of a housing solution

- for minors, witnesses of domestic violence

7 Specialist services - for migrant women and for those who are victims of sexual
exploitation and trafficking

- to work on the phenomenon with a social approach

- to reduce the isolation of women and encourage the
8 Collective treatment establishment of social ties
- to facilitate the development of ties that allow women to talk
about what happened to them

uarantethe rit to compensation for victims of int

EU countries are also called upon to guarantee the right to compensation for victims of intentional
violent crimes or for their descendants; this right must be exercised irrespective of the EU’s own
borders where the crime was committed and it must be commensurate, in a fair and appropriate
manner, with the recognition of injuries and damage resulting therefrom, if the repair of the damage
is not guaranteed by other sources, in particular by the offender. In order to provide adequate
compensation to those who have suffered serious damage to their physical integrity or health, part
of the financial resources allocated to the fight against gender-based violence may be supplemented
by the establishment of an Equal Opportunities Fund, which may also be used in cases of
unsuccessful enforcement against the offender, convicted finally.

5. Online violences and harrassing

The ever-widening use of the internet during the pandemic has increased the genders-based online
violence and the number of online sexual abuses of children and of women. Data shows that
everywhere there has been an increase of cases of gender-based violence during covid-19
pandemic. Indeed, this international emergency has led many more users to interact with the internet
and the digital world with a consequent increase of the dangers of the web also due to disinformation.
Online gender-based violence has become a global problem of ever-increasing dimensions with
potentially significant economic and social repercussions.
Access to the Internet is increasingly viewed as a fundamental human right, therefore, it is essential
to ensure that the public digital space is a safe and empowering place for all.
Online gender-based violence can take many forms: cyberstalking, revenge porn, gender-based
offenses and harassment, sexual stigmatization, unwanted pornography, death threats, online
search and publication of personal and private information (doxing), and electronic human trafficking.
Like offline violence, virtual violence against women can also manifest itself as psychological or
economic violence by compromising the victim's current or future employment through the online
dissemination of confidential information.
In recent years, in the EU Member States, there have been several cases of women victims of non-
consensual pornography who have been induced to suicide because they could not withstand the
shame and social discredit. The research shows that in 90% of cases, victims of "revenge"
pornography are women and that the number of cases is progressively increasing. There is also a
growing number of Internet sites dedicated to sharing revenge pornography, where users can post
images and personal information such as address, employer and links to the victim's online profiles.
Given the transnational nature of online violence, there should be greater uniformity between the
laws of EU Member States, which should interact and collaborate in order to create a common
system of protection and safeguard of victims.
This need is evident, in particular, in the phase of detection of prohibited conducts and consequent
repression of offenses; the many bureaucratic and formal obstacles in obtaining, promptly, the
release of authorizations by the online platforms concerned, makes it very often difficult to ensure
effective protection to victims.
The provision of a common procedure for requesting and granting authorization to access could also
serve as a deterrent and constitute a measure of prevention of the conduct itself.
In addition, it is necessary that online platforms and social networks adopt stricter restrictions in
order to avoid indiscriminate access to the Web and prevent the publication of sexually explicit and
defamatory content that can cause damage to victims.
6. Freedom and integration of LGBTIQ+ people

In Europe, no one can be discriminated against for his own sexual identity. We can clearly read this
in the Article 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (which forbids any form
of discrimination based on sex, genetic characteristics or sexual orientation) and in Article 19 of the
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (which indicates the need to vigorously fight this
specific type of discrimination). Nevertheless, it is not uncommon for lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender and intersex people (more commonly known by the acronym LGBTQ+) to suffer from
severe discrimination even in our national communities. From the chronicles that come from every
corner of the continent we learn that many LGBTQ+ people suffer from humiliations and offenses
not only in the context of daily social relations but also at work, at school, in associations and even
in public health places. Moreover, they are often the target of real violence, consumed by individuals
or organized groups, inspired by an irrational and uncivilized hate: not surprisingly, almost half of the
LGBTQ+ people interviewed across Europe in 2013 on behalf of the European Union Agency for
Fundamental Rights stated to have suffered discrimination or harassment. The Union is actively
working to fight discrimination based on homophobia, urging all Member States to guarantee the
rights of LGBTQ+ people. In particular, as early as 2015, the European Commission implemented a
series of actions explicitly aimed at protecting these people in all social fields, starting with work (by
rules requiring protection against such forms of discrimination, 'in relation to an application for
employment, professional promotion or training, or in relation to conditions of remuneration and
dismissal'). Another area of action, important too, concerns the social media control, often
transformed into a way of hating and denigrating LGBTQ+ people, with often dramatic consequences
for the existence of those who are victims. For this reason, in 2016 the European Commission
proposed a code of conduct to the most popular social networks, asking them to analyse within 24
hours most reports of illegal forms of incitement to hatred and, if necessary, to remove such content.
Equally effective action is being taken in the field of health (in some countries there are still unequal
treatment in accessing to services) and reception of people forced to flee from their own countries
(in some non-European states, openly homophobic laws are still in force).
In the European Union, the majority of public opinion explicitly supports the actions and opinion
campaigns launched by the Commission. According to a survey published in 2019, 76% of the
Europeans who have been surveyed, believe that LGBTQ+ people must have the same rights as
heterosexual people. Four years before it was 71%: this means that, with the passing of time, it is
reinforcing the idea that LGBTQ+ people should be institutionally protected. At the same time,
however, we must not let our guard down because there are still a considerable 24% of Europeans
who do not believe in the equal dignity of people regardless of their sexual orientation: We must
make them understand that the Union will be better if all its citizens can be themselves without the
risk of discrimination, exclusion or violence.