The event of MEP Elena Kountoura took place in the European Parliament and featured the participation of the competent special rapporteur of the UN and institutional representatives of the main institutions and bodies of the European Parliament. The event focused on the proposal of the EU Directive on gender-based violence and, in particular, the requirement to effectively deal with its impact on domestic violence and the custody rights of women and children.
The event was a great success, as it brought together the positions and proposals of the institutions and larger EU bodies, which have a special weight because of the MEPs’ submission of amendments on January 30 to the European Parliament’s official position on the upcoming Community directive.
Elena Kountoura, as rapporteur of the European Parliament, in the report she prepared on “the impact of domestic violence and custody rights on women and children”, thanked the guests for their response and the critical positions they formulated. She will capture vital aspects of these issues in amendments he will table next week, with the aim of the Community directive in its final form correcting the current institutional distortions in dealing with domestic violence and protecting women and children victims.
In her comprehensive analysis of the causes as a whole, the competent UN special rapporteur Areem Alsalem particularly emphasized the role of biases in the judicial system and the weaknesses of the legal regime, which have led to “massive failures” of justice. She focused mainly on the consequences faced by children, who are not only victimized as witnesses to domestic violence but re-victimized when the courts do not speak to them in a child-friendly way or do not believe them and allow contact and relationship with their violent parent.
Several other guest speakers, among them Kiki Petroulaki (President of EAVN) talked on various major topics related to the violence against girls and women worldwide and discussed the ways and methods required to eliminate it completely.
The event is available here