Government 'cut off from reality' when it comes to violence against women, PN says

Victims of violence are suffering at the hands of “an incompetent government,” Nationalist MP Claudette Buttigieg said.

In a statement on Tuesday, Buttigieg condemned comments made by Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis when he insisted that members of the judiciary were "more than competent in their respective areas", in a reaction to a damning report by the Council of Europe (COE) citing a lack of training among Malta's judiciary in handling domestic violence cases. 

“The reaction issued yesterday by the government on the report published by GREVIO on violence against women shows the incompetence of a government cut off from reality that it does not want to see the gravity of the situation in our country,” Buttigieg said.

The GREVIO report said that judges appear to have an "inadequate understanding of the change in paradigm in proving rape, of the role and importance of emergency barring orders and protection orders in breaking the cycle of violence.”

Buttigieg said that the report highlighted what the Opposition has been saying for years, namely that the government has not effectively been working against violence against woman, and that there was no serious knowledge and commitment in this area.

“The GREVIO report says that there is work that needs to be done with serious urgency for Malta to really meet the standards it demands in this area. As a priority, the GREVIO report insists that the government is not addressing violence against women,” Buttigieg said.

Buttigieg said that the government had placed this type of violence with other forms of violence, which is slowing down, and hampering the attention needed to stop violence against women, simply because they are women, in a society that wants to keep women inferior to men.

Buttigieg said that the report highlights a lack of training for professionals, police and judiciary – which has had serious consequences in the judicial process. A lack of support services, and red tape that continues to crush victims, a lack of professionalism when gathering evidence, a lack of service for victims aged 16 to 18, a lack of sensitivity by the courts towards victims, and a failure to process female asylum seekers who are victims of violence.

Buttigieg said that the government should urgently take note of the recommendations by the COE.

“The government is wrong in not clearly addressing violence against women. This is being reflected in-laws and processes that are aggravating a woman's situation when she is a victim of violence. The Nationalist Party calls on the government to stop burying itself in the sand and address this problem urgently,” she said.

Buttigieg said that only 4% of female victims of violence receive justice in the courts. “The 96% who remain unjust will surely, as the opposition, continue to hope that the government will change the course it has taken and do something serious and effective in this area,” she said.

READ MORE: Judges show little sensitivity to victims of domestic violence, Council of Europe experts say