Speech of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mrs.Anita Demetriou before the Plenary Session of the House of Representatives during the debate on the topic "On the Prevention and Combating of Violence against Women and Domestic Violence and Related Matters (Amendment) (No.2)) Act, 2022"
Thursday, July 7, 2022
I strongly feel the need to quote the latest figures:
Nine in 2019, five in 2020, five in 2021, one in 2022... (so far) the year has not yet ended. Each number corresponds to a man and specifically a woman. The common denominator in the equation is the stigma of crime which has a gender dimension as a result of escalating violence towards women. Why do we insist on the importance of the term femicide? Because it encodes, signifies and names the most extreme form of gender violence. So we ought to call a spade a spade.
They all died because they were women. All were murdered by men they trusted, most often from within the sphere of their immediate family. Former and current husbands, partners, brothers, fathers who considered them their property, who exercised authority over them, who were convinced that they could decide about their lives... About how they think, what they wear, how they talk, who they love... Even how long they would live.
The phenomenon of the taking of life - which is a violation of the most basic human right - on the basis of gender, is fed and nurtured by the stereotypical remnants of patriarchy, inequality and prejudice that are deeply rooted and have eroded the social fabric. It is acknowledged that the upsurge in domestic and sexual violence due to the incarceration brought about by covid 19 has taken on the dimensions of a parallel pandemic internationally, with a geometric increase in the number of incidents. The victim is trapped in the networks of the abuser, with the abuse culminating in femicide. The term does not negate the term homicide but has a complementary and reinforcing effect.
Why is there a need for legal separation? What more does the introduction of the offence of femicide as an individual offence offer than the common law crime of homicide?
The answer which every modern society is called upon to give is that the victims of domestic and sexual violence, the victims of misogyny, the victims of intimate partner violence, the victims of "honour" or religious crimes are women, not men.
It is for this reason that the recognition of the term "femicide" and its inclusion in the legal order of our country is now more urgent than ever, because it emphasizes the intensity, the origin and the cause of the crime, in the circumstances I have mentioned. In this way, the will of society to oppose the violent behaviour of men towards women because of their gender is also powerfully reflected, making a decisive contribution to the elimination of patriarchal stereotypes, so that, together with gender equality policies, it can give impetus to the empowerment of women. At the same time, it adds a valuable parameter to the toolbox for eradicating this phenomenon: it gives us the possibility of an official record of femicide.
The establishment of "femicide" as a specific offence incorporated into the special law on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, the law that implemented the Istanbul Convention in practice, will undoubtedly contribute to the development of the necessary empathy and the state's efforts to eliminate all obstacles that deprive women of the equal enjoyment of their rights, making the phenomenon visible, in the context, as has been rightly pointed out by academics, of a Criminal Law of Human Rights, aimed at protecting women who are in a vulnerable position and subject to domestic violence against the man/actor in a stronger position.
I understand that in positive law, especially in the Criminal Code, women and girls under the age of eighteen (18) do not occupy a visible position, since generally the association of women with the law and/or the gender dimension with the law is non-existent.
But a law that is not capable of contributing to the progress of a society, that does not respond to the needs of all its citizens and does not contribute to the elimination of the long-standing unequal power relations between men and women, the relations that mark violence towards them, can only be an obsolete and one-sided law.
It is important to stress that the issue was analysed in depth in terms of its legal and evidentiary aspects in the relevant committee. These are not new ingredients, but statutorily defined aggravating circumstances which will be counted when imposing a sentence for causing the death of a woman by an unlawful act or omission. In response to the explosion of the phenomenon.
The term "femicide" dates back as early as 1976, when the sociologist Russell first used it; and it should also not be ignored that in 2012, before the United Nations (UN) at a special symposium on the issue of defining the term "femicide", which resulted in the signing of the Vienna Declaration, it was pointed out that femicide is rarely properly investigated and rarely brought to justice due to lack of evidence, since crimes of this nature are committed in the family home as phenomena that are perfectly acceptable to local communities and in some cases are covered up.
We are therefore called upon today, as Parliament, to take a step forward. To prove that we want the gender dimension to permeate the law of our country, that we want to break the guilty silence that covers deeply stereotypical societies, that Cyprus is not a stereotypical society, but a progressive society that is not anchored in outdated notions and that wants to incorporate into law the values and needs of vulnerable women, marking the beginning of a new approach to equality that will permeate legal thinking and society on multiple levels.
And every step that brings us closer to de-escalating gender-based violence is one we must dare to take. We ought to anticipate. To raise shields of protection against every perpetrator and in front of every potential victim. We owe it to all those women who were tortured and abused to death... because they were simply women.
(Text as sent from the House of Representatives)
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