At least one-quarter of all murders committed in Malta in the last five years were related to domestic violence, according to a court expert on a number of homicide cases.
Marie Therese Camilleri Podesta, a professor of anatomy, said eight of the 32 homicides were linked to domestic violence, although the actual figure could be much higher, as a number of cases remained unsolved or unproven.
During a panel discussion on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women yesterday, Prof. Camilleri Podesta said autopsies she had carried out showed a level of “anger” towards victims which differentiated it from other crimes.
“Identifying such cases is made harder by the fact that victims will often cover up for their attacker,” she added, recalling one case where a victim on the brink of death repeatedly insisted she had simply fallen down the stairs.
Across Europe, one in three women has experienced physical or sexual violence at some point in her life. Seven women are murdered in Europe every day as a result of gender-based violence.
“It’s an epidemic,” said Joanna Maycock, secretary-general of the European Women’s Lobby. “Violence against women is a structural and pervasive strategy to maintain men’s control over women’s lives and bodies, and it needs to be tackled as such.”
Ms Maycock said that although there had been significant legislative progress, it had proven very difficult to keep violence against women on the European agenda.
Despite calls for a comprehensive strategy on gender equality, she noted, the EU had actually taken a step backwards and was now talking only of a draft working paper.
Ms Maycock also highlighted the additional risk of violence faced by migrant, bisexual and transgender women, who often found necessary support and infrastructure severely lacking.
“There can be no gender equality while violence against women continues. The two are inextricably linked and feed off each other,” said Marceline Naudi, head of the gender studies department.
She added that social workers and others in the field were “overstretched and under-resourced” and needed additional support to enable them to continue their work.
Also addressing the panel, chairman of Men against Violence Aleksandar Dimitrijevic called for men, as the main perpetrators of violence, to play an active role as allies to the cause. “We don’t tolerate any form of violence to the extent that we tolerate domestic violence,” he said.
Meanwhile, Elaine Compagno, coordinator of the support and advocacy group SOAR, said all efforts aimed at ending domestic violence had to take into account survivors’ own experiences and perspectives.
People who had been through such experiences, she argued, were uniquely placed to highlight issues affecting the services – including police, shelters and courts – that victims made use of.