Calls by the Police Commissioner for legislation to be amended so that victims of domestic violence would receive immediate protection, were welcomed by the Malta Confederation of Women’s Organisations (MCWO).

The MCWO said it had been calling for changes to domestic violence legislation since its enactment in 2006. The need for changes to the law, the only shield for countless abused victims, had also been highlighted by United Nations gender equality experts in recommendations submitted to the government last November.

The police can only treat a reported case as urgent and arraign the alleged perpetrator if the legal conditions for urgency are met. One of these conditions is that the police need to have reasonable grounds to believe arrest is warranted to protect a vulnerable victim. But what constitutes reasonable grounds can be very subjective according to an individual’s perspective, the confederation said.

It said that although it was very aware of the heavy workload of the police face, it questioned the criteria, or lack of, upon which they based their judgement in deciding what constituted ‘a reasonable threat.’

It pointed out that before the law could be truly enforced, there had to be a system or mechanism that reliably ‘graded’ a reported case as one of urgency.

“It is only after the case has been graded as serious and urgent, that the police can arrest the alleged perpetrator and take him to court within 48 hours.

“It is then that the courts have an important role to play to hear the case with urgency,” the confederation insisted.

The MCWO reiterated that there was an urgent need for a risk assessment protocol that police officers in police stations could rely on when determining what constituted an ‘urgent’ report or otherwise.