The world yesterday called for the elimination of violence against women, with the local authorities launching a strategy for the next three years and Bishop Mario Grech calling on victims to put their foot down and stop suffering in silence, writes Sarah Carabott.
Abused women should not put up with any violence in the belief that they are protecting their marriage, Bishop Mario Grech is urging, insisting that domestic violence is a criminal act and could be grounds for annulment.
“Unfortunately, our culture still conceals this abuse. It is not true that when a woman denounces her husband, she is betraying love, or breaking a marriage promise,” Mgr Grech wrote in a letter that Gozitan families will be receiving this week.
“The reasoning that a woman should put up with domestic violence so that she does not cause marriage breakdown is incorrect. Indeed, domestic violence could be the reason why marriage is declared null in Civil Courts and the Church’s Tribunal.”
In his pastoral letter, the Bishop noted that married women made up the largest group of domestic violence victims, but victims included children and other vulnerable people such as the elderly, the ill and those with a disability.
Mgr Grech commented that those who tried to use the Bible to justify this violence were abusing Catholic beliefs.
Meanwhile, victims who thought that getting out of this situation meant that they were failing spiritually, or worse still, that such decisions carried the burden of moral fault, were also in the wrong.
In his letter, the Bishop refers to Amoris lætitia, in which Pope Francis speaks of “the shameful ill-treatment to which women are sometimes subjected, domestic violence and various forms of enslavement which, rather than a show of masculine power, are craven acts of cowardice.
“The verbal, physical, and sexual violence that women endure in some marriages contradicts the very nature of the conjugal union.”
Contrary to discourse that several of today’s problems had surfaced because of women’s emancipation, the Pope was not only saying that this was an invalid argument, but he was also calling this reasoning a “form of male chauvinism,” Mgr Grech insisted.
The Bishop invited domestic violence victims, especially women abused in their own homes, to pluck up the courage and emerge from beneath the heel of those treading their dignity and rights.
“Nothing justifies domestic violence. The violent are never right. Domestic violence is a sin and a criminal act.”
He called on priests, lay people and educators to help raise awareness and speak out about this subject. The more the awareness, the higher the chances of breaking up this cycle of violence, which is passed on from one generation to another.
Mgr Grech also called for support for the perpetrators as abusive discourse and behaviour reflected a serious personality issue.
The fact that we do not often hear of such incidents does not mean that there are no people imprisoned in their own homes. Violence at home is like a silent epidemic that is making victims physically and mentally sick, wearing out family union and spreading violence in our societies, he said.
And children, who are not physically beaten up but are exposed to violent behaviour between their parents, are being beaten up indirectly, the Bishop added.
Human Rights and Integration Directorate director Silvan Agius, Equality Minister Helena Dalli and the Directorate’s assistant director Katya Unah at the launch of the strategy yesterday. Photo: Anthony Sultana/DOISociety’s Concern: a 2020 strategy against violence
Removing victims from abusive relationships is futile unless perpetrators are also helped overcome their problematic attitude, Equality Minister Helena Dalli said yesterday.
“It is useless to remove the victim, when the aggressor can find another partner and repeat their behaviour. We need to increase our efforts until everyone understands that violence is never justified,” Dr Dalli said at the launch of the Gender-based violence and Domestic violence Strategy and Action Plan.
The strategy is built on four pillars: prevention of violence, legal protection of the victims and witnesses, the strengthening of investigations and prosecution and the launch of integrated policies.
Through this strategy and on-going law amendments, Malta’s position would finally be in line with the European obligations that the island signed up for.
Malta ratified the Council of Europe convention on preventing and fighting violence against women in 2014. Although Malta had promised to fulfil its obligations, there was no uniform systematic process of doing so.
The new strategy is the first national framework to ensure that legislation, policies and services address victims’ needs holistically and as a societal concern. It includes 27 measures that have to be implemented by several entities, Silvan Agius, director of the Human Rights and Integration Directorate explained during the launch yesterday.
The implementation of the strategy will be recoded in four monitoring reports per year, in a bid to provide a clearer picture of the developments within this sector.
The action plan at a glance
• Ensure that laws and administrative procedures do not prevent migrant victims from leaving violent relationships due to fear of deportation, loss of legal status or revoked custody over children.
• Following a risk assessment, victims are to be referred to legal services and/or psycho-social support as necessary.
• Ensure that the judiciary, the Department for Probation and Parole and the Malta Police Force refer perpetrators to perpetrator programmes.
• Strengthen Supportline 179 with the necessary professional support staff.
• Launch awareness-raising campaigns to address the risk factors in relation to human trafficking.
• Conduct recurrent research in the field of gender-based violence and domestic violence to study the root causes and effects, incidences and conviction rates.
• Conduct an assessment of current court procedures and practices related to gender-based violence and domestic violence and propose possible measures to reduce waiting time.