Four axes and a hundred measures: on the occasion of International Women’s Rights Day, the government was to present, Wednesday, March 8 in the Council of Ministers, an interministerial plan devoted to equality between women and men, including the implementation will be declined until 2027.
While the past few days have been marked by several close feminicides – one of them, which occurred on March 3 in Gironde despite two complaints filed by the victim, led the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, to request a administrative investigation of the General Inspectorate of the National Gendarmerie – the fight against violence against women “is the first pillar” of this plan, according to Matignon. In line with the measures taken during the previous five-year term, several measures aim to consolidate the protection of women who are victims of domestic violence, which affects one in ten women aged 20 to 59.
In order to “breaking geographic isolation” of the latter, the government aims to generalize by 2024, in each department, the creation of a medico-social structure, backed by a hospital center, to offer in the same place support for both care and in their administrative procedures. On the model of the Maison des femmes de Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis), these structures – there are already 56 of them at present – will be equipped with a permanent police force so that women can file a complaint.
Hardening of sanctions
Another announcement, intended to improve the judicial response to women victims, which is still largely insufficient: the creation, by the end of 2023, of a file for the protection of victims of domestic violence, which will not only collect data relating to the perpetrators domestic violence from other systems (file of wanted persons, gun license, processing of criminal records) – which had already been announced by Jean Castex in June 2021, after a feminicide that occurred in the middle of the street in Mérignac (Gironde) –, but also information relating to the victims (protection measures granted, complaints, etc.). This document, accessible to law enforcement and magistrates, will improve the sharing of information and thus react “as soon as the violence is reported”says Matignon.
On the judicial level, the government’s plan also provides for tougher penalties for serial rape, for which the maximum penalty will increase from twenty to thirty years. The limitation periods in the event of serial rape will also be extended, announce the services of the Prime Minister, thanks to a sliding prescription system already in force for rape of minors, which will be extended. These changes will go through a bill.
You have 23.17% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.