House supports Domestic Violence Bill

Social Solidarity Minister Dolores Cristina said yesterday that she agreed with an Opposition call for the drafting of a national plan to tackle domestic violence.

She said that the setting up of a Commission on Domestic Violence, proposed in the Domestic Violence Bill should serve towards this aim.

Ms Cristina was speaking at the end of the second reading debate on the Bill. The Bill was then given a second reading unanimously.

The minister said that one of the outcomes of the debate was that the country was saying a determined "no" to domestic violence. She expressed her appreciation that the Opposition was voting in favour of the Bill and said the government would keep an open mind on amendments which Opposition MPs had said they would move in committee stage. She would also be moving other amendments following the remarks made in the debate.

Ms Cristina said the Bill proposed new remedies to counter domestic violence. It sought to offer better protection for victims while providing for both justice and help for aggressors.

It was true that it had taken seven years for the Bill to make it to the House but domestic violence could not be tackled by legislation alone. Over the past few years several supporting structures were set up and others were strengthened and these would enable the Bill to be implemented more effectively.

The Bill had been the fruit of a very wide consultation process which was ongoing in the sense that she had received a proposal from the police suggesting several amendments only in the morning.

The definition of domestic violence had been brought up in the debate many times. There were some MPs who said that the definition was too wide and others who said it was not wide enough.

The government had proposed in the Bill that even verbal abuse should be considered as domestic violence.

She was willing to improve the definition if someone managed to come up with a better one.

On the creation of the commission, which was disputed by several MPs, Ms Cristina said that it was impossible to convince her that the commission was not necessary. One could say that there were many commissions but this did not mean that this commission should not be set up. There was a need for this commission and it was this commission which in the coming years could lead to the drawing up of a national plan on domestic violence.

The commission would be a monitoring and advisory body while the Appogg agency would be the service provider. She agreed with Marie-Louise Coleiro that the commission's report as well as the agency's report should be debated within the Social Affairs Committee.

Ms Cristina said some of the proposals made regarding protection, restraining and treatment orders would be taken on board.

It would be left up to a magistrate to decide whether a case of domestic violence before the courts should be discontinued. This removed the possibility of the victim being pressured to request discontinuation, but there could be genuine cases where couples solved their problems and a case should therefore be dropped.

Ms Cristina said she agreed with the remarks made on the importance of education, the media and advertising within the context of domestic violence. There was a need to look at bullying at schools because this was a form of violence which could lead to domestic violence in later years.

Earlier in yesterday's sitting, Education Minister Louis Galea said it was positive that the debate was recognising in a clearer manner that domestic violence was one of the worst forms of violence there could be in society.

Dr Galea spoke on the impact of domestic violence on children.

In the education sector, there had never been as many services of prevention and intervention as today. The Child Safety Services offered a service to abused children, including those suffering from emotional abuse and those who witnessed or were victims of domestic violence. Since 2000, the service worked on 100 cases of emotional abuse.

Several schools also organised talks for parents to spread information against domestic violence and abuse.

The topic was also brought up within the subject of Personal and Social Development. This helped students develop a productive and mature character.

Another service was given through guidance and counselling meetings. It was very difficult for those going through domestic violence to open up and it was the task of these teachers and counsellors to help them do so and put them in contact with professional staff.

Teachers were also being trained to be able to face the experience their students were going through. All teachers were requested to insist that there should be zero tolerance to any kind of violence.

There was also a legal service within the education sector for the schools to know how to handle such cases. Legal services were offered to students, teachers and families.

Lately, there were many university students who were choosing to focus their studies on this topic and this was a positive factor.

Labour MP Silvio Parnis said that a strong family reflected a strong nation while broken families reflected a broken nation. All the people working in the domestic violence sector confirmed that people who suffered the problem, whether as victims or as witnesses, continued to suffer throughout their life.

He insisted that the people should be better informed on the services available to support them when they faced problems such as domestic violence.

Teachers had a central role in noting any strange behaviour by their pupils, which could be symptomatic that all was not well at home.

Mr Parnis said it was difficult for people suffering from domestic violence to get this out of their system and they were only able to look ahead in their lives with the help of therapy.

The bill was later given a second reading.