There is a disquieting reality which is not being given the attention it deserves.

Parents are suffering domestic violence by their children. Data shows that this emerging social reality is on the increase.

We speak of the increase in the number of youths graduating from university. What about those who do not make it in the education system because they are so absorbed and harmed by their parents’ disputes that they cannot focus on their studies?

What happens to those who find it difficult to build meaningful relationships and isolate themselves, digging deeper into their loneliness?

Are we offering free psychological assistance to young adults who have suffered fear and anxiety throughout their childhood and, as a consequence, suffer mental health illnesses? Or are they invisible in our society?

These youths are among the new generations. We need to gauge their emotional and psychological well-being from a tender age. Before they start building relationships, before they become parents themselves.

Before it’s too late.

A national strategy that focuses on prevention, healing and formation is imminent. An aggressive youth needs to be understood, not punished. Sending a violent teenager or a young adult to prison or to a mental health institution does not solve the problem. There is a need for live-in communities where these youths learn how to manage their emotions and how to form healthy boundaries.

This is not just about the police. Every professional needs to shoulder responsibility. Why did a judge, in a separate case, increase the access of an abusive father when the mother pleaded to decrease it?

Why did a mother reach out to two commissioners for children to be ignored by one and to be told by the other that the father was giving a completely different version?

Is this not enough reason to give the child a voice?

Who is paying the price for the professionals’ subjective decisions and omissions? It is the son. The mother has been left alone to pick up the pieces.

Why is a woman’s cry for help taken so lightly?

The government has been criticised for centralising the domestic violence reports with the setting up of the domestic violence unit (DVU). Let us not throw away what has helped women find the courage to report.

Data shows that domestic violence reports have increased since the inception of the DVU in 2020. However, experience has showed that the DVU on its own is not enough unless the judicial system is working efficiently.

The setting up of The domestic violence agency (DVA) was another step in the right direction. Committed professionals at DVA are giving invaluable free emotional and psychological support to women who suffered or are still suffering from domestic violence.

The dead are asking us to build a system that protects the weakest- Anna Catania

It is key to include abused women in the planning process of strategies and policies, to hear from them what works and what doesn’t. A victim who shared her experience recalled that “No expert can really understand the nightmare I go through to file a report. How exhausting and draining it is. The sense of failure and humiliation I feel, knowing that the perpetrator is my own son, who is also a victim of the father and of the system. I feel that I failed my son, when I desperately tried to protect him.”

We have heard countless times that the system failed Bernice Cassar. But who exactly is the system?

The government-commissioned inquiry report into the femicide of Cassar concluded that there is no one person responsible for causing her death.

The police officers working at the DVU perform their duties within ‘the system’. Lawyers and judges also work within ‘the system’.

When pointing fingers, let us be careful whom we are pointing fingers at.

Not everyone carries the same responsibility.

Moreover, let us not be too quick to conclude that we have no role to play in forming judgements and in reinforcing stereotypes about women – this concerns all of society, men and women. We are all part of the system.

Why do we deride a woman who finally finds the courage to publicly say that she suffered from domestic violence, just because she is a Labour MP? Ironically enough, ‘Stop the Silence’ was being splashed everywhere at the time.

In his play Frana allo scalo nord, Ugo Betti narrates a tragic accident during the construction of a railway line that causes the injury and death of many workers.

A judicial investigation assigned to judge Parsc questions all those involved in order to discover the truth about who is responsible for the tragedy.

Everyone starts pointing fingers. It’s no one’s fault! Initially, it seems that the responsibility falls on the developer. However, the circle of responsibility continues to widen as the number of persons who come forward to give witness increases.

Betti, who was a judge himself, brings out an important moral and ethical issue. Apart from the individual, there is also a collective responsibility.

In his play, even the dead are called to testify. We cannot bring back the dead but they are calling out for justice and, above all, for truth.

They are asking us to build a system that protects the weakest – a truthful society where there is no incongruency between our thoughts, judgements and actions.

As there can be no justice without the truth.

Anna Catania is an active citizen engaged in migration and social justice issues. Sincere and special thanks to Graziella Farrugia, police sergeant 2044, gender-based and domestic violence unit.