Emergency doctors have warned that there are “too many” domestic abuse cases that go under the radar, as the victims are afraid of the perpetrators.
The Association of Emergency Physicians of Malta on Friday added its voice to many others calling for an end to violence, in the wake of the murder of Chantelle Chetcuti.
The 34-year-old mother of two was stabbed at least five times in the head and neck in a killing that shocked the country.
Her former partner and father of her children, Justin Borg, has pleaded not guilty to murdering her in Żabbar on Sunday night.
Chantelle is the sixteenth woman to be murdered since 2010.
'Too many such incidents'
As the ones on the frontline, emergency physicians deal with domestic abuse victims on a regular basis.
"Regrettably we continue to see too many such incidents in our line of work, some of which are not as obvious and news breaking," the physicians’ association said.
“They are victims of all ages. They are victims of any gender. They are victims coming from all social strata. They are victims coming from all different cultural and racial origin.
“There are too many and too frequent but regrettably under-reported by the victims because of their extreme fear of the perpetrator.”
The doctors joined others in calling on the authorities, stakeholders and lawmakers to address the issue and ensure an adequate legal framework through which justice and support is better served.
'Support professionals fighting a patriarchal society'
Social workers meanwhile expressed shock that a country with updated domestic violence and civil rights legislation, still experienced horrific murders that were reflective of a society that tolerated patriarchy, inequality and discrimination.
The Maltese Association of Social Workers said it was angry at the lack of acceptance by society of the power dynamics played out within abusive intimate relationships, in which women are considered men’s possessions.
Social workers’ recommendations to the authorities:
- ensure that responsibility for abuse is carried fully by perpetrators, who are not only given sentences which befit their crimes, but are also enrolled for programmes that address their violent behaviour
- strengthen protective services and accessibility to them
- insist that professionals who meet women fighting for their rights, including police officers, lawyers, mediators, magistrates and judges, are provided with updated training to identify and deal with these situations
- support professionals as they fight a patriarchal society
'Besieged by an entertainment industry that glorifies violence'
In a statement, the Gaia Foundation also condemned the recent spate of violence, including homicide, “in the most unequivocal manner”.
Acknowledging that both the Maltese Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights have ruled that people serving life sentences have a right to apply for parole and have their sentences reviewed, no stone must be left unturned to make it “amply clear that violent crimes against the most vulnerable will be treated with the utmost severity that they deserve”.
“We are besieged, maybe bewitched, by an entertainment industry that regularly features, even glorifies, gratuitous and extreme violence, which may be having an effect on desensitising some to violence against people in the real world.
“Society, and the judicial system cannot afford to send the wrong message of being soft on perpetrators. If they do so, the very fabric of civilised society would be threatened. It would risk degenerating into a jungle where brutality by the more powerful and fear by the more vulnerable become the norm.”
The vulnerable have a fundamental right to feel safe and that right needed to be prioritised over that of perpetrators’ right to plead clemency after their commission, the foundation said in a statement.