The bill to amend the legislation on the prevention and combating of domestic violence, which is to be examined by Parliament, represents a step backward at the level of the state policies to fight domestic violence. The draft law provides for the declassing of psychological abuse as a form of domestic violence and for the exclusion of the provisions concerning the rehabilitation of aggressors. Experts of the Center for the Analysis and Prevention of Corruption (CAPC), who appraised the bill, said that such an approach ignores the circumstances and conditions that generate domestic violence and aggressors’ problems.
In a news conference at IPN, expert Natalia Rosca said the bill excludes the norms that class physical violence as a form of domestic violence. “This is probably a too harsh norm and the prosecution bodies are unable to prove that that offence in the form described in the Penal Code was committed. We refer here to psychological abuse,” she stated.
The bill also removes the aggressor from the attention of the state and this is not justified, according to the experts. The rehabilitated victim usually returns to the family and remains face to face with the aggressor, who is not subject to rehabilitation measures. In the absence of clear, well-planned and well promoted aggressor rehabilitation programs, the situation will only worsen.
The experts said that tackling violence only from phsyical aspect by ignoring mental violence represents a step backward. Within the appraisal, there were identified a number of vulnerability factors, such as differentiated attitude from the perspective of rehabilitation policies and norms that limit and ignore rights.
