Domestic violence : a human rights violation

Abstract

Domestic violence (the other names are- spousal abuse, battering, family violence, dating abuse and intimate partner violence. ) is one of the most wide-spread forms of gender-based violence. A 2013 report of the World Health Organization found that intimate partner violence affects 30% of women around the world.3 Just over one in five women has experienced physical and/or sexual violence from either a current or previous partner within the European Union.4 Every year, as many as 275 million children worldwide "become caught in the crossfire of domestic violence."s It is not surprising that women and children have been the most frequent victims of family violence since historically both wives and children were considered property. Physical abuse was a part of culture and often used for discipline or punishment in societies where man was dominating in virtue of his size and strength. For instance, ancient Roman law granted men the right to beat their wives for adultery, public drunkenness, or attending public games. English law provided that husbands were allowed to beat their wives with "any reasonable instrument/' to sell or mutilate or kill them; the fathers were given similar rights with regards to their children.6 Nowadays local customs and traditions are often responsible for maintaining certain forms of battering. Such customs and traditions include son preference, which can lead to abuse and neglect of girls by disappointed family members; forced marriages; dowry; strict dress codes for women that may be enforced through violence by family members; strong requirement of female virginity before the wedding and violence related to non-conforming women and girls; female genital mutilation; ideologies of marital "conjugal rights" to sex which justify marital rape; the importance given to "family honour". The choice of the theme is determined by an interest to understand the nature of family abuse, to see how the victims are protected by international, regional and national legislation. The research pursues the aim of analyzing measures that may address domestic violence and which are expected to empower victims to report and seek redress. The first chapter will analyze the legal framework of domestic violence. The International and reg ional Conventions and instruments such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the CEDAW General Recommendation N19 (1992), the United Nations Declaration on Elimination of Violence against Women (1993); a report of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, including its causes and consequences (1996); the resolution of the World Conference of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace in Copenhagen (1980); European Union Guidelines on violence against women and girls and combating all forms of discrimination against them; Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence of 11 May 2011 and its Explanatory Report will be analyzed. The social definition of abusive relationship, the specification of types of family violence and the effect of such assaults on women and children will be considered also through literature review. Accessible international and regional statistics will be scrutinized as a basis of the research . The second chapter will consider the questions why domestic violence is a human rights violation and the State's responsibilities or otherwise to protect victims of intimate partner violence. This will be done by analyzing International and Regional Conventions and Treaties such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Convention against Torture, the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the European Convention on Human Rights, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, CEDAW General Recommendations 19 (1992), Special Rapporteur on violence against women and other instruments. Besides, some International conferences' documents and the European Institute for Gender Equality reports and publications will be examined in this section. This part of the research will be supported by the European Court of Human Rights' judgments over domestic abuse and the CEDAW Committee recommendations on relevant cases. The third chapter will provide the examination of measures with which the European Union seeks to combat domestic violence. The Chapter will include the study of the Daphne Programme as a main anti-domestic violence European Programme, and projects in which Malta has participated so as to learn how the regional Programme and the projects operate on the national level. It will analyze the projects "Protecting women from the new crime of stalking: a comparison of legislative approaches within the European Union/' "Date rape cases among young women/' "Ways of implementing the EU directives on violence against women, children and youth/' and the REaDAPT project. Additionally, the European Social Fund project "Dignity for domestic violence survivors" will also be discussed. The fourth chapter will deal with legal measures in Malta to combat domestic violence. This pursues an aim of finding how the International and Regional legislation affects the national law. To this end the Domestic Violence Act will be analyzed in the context of how victims are protected by local law and which measures against domestic violence are taken in Malta. It will be done by studying national reports and accessible Parliamentary's documents. Conclusion will consider whether all the measures are effective to protect victims of domestic violence.