Parliamentary and governmental measures to confront domestic violence, particularly against women, are in the works resulting to the submission of a report to the National Assembly to approve a law that constitutes a buffer against the increasing violence against women. An Arab daily reported that official reports revealed the majority of domestic violence cases examined by forensic doctors in the Forensic Medicine Department of the Ministry of Interior until 2020 were of women and children who were subjected to assault incidents.
The department stated that the cases of violence observed varied in the degrees of injuries, between minor injuries such as cuts and bruises, and severe ones that lead to fractures in the victim’s body, noting that there were cases of burns in separate parts of the body.
On the other hand, officials are concerned with imposing harsher penalties in cases of violence against women, prompting some of them to establish social support centers affiliated with the Ministry of Interior, aimed at developing a working mechanism to address the phenomenon.
The summaries of the authorities’ concerns are as follows:
1. The possibility of increasing divorce cases.
2. The increase in crime rates and judicial disputes after the adoption of the Child Law.
3. Causing serious harm to children and exposing them to family disintegration.
The submitted reports indicated a demand to develop research and statistical methods to record and document cases of violence, and to establish shelters for victims of domestic violence that would provide them with protection, social, psychological, legal and rehabilitative support, as well as, to conduct research and specialized scientific studies.
Despite the consensus on the importance of protecting women from violence, a dispute arose between government agencies over the law prepared by the National Assembly two years ago regarding protection from domestic violence. The Ministry of Justice considered that tightening the penalties prescribed for crimes of domestic violence would spoil the relationship between the abuser and his family, while the Ministry of Social Affairs welcomed the implementation of tougher penalties.
Moreover, the National Assembly issued Law No. 16 of 2020 in August 2020 stipulating protection from domestic violence, and it was published in the Official Gazette in September 2020, in order to confront the increase in domestic violence and the high rate of recorded abuse cases. The law was based mainly on protection and prevention measures on the basis that penal sanctions alone may not yield the desired results.
The law requires anyone who witnessed or became aware of a domestic violence incident to report it; otherwise the penalties stipulated in the provisions for refraining from reporting contained in Law No. 16 of 1960 promulgating the Penal Code shall apply to them.
Problems on dealing with violence against women
1. The lack of adequate and accurate statistics documenting cases of violence against women.
2. The shortage of social, legal and psychological specialists in the Center for the Protection of Victims of Violence.
3. Insufficient treatment of addiction and mental health centers.
4. The need to provide fully-developed shelters for the victims.
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