he 23-year-old woman of Spanish descent who was killed in Brussels last week by what is believed to be her ex-partner is the 19th case of femicide in Belgium this year. A new law should address the issue at its root. But is that enough? Brussels shelters for female victims of domestic violence still see many areas for improvement. “Lodging a complaint to the police is sometimes a catastrophe.”
On Friday, the federal council of ministers passed the StopFemicide framework law that gives Belgium a set of tools to measure femicide, or ‘deadly violence against misogyny women’, and protect its victims. This was initiated by the Federal Secretary of State for Gender Equality, Equal Opportunities and Diversity Sarah Schlitz (Ecolo).
The law officially defines femicide for the first time, allows for the collection of statistical data, improves the rights and protection of victims, and provides training for police and magistrates.
Marie-Noëlle Steygers, director of the Chèvrefeuille women’s shelter, finds the latter aspect especially important. In practice, many victims of domestic violence still too often encounter an apathetic attitude in the security forces, she says. “Sometimes we will file a complaint and that is a catastrophe. We see cops who don’t listen and just don’t understand. For example, they ask: ‘How many times has he hit you?’, but that’s not the point, once should be too many.”
“Or the police say that she ‘provoked’ him because, for example, she did not want to do something that her husband demanded. Good training for police officers and magistrates is therefore indispensable,” said the director of the shelter, which currently houses 18 women who live in the shelter. being victims of domestic violence.
But not only the police and the judiciary should receive training on violence against women, says Eleonore Moureau, social assistant at Open Door, which provides shelter for women in difficulty, including victims of domestic violence. “Doctors, teachers and in fact all employees in primary care also benefit from such training, for example for learning to recognize signals. Even I was never trained in the matter during my studies as a social assistant.”
Social worker Christine* from Yemaya shelter home also applauds the law. If only because it makes a distinction between partner murder and murder. But will the framework law effectively reduce the number of femicides? She doubts that. “To do this, more efforts need to be made on prevention.”
“One has to be able to name the act as it is. It’s not a murder between two people, it’s a murder because it is a woman,” says social assistant Moureau.
Action against femicide and women’s violence in general appears to be urgently needed. This year, according to the blog ‘Stop Feminicide’, which tracks numbers based on articles on the subject, 19 femicides have already taken place. The latest case took place on Thursday, October 27, when a 23-year-old woman was stabbed to death in Brussels. The suspect is believed to be her ex-partner.
“What interests me most is that respect for women is taught from kindergarten on,” Steygers says. “One must learn that a woman is not a punching bag and that she is not used to serve. Children should learn from the earliest possible age to communicate without violence, I think that’s better.”
However, not all is doom and gloom. According to Christine, Brussels has already made a positive evolution when it comes to tackling violence against women. “That is organized completely differently in Flanders. In Brussels they are really working on it,” it sounds. “There are a lot of women who have never filed a complaint, now we guide them in it. What a difference with the past.”
*Christine is a fictitious name. It is important for the safety of the victims of violence that the location of the center and the employees remain anonymous.
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