New pan-European DV protection

Restraining orders obtained in your home country will soon be valid wherever you are in the EU.

A European Union agreement to ensure that a civil protection order, including a restraining  order for domestic violence, can still be enforced if the victim travels or moves country was accepted by the European Parliament n 19 February.

In 2011, the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers decided that it was necessary to adopt the European Protection Order to protect victims of gender violence, harassment, abduction, stalking or attempted murder.

Measures to protect crime victims from aggressors already existed in all EU member states but ceased to apply if the victim moved to another country.

Member states were given three years to transfer this directive into national law.

Last week they finally reached a political agreement in principle on a proposal by the European Commission for an EU-wide protection order.

It means that women who have suffered domestic violence will be able to rely on a restraining order obtained in their home country wherever they are in the EU.

According to reports, the Irish Presidency secured the agreement with the European Parliament on behalf of EU member states.

Ireland’s Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence Alan Shatter said the agreement will enable victims to have ‘continuity of protection’ under the law, which will make travel or relocation a reality for many of them for the first time.

Now member states’ ambassadors, including the Justice and Home Affairs Council, will receive the proposed agreement for their approval at an event in Brussels early next month.

The law was crucial – especially for women in Europe – as surveys had shown around one in five women have suffered physical violence at least once in their lives

Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, said violence against women was the most brutal manifestation of gender inequality and is a violation of human rights that Europe must not and cannot ignore.

“I would like to thank the European Parliament for its strong and very vocal support for the Commission’s proposal, and in particular the co-rapporteurs Mr Antonio López-Istúriz and Mrs Antonyia Parvanova.

“I hope that the Parliament and the Council will now swiftly adopt the European Protection Order to ensure victims of domestic violence can feel safe, no matter where they are in Europe,” she said.

The draft regulation will now pass to the European Parliament and the Council to be formally finalised.

The United Kingdom is also taking major – concrete – steps to help victims of domestic violence.

On 4 February, the first Domestic Violence Protection Order (DVPO) ever granted in Herefordshire, was administered at Hereford Magistrates Court against a man in his mid 20s from the Hinton area of Hereford and it was to run for 28 days granted as a result of a series alleged domestic violence incidents, which had taken place over a long period of time.

According to the terms of the DVPO, the man will be fined £50 each time he breaches the order, and be brought before the court, which could lead to his imprisonment.

The aim of the DVPO is to force offenders to leave residences and stay away from victims.

Before DVPOs the victim would be moved away from the home to safety as police could only ban offenders from their homes if they had been arrested and charged with a crime.

Speaking about the use of DVPOs, Detective Sergeant Sue Clarke from the Protecting Vulnerable People Unit in Hereford said: “Often victims of domestic abuse are too frightened to make criminal complaints as they fear the immediate reprisals and worry about what the effects of making that complaint might have on their children.

“However, granting a DVPO protects victims by ordering the perpetrator to stay away from them, giving victims time to think clearly about their future and what to do for the best.

“Although the victim’s views are also considered, the whole point of these orders is that they can be made against the wishes of the person who they are protecting. The idea is to protect those who seem incapable of protecting themselves.

“These DVPOs send a clear message to the perpetrators of domestic abuse that we no longer need the victim to co-operate, we will take this action if we feel that the victim is unable to protect themselves and if the children are suffering the effects of domestic abuse within the home.”

The DVPO was also used in Manchester last year where more than 180 of the orders were issued in North and South Manchester, Oldham, Salford and Bolton.

The orders are being tested by the Greater Manchester, Wiltshire and West Mercia police forces for a year which started last July.

In one report a 64-year-old woman, who was granted a DVPO, had suffered abuse from her partner for 21 years. She said the order, which is expected to be adopted around the country, had changed her life.