| Author (Person) | Banks, Martin |
|---|---|
| Series Title | European Voice |
| Series Details | Vol.9, No.40, 27.11.03, p15 |
| Publication Date | 27/11/2003 |
| Content Type | News |
|
By Martin Banks Date: 27/11/03 AN EU-wide campaign has been launched to press for "zero-tolerance" in cases involving violence against women. It is estimated that one woman in five in the EU has experienced violence within a relationship or marriage. Reports suggest that the situation is even worse in accession countries. MEPs and non-governmental organizations are calling for a range of measures to tackle the problem, including increased funding for anti-violence projects in the EU. The European Commission has pledged €40 million for such schemes through the "Daphne programme", which also aims to combat violence against children. MEPs want the programme's budget, which will run until 2008, increased to 65m euro. They also say it needs a more solid legal base in the draft constitution, than in Article 152 of the present EC Treaty. Futhermore, deputies have called for a specific "European year" against violence on women, in addition to the UN's existing "international day for the elimination of violence against women" held on Tuesday (25 November). Two Socialist MEPs, Greece's Anna Karamanou, chairman of the European Parliament's women's rights committee, and German Lissy Gröner, launched the zero-tolerance campaign this week to coincide with the international awareness day. They referred to the much-publicized case this summer of French actress Marie Trintignant, who died after suffering severe head injuries at a Lithuanian hotel where she was staying with her partner, the French rock singer Bertrand Cantat. The singer denies killing the actress, whose last film, Janis et John, has just been released and was reviewed in this newspaper last week. While acknowledging that the case would not have attracted anything like the same attention if the victim had not been a celebrity, Karamanou said it had forced the spotlight onto conjugal violence, which she described as "one of the world's most terrible crimes". "More women die from violence than cancer," she said, stressing that such brutality occurs at all levels of society. "It is too often tolerated as if it were inevitable, and the plight of victims tends to be ignored or misunderstood. "It is time member states sat up and showed an interest in tackling this problem," added the deputy. She pointed to latest figures that show 68 women have died from domestic violence in Spain this year and that one in four Belgian women has been a victim of male violence. Observer MP Birute Vesaite,who heads the 13-strong Lithuanian delegation in the Parliament, said the issue is also a "major cause for concern" in accession states. "Research shows that 63.3% of women in Lithuania have suffered physical or sexual violence, or threats of such acts, by men before they even reach the age of 16. Nearly 43% of women who are married or in a relationship have also suffered the same. "Psychological violence or coercion has been experienced by 82%. These figures show the scale of the problem in one small accession country alone." An EU-wide campaign has been established to press for 'zero tolerance' in cases involving violence against women. |
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