GREVIO Council of Europe Commission exchanged views on the issue of protection against violence for women with members of parliament during an evaluation visit

2023-10-06 17:13:05

Next year GREVIO will present the second report on Austria

Vienna (PK) – As part of a multi-day evaluation visit to Austria, international experts from GREVIO met with members of all parties represented in the National Council and Federal Council President Claudia Arpa in Parliament today. GREVIO stands for “Group of Experts on action against violence against women and domestic violence” and checks compliance with the Istanbul Convention, which came into force in Austria in 2014. The convention is the first internationally binding instrument to comprehensively combat all forms of violence against women in Europe. The Committee reviews States Parties’ compliance with their commitments and issues conclusions. Austria’s first state review stretched from March 2016 to January 2018 and ended with recommendations from the GREVIO Committee to Austria. The second GREVIO report is scheduled to be published next year.

During their visit to parliament, the GREVIO experts wanted to know what role the implementation of the Istanbul Convention plays in parliamentary work in Austria. Agnes Sirkka Prammer (Greens) said that the existing GREVIO recommendations had been included in the current government program and that the issue of protecting women from violence would be given priority.

The parliamentarians are the driving force when it comes to protection from violence, emphasized Romana Deckenbacher (ÖVP). Many things have already been achieved, such as a package of measures against “hate on the internet”. Since the issue of protecting women from violence is a cross-sectional issue that affects several different departments and responsibilities, there is still “a lot of room for improvement.”

Eva Maria Holzleitner (SPÖ) pointed out that the Istanbul Convention was repeatedly referred to in committee proposals and that the issue of protecting women from violence was on the agenda in almost every meeting of the Equal Treatment Committee. In addition, parliamentary questions on this topic are constantly being submitted to various ministries, said Holzleitner.

All parliamentary groups speak out against violence against women, said Rosa Ecker (FPÖ). It is shocking that it is not possible to reduce the number of acts of violence against women in Austria. New ideas are needed because the current measures are not enough.

Protection from violence for women must be “designed more efficiently,” said Henrike Brandstötter (NEOS) and spoke out in favor of a definition of the term femicide. Media reporting helps shape the image of violence against women, which is why it is important which terms are used. Far too often, trivializing terms are used in the media discussion when it comes to violence against women, criticized Brandstötter.

Violence protection clinics to better secure evidence after crimes

With regard to the report on “Violence and Victim Protection for Women” published by the Court of Auditors in August, the GREVIO experts wanted to know what consequences the MPs have drawn from the results of the report for their political work.

The aforementioned financial report will be on the agenda of the next Court of Audit Committee, said Eva Maria Holzleitner (SPÖ) and emphasized that, in her view, a new “National Action Plan to Protect Women from Violence” is needed. An application for this will be submitted to the next Equal Treatment Committee.

Agnes Sirkka Prammer (Greens) and Sabine Schatz (SPÖ) spoke out in favor of establishing violence protection clinics. Prammer pointed out that after violent crimes, evidence cannot be immediately secured during the medical treatment of victims due to a lack of responsibility. This makes it more difficult to convict the perpetrators. Prammer hopes that the preservation of evidence should be made possible in violence prevention clinics in the future. Following the example of the Swiss model, the use of mobile teams is also being considered for smaller hospitals. The advantage would be that the mobile teams come to where the victim is already located. In this way, the victim is not additionally burdened with having to be taken somewhere else to preserve evidence, explained Prammer.

Affordable housing as part of violence protection

The GREVIO experts emphasized that the availability of affordable housing is of great importance for protection against violence. Women who cannot afford their own apartment will remain in violent relationships for far too long. The GREVIO experts asked the MPs how they assessed this problem in Austria.

Eva Maria Holzleitner (SPÖ) explained that the demand for affordable housing was a big issue. There are women’s shelters for women in acute emergency situations. Since responsibility for women’s shelters lies with the federal states, there are regional differences. To avoid precarious situations, transitional housing can be given to women, but these are not protective facilities.

Since transitional housing is only available for a limited time and the women affected have to move several times, Federal Council President Claudia Arpa spoke out in favor of an overall strategy in this area.

More and more women in parliament, very few in local politics

The GREVIO experts were also interested in the proportion of women in politics in Austria. The proportion of women among members of the National Council is around 40%, and even higher in the Federal Council, said Federal Council President Claudia Arpa, emphasizing that there is currently a purely female presidium in the Federal Council for the first time.

But women are still very much underrepresented in community politics, where decisions are made about the construction of a kindergarten in the locality and the opening times of the childcare facilities are determined, criticized Henrike Brandstötter (NEOS). The proportion of women among mayors in Austria is only around 10%.

Agnes Sirkka Prammer (Greens) emphasized that it is not only important for women to be represented in political office, but also for women to prepare political decisions as civil servants, for example in the areas of urban planning and infrastructure. Women’s perspective on these topics is different than that of men, says Prammer.

In Austria no woman is prevented from getting involved, said Rosa Ecker (FPÖ). Therefore, from the perspective of the freedom quota regulations, there is not much to be gained. Every woman should decide for herself what she wants.

The SPÖ supports quota regulations at all levels, emphasized Eva Maria Holzleitner (SPÖ) and also spoke out in favor of wage transparency. Economic independence makes it easier for women to escape the spiral of violence. This is also an issue in old age. Women with little or no pension of their own would remain in violent relationships for too long for financial reasons.

Law against femicide in Belgium

The MPs asked the GREVIO experts about best practice examples from other countries, which are also evaluated by GREVIO. It is difficult to compare the countries with each other, but there are interesting approaches in each country, which are published in the GREVIO reports, the experts emphasized. It should be particularly emphasized that Belgium has already passed a law against femicide. (End) bea

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