Entrevista a Jesús Maeztu, Defensor del Pueblo Andaluz, en la cadena Ser en a que valora las condiciones en que se está llevando a cabo el desconfinamiento parcial de los niños de 0 a 13 años y los retos que debe afrontar la comunidad para resolver las carencias de los menores.

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Si conferma che anche durante l’attuale periodo di emergenza sanitaria l'Ufficio del Difensore Civico  è operativo ed il Personale svolge attività lavorativa in modalità smart working.

Si ribadisce, pertanto, che, in luogo dei numeri telefonici indicati nella sezione contatti, gli utenti che avessero necessità di rivolgersi all’ufficio potranno utilizzare la funzione "Richiedi informazioni" (box blue della home page del sito istituzionale oppure tasto verde nella sezione modulistica al link https://www.difensorecivicoabruzzo.it/modulistica), indicando un proprio recapito telefonico al quale saranno richiamati prima possibile.

Per l’inoltro delle istanze è possibile continuare ad utilizzare i seguenti indirizzi:

INDIRIZZI MAIL

Mail: info@difensorecivicoabruzzo.it

PEC: difensore.civico@pec.crabruzzo.it

Public Defender of Rights Mária Patakyová personally presented the annual report 2019 in the Committee of the National Council of the Slovak Republic for Human Rights and National Minorities. The members of the committee recommended the report for discussion in parliament.

"In 2019 I focused on issues that are important for the office from the long-term perspective. For example, system of control of police procedures and the independence of the police inspection; processing the applications at the Aliens Police, which I investigated via own-initiative survey (its results will be known in the first half of this year). I have focused on issue relating to children, seniors, marginalized groups and overlooked communities, "said Public Defender of Rights Mária Patakyová.

Enforcement against children

Aready in 2018, Public Defender of Rights has drew attention to the problematic national legislation concerning fees for municipal waste. The national legislation has not sufficiently protected the children who have been exposed to the threat of enforcement for the debts of their parents after reaching adulthood. Therefore, Public Defender of Rights has turned to the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic. However, a long- term call attention to the issue of legislation, in 2019 was approved legislation pursuant to pay fees transfer from a minor to his or her legal representative. Existing legislation also to set a deadline for dept for the minor. After this period, the debt will become their own (transfer from the minor to the legal representative).

Opportunity to vote from abroad

The existing legislation does not allow citizens of the Slovak Republic who are outside the territory of the republic at the time of the elections to vote in all types of elections. The Public Defender of Rights recommended the National Council of the Slovak Republic to adopt legislation that will enable them to participate in elections and referendums, even if they are abroad at the time of its proceedings.

Ensuring standards of maternity care

In order to achieve to standard level of maternity care, the Public Defender of Rights recommended  the Ministry of Health to adopt standards that reflect the knowledge of evidence-based medicine, as well as internationally recognized standards in this field. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women also drew the Slovak Republic's attention to the absence of procedures and mechanisms to ensure adequate standards of care and respect for women's rights, dignity and autonomy during childbirth. The Public Defender of Rights informed that, relating to the seriousness of the issue of violations of women's human rights during maternity care in Slovakia, she will investigate this issue via own-initiative survey in 2020.

Access to drinking water

The Public Defender of Rights also focused on time limitation of access to drinking water in the village of Blažice.  The regional office of the Public Health Authority found that the water from the well in the Roma settlement is not suitable for drinking. Therefore, the municipality provided the inhabitants the opportunity to draw water at the municipal office.  However, time was limited, during the weekend even one hour per day.  The Public Defender of Rights has been drawing attention to issue of drinking water for a long time. The Public Defender of Rights recommended to the National Council to adopt such legislative amendments that would determine the entities responsible for access to drinking water, the rights and obligations of these entities, as well as the right to access to drinking water for all citizens.

Human rights situation for the past year

The Office of the Public Defender of Rights worked with a total of 2,825 of complaints.  130 complaints were infringement of fundamental rights and freedoms.  Most of them concerned of delays in trials. A special category were the delays in restitution.

In addition, the Office of the Public Defender of Rights has investigated ten of own – initiative survey, focusing on the inspection of facilities for the elderly and the enforcement of fundamental rights and freedoms in these facilities. As well as, the procedure of the aliens police, the process of domestic adoptions, the functioning of the business register, protection of victims of crime, etc.

Since the beginning of Coronavirus lockdowns, police, women shelters and NGOs have reported a surge in domestic violence, especially violence targeting women. The pandemic exposed how common this serious human rights abuse is and how insufficient the measures to fight it still are. The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) and the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) call on the EU and the Member States to use the coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity to step up their efforts to effectively protect women's rights.

“No country in Europe has achieved gender equality — the prevalence of domestic violence is a sad reminder of that,” says EIGE Director Carlien Scheele. “Yet chronic underreporting of violence at the hands of a partner means we only know a partial truth. Governments need to make clear that violence is not a private matter and ensure the police, justice and health sectors are able to work together to help victims.”

“Even without the coronavirus pandemic, one in five women in the EU have been a victim of domestic violence. Moreover, women in households that struggle to make ends meet are even at a higher risk,” says FRA Director Michael O’Flaherty pointing to earlier FRA survey. “The current spike in domestic abuses underlines that the EU and its Member States need to act to protect women during this crisis, and bolster their measures in the future to end violence against women once and for all.”

As lockdowns and quarantines continue in most of Europe, women face a higher risk of domestic violence.

The danger is real. Globally, 64 % of women who are killed die at the hands of an intimate partner or family member, a study on homicides (link is external) finds.

Many EU countries reacted swiftly, putting in place counselling support, providing refuge for victims in hotel rooms, launching awareness campaigns or promoting hotline numbers.

EIGE and FRA welcome these measures. Yet, the extent of action needed to safeguard victims has exposed how insufficient the support measures are even during normal times. For example, the number of beds in women’s shelters is only about half that required under the Istanbul Convention, which 21 EU countries have signed and the EU has committed to accede to.  

The end of lockdowns will also bring new challenges. Financial insecurity in view of income and job losses, as well as a looming recession, can present additional triggers for violence and may make it more difficult for victims to leave an abusive relationship. FRA’s earlier survey shows that 30% of women who find it difficult to make ends meet have experienced intimate partner violence, compared with 18% of women who do not struggle to get by.

This underlines that the EU needs to put in place lasting structures to end violence against women. The COVID-19 crisis provides an opportunity to step up our efforts – we must seize it.

EIGE and FRA call on the EU and its Member States to consider the following actions:

• EU countries that have not yet ratified the Istanbul Convention or not fully aligned their national laws with its requirements should do so swiftly. This would for example facilitate the use of emergency barring orders. In countries where legislation already provides for these orders, police should use them more often.

• The police, justice and health sectors in EU Member States should work together to manage the risk of violence against women. Professionals in these sectors should be properly resourced and trained to respond to such cases.
• Data collection on violence against women should be harmonised between EU member states to ensure the phenomenon can be adequately measured and addressed.
• In light of the many positive measures to eliminate violence against women at the national level, the EU should coordinate the exchange of good practices between member states.
• Many EU countries have legal definitions of hate crimes (against ethnic and sexual minorities for example). A workable legal definition of femicide to denote the killing of women and girls because of their gender should be considered.
• We support the European Commission’s proposal to add violence against women on the list of EU crimes defined in the EU Treaty. This would recognise the structural nature of violence against women and propel joint efforts to eliminate it.  

As long as women face violence, gender equality will be impossible. And as long as we do not have gender equality, violence against women will continue.

Let’s work together to end violence against women once and for all.

Carlien Scheele

Director

European Institute for Gender Equality 

Michael O’Flaherty

Director

EU Agency for Fundamental Rights