MEP Elena Kountoura outlines impact of GBV on women, children during FEMM meeting

Europe: Elena Kountoura- Member of the European Parliament, outlined that the impact of gender-based violence on women and children is underestimated when decisions on child custody are made. 

She outlined the impacts during her intervention in the meeting of Fertility Education and Medical Management at the European Parliament. She stated, “Legislative loopholes in the several EU Member States mean that the impact of gender-based violence on women and children is underestimated when decisions on child custody are made.”

While highlighting the situation of Gender-based violence (GBV), MEP Kountoura asserted that around 22 percent of women had faced physical or sexual violence all across the member states. Moreover, around 43 percent of women have fallen prayed to domestic violence by their partners. 

She stressed that Gender-based violence should not be ignored as it is n extreme level of violation of human rights. The hike in GBV has been witnessed after the violence by the partners, which ultimately impacts women and children. 

Showing the data on GDV during the COVID-19 pandemic, she mentioned that lockdowns and social distancing increased the number of violence among partners in many member states, which makes it tough for women to lead a safe and protective life. 

Kountoura added that despite highlighting the issue, people remained underreported, and the EU also ignored it as there is a significant lack of robust data. 

She mentioned that justice authorities faced immense failure to disclose the full extent of initimate partner violence as they do not realize that intimate partner violence is also a specific offence.

However, the European Commission has started various initiatives to contain the GND and domestic violence, and now European Parliament has also paved the path to woking on it. They also stated their own-initiative report regarding the consequences of initimate partner violence and custody rights for women and children, jointly by the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) and Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI).