Listen more to help more. The helpline for victims of domestic violence will begin to operate "7 days a week and 24 hours a day" from June 28, under a new multi-year agreement of objectives signed Tuesday between the State and the FNSF, which manages this system. “From the end of June 2021, the 3919 will be accessible 24 hours a day from Monday to Friday and from 9 am to 6 pm on weekends. Before the end of August 2021, its time slots will be fully extended: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, ”detailed the Ministry of Equality between Women and Men in a press release. According to officials of the National Federation of Solidarity Women (FNSF), these hours must be effective from June 28. A date confirmed this Wednesday by Gabriel Attal, the government spokesman,upon leaving the Council of Ministers.
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"Sexism takes lives" and, "every two or three days, (...) women die under the blows of their spouse or their ex-spouse", regretted the Minister Élisabeth Moreno, on the sidelines of the signing of the new convention. This extension of opening hours was one of the measures decided in the framework of the “Grenelle” on domestic violence, organized at the end of 2019 by the government. It must benefit "to all the women of our country, wherever they are", including overseas where jetlag hitherto limited the practical accessibility of the crisis line, argued Ms. Moreno. Referring to Hayange's recent tragedy, Gabriel Attal, for his part, expressed on Wednesday the government's desire for "general mobilization against feminicides".
Allowing more and more women to be heard
In addition, the platform will now be accessible to people who are deaf or have speech impairments.
The FNSF activists "seized on this battle even before everyone is talking about it as is the case today, at a time when it was still considered to be a news item, a small insert in a local newspaper ”, noted Ms. Moreno, who has repeatedly praised the work of the association.
This new agreement will also allow improved access for very young women and also women "from the LGBT community, women with disabilities", added Dominique Guillien Isenmann, president of the FNSF.
Last December, the government provoked a controversy by launching a call for tenders to designate the operator to manage the 3919 in the future. Faced with strong protests from the FNSF - which denounced the risk of being ousted from a device that it however created in 1992 - and other feminist associations, the executive had finally given up in mid-January.