Isabelle Lonvis-Rome: "To treat gender violence well, we must repeat that it is not like the others"

Isabelle Lonvis-Rome was the youngest judge in France, in 1986, at the age of 23.

She and she never separated from justice again: 36 years she stuck to the prevention of crimes, the criminal sphere and the judicial and social protection of victims, above all, of sexist violence.

She from the Lyon courts in the 1990s, she as president of the Criminal Courts of Nanterre, Versailles, Pontoise and Chartres in the 2010s;

She from there to be appointed in 2018 as a senior official for equality in the Ministry of Justice and since last July, Minister of Equality.

Lonvis-Rome replaced her predecessor, Élisabeth Moreno, in a portfolio that is neither alien nor distant to her.

She has spent years in associations that help battered women, refugees, asylum seekers, detainees, and she is the author of several books, including,

and

At the end of October, he sits in the living room of the Casa de Francia, in Madrid, to talk about how progress is being made in his country in police protocols, in feminist policies and in measures to alleviate some figures of violence that last year left at least 121 women murdered at the hands of their partners or ex-partners.

It is not the first time that she has traveled to Spain, she already did it when she worked for the Ministry of Justice to learn more about the operation of the Spanish protocols regarding sexist violence.

In October she came to attend the sixth regional conference Women for the Mediterranean.

And it is towards Spain where the French minister assures that they have been looking for years to make and develop their decisions.

Now, already in the final stretch of November, precisely the

, in force since October 7, has unleashed a political, legal and social earthquake due to the impact that the first visible consequence of the norm has had: the reductions in sentences as a consequence of the reform of the Penal Code that the legislation entailed, since the inmates have the right to have their sentences reviewed when a new law lowers them if it is more favorable for their case.

Lonvis-Rome does not make statements in this regard, but his general idea about Spanish policy "in the fight against sexual and gender violence" is that it is "an inspiring and protective policy for victims."

In this line, France works as Spain did almost two decades ago, with the entry into force of the law against gender violence, in 2004, towards greater specialization: "It is necessary that all the actors involved in all the links of the [police, judicial] chain are well trained.

To deal well with gender violence, we must repeat that it is not like the others, and that is what Spain did very well”.

A conception of abuse that has been somewhat delayed in his country, where femicides are still occasionally called crimes of passion in some media and in society, and the term domestic or conjugal violence continues to be used more than violence sexist.

Now, he says, "there is a massive awareness of the seriousness of sexual and gender violence, and of the specificity of both", particularly that committed within the couple.

The French equality minister, Isabelle Lonvis-Rome, during this interview, in October 2022.INMA FLORES (EL PAIS)

This awareness began to spread more homogeneously and at a political level in 2019, when, given the high murder rate in recent years, the French government opened a period of dialogue that lasted almost three months in which it debated with police officers, judges, doctors, social workers, local authorities and women's associations what should be the lines to follow in this matter.

And they also announced a series of “urgency” measures regarding the protection of victims and judicial accompaniment;

among them, new places in shelters for victims of sexist violence or specialized prosecutors.

Lonvis-Rome believes that France has already "understood that this violence is not a private matter, but concerns society as a whole" and hence the "unprecedented efforts" that the French government has been making for years some years.

He talks about various issues, some new and some that have been activated or announced a long time ago.

Among them, the training of police and gendarmes, "there are already 160,000 officials trained";

support for victims before these police services "with the presence of social workers [they have around 400 and estimate to have 600 by 2025] who guide the victims when they go to the police station";

of "work in the protection of victims", for example, with the multiplication of helplines, "we had 300 in 2019 and there are already 4,000";

improvements in the functioning of protection bracelets for women, inspired by Spanish bracelets;

and the expansion of emergency accommodation places for women, of which 80% have been created in the last five years, they currently have 9,000, “10,000 by the end of the year,

It also aims to "double" the number of specialized investigators at the police level: "The Prime Minister [Élisabeth Borne] entrusted two parliamentarians with the mission of evaluating the current legal treatment of this violence and making all the useful recommendations to have a justice that has more into account the specificity of this violence taking into account the victim”.

Lonvis-Rome recalls that his 30 years of professional practice, what he has "been able to see in Spain" and his contact with associations for decades make him give his "total support to the idea of ​​specialized justice", which in Spain is articulated through of the specific courts for violence against women, with different legislations such as the 2004 law against gender violence or the new law on sexual freedom, or with sentences with a gender perspective that are establishing jurisprudence in cases, for example, of sexual violence.

Those three decades of experience to which the minister refers have also made her put on the table a proposal to help victims get out of the spiral of violence.

“I have presided over numerous femicide trials and have often observed that it is extremely difficult for a woman to leave her violent partner for two reasons.

Because she is under her influence and most of the time she has humiliated and devalued her so much that she feels like a rag.

And when you feel like a rag it's not easy to get back on your feet.

And then, that if they have difficulties, if they do not have economic autonomy, it is very difficult to leave the couple”.

Thus, the idea of ​​Lonvis-Rome is the activation of social measures in coordination with other ministries to support the victims and make it easier for them to escape violence: "Whether it is support with an allowance if you have no income, help with childcare , reinstatement to work or training, or psychological support”.

This project also involves differentiating according to where the women victims live, in urban or rural territories in which, she says, the casuistry is different: "We can only avoid gender violence by understanding it and delving into its characteristics."

30 care centers for male abusers

France, on the way to improving measures to prevent sexist violence and in attention to victims, also has a leg of its equality project dedicated to them, the aggressors.

Part of that leg is the prevention of recidivism, something that entered the public debate in 2019, thanks in part to a boost from the Ministry of Justice and a three-month debate period between different areas to decide what the next steps should be. continue from that moment on from the Government.

"It is in this spirit that the abuse centers were set up," says the Minister for Equality, Isabelle Lonvis-Rome.

Those who arrive at these centers can be referred directly from the judicial system or can go voluntarily, "as a preventive measure."

More than 6,000 men have already passed through these centers that are now one year old.

In Spain, there are no specific centers, there have been programs for aggressors since the 1990s. One of the first, at the end of that decade, was the Service for Attention to Abusive Men (SAHM), launched by the Institute for Social Reintegration in Girona.

From the State, in 2004 the Pria-Ma (intervention program for aggressors of gender violence) started, which means sending those aggressors convicted with less than two years in prison to therapy instead of jail.

Although it started in 2004, it was not regulated until 2010.

The objective of the Spanish program is exactly the same as that of the French centers, to prevent recidivism through psychological support for the aggressors.

Lonvis-Rome has 30 centers spread throughout the French geography.

The day after this interview, the minister returned to France, to Limoges, "to take stock, to have a fairly accurate assessment of her first year of activity."

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