Paris, Nantes, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Montpellier, Marseille, Lyon, Strasbourg... Thousands of women and men are called to demonstrate this Saturday to denounce the violence still inflicted on women because of their gender. On this occasion Bérangère Couillard, Minister of Equality between women and men, announced this Saturday morning, on France 2, that the government would propose a law to ensure that protection orders, issued to women victims of domestic violence by family judges in case of danger, can be issued within 24 hours. "We have increased the time limit for protection orders to 6 days. Before we took office, it was more than 40. We're going to pass a law to allow them to be passed in 24 hours," explained Bérangère Couillard.
"We've been acting for four years now" and things have changed, the minister insisted, despite the persistence of femicides. "We want to make it easier for women to leave the matrimonial home, there is still too much back and forth before they can separate from their aggressor. Five departments will test the New Start Pack." Because staying at home means maintaining control, but also poses constraints for administrative and legal procedures.
Demonstrations all over France
In Paris, the demonstration will start at 14 p.m. from the Place de la Nation in the direction of the Place de la République. At the head of the procession will be the families of victims of femicide, with portraits of their missing loved ones. 121 femicides in a conjugal context have been recorded this year by the associations, a figure that has already exceeded the 118 officially recorded for the whole of 2022. In many of these cases, it was found that female victims had repeatedly reported assaults and threats by their spouses or ex-spouses.
In February, the law introduced universal emergency assistance for victims of domestic violence. It was to be in place by 30 November at the latest. "We will have financial aid of 250 to more than 1,300 euros depending on the family situation, paid in 3 to 5 days by the CAF" to allow abused women to leave the house shared with their aggressor as quickly as possible. The minister did not say whether this aid applied in the five test departments or throughout the country. The associations are calling for the creation of 15,000 shelter places dedicated to women.
The programme "Complement" revealed this week that more than 900 police officers and gendarmes implicated in cases of domestic violence were still in positions where they are likely to register complaints. "It's not normal," the minister said, "it's out of the question to keep these men in contact with women who come to file complaints. In 4 years, we have trained more than 150,000 police officers and gendarmes, there is a change in the way these cases are taken into account by the forces of order, all the associations recognize this, we must not undermine this."