Fight against violence against women and domestic violence in Monaco: GREVIO's first thematic evaluation report (September 2024)

Presentation

The Principality of Monaco is a party to the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence of 11 May 2011 (Istanbul Convention), in force for it since 1 February 2015.

It has thus committed to adopting a number of measures in terms of prevention, protection, prosecution and integrated policies (i.e. comprehensive and coordinated between the various players at national level: public bodies and authorities, NGOs).

With regard to the monitoring mechanism, the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO) is responsible for monitoring implementation of the Istanbul Convention by the States Parties. Its members are elected by the Committee of the Parties, the political body of the monitoring mechanism made up of representatives of the States Parties to the Convention. On the basis of GREVIO's reports and conclusions, the Committee of the Parties adopts recommendations focusing on priority measures to be taken in areas requiring urgent or more immediate action, and oversees their implementation.

The baseline evaluation round (2015-2021) provided an overview of Monaco's implementation of the Convention's provisions.

The first thematic evaluation round, "Building trust by delivering support, protection and justice", was launched in 2022, and GREVIO published its first report on Monaco for this cycle on 12 September 2024.

* * *

Baseline evaluation round (2015-2021)

On the basis of Monaco Baseline Evaluation Report (GREVIO/Inf(2017)3) as well as the Government comments to the GREVIO baseline evaluation report (GREVIO/Inf(2017)12 in French) published on 27 September 2017, the Committee of the Parties issued the following Recommendations IC-CP/Inf(2018)2, published on 30 January 2018, on Monaco's implementation of the Istanbul Convention:

1. integrate a gender perspective including the prevention of gender inequality and sexist stereotypes when implementing the provisions of the Istanbul Convention at national level with a view to addressing the structural nature of violence committed against women, including domestic violence (paragraph 5 of GREVIO Report);
2. adopt a definition of domestic violence which complies with the definition given in Article 3.b of the Convention (paragraph 7);
3. pursue policies that foster genuine equality between women and men and give due regard to additional proposals made by GREVIO (paragraph 12);
4. appoint or set up a body tasked with driving policies for preventing and combating violence against women and drawing up a national action plan (paragraph 22);
5. ensure that this body involves the dedicated officers of the different services and institutions concerned, the standard-setting bodies of Monaco, the High Commissioner for the Protection of Rights and Liberties and for Mediation, and relevant associations (paragraph 24);
6. set up an independent body to monitor and evaluate the integrated policies for combating violence against women (paragraph 27);
7. step up authorities’ support of non-governmental organisations involved in combating violence against women and forge a partnership with civil society as required by paragraphs 2 and 3 of Article 7 of the Convention (paragraph 32);
8. systematise and streamline the collection of data relating to violence against women at all levels and publish these data using terminology reflecting that of the Istanbul Convention: as a minimum requirement, such data should be disaggregated by sex, age, type of violence, the relationship of the perpetrator to the victim, and geographical location, as well as other factors deemed relevant, such as disability (paragraph 36);
9. conduct regular victim surveys in Monaco, while bearing in mind the requirement of confidentiality and with this purpose, examine the feasibility of a survey to be conducted by all hospital health care services or other health-care professionals (paragraph 39);
10. ensure a helpline service fulfilling all the criteria of Article 24 of the Convention, including in terms of the hours covered (paragraph 85).

* * *

Key measures taken by the Monegasque authorities since the baseline evaluation

• Creation of the Committee for the Promotion and Protection of Women's Rights (Sovereign Order no. 7.178 of 25 October 2018), which enables the Government to develop its action in a coordinated manner and in consultation with other institutions and civil society (Committee Activity Report 2022, 2023);

• Collection of data on violence against women by the Monegasque Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (IMSEE) since 2019, and extension to violence against men and minors since 2023;

• Training plan for professionals in the reception and care of victims of domestic violence since 2020;

• Communication campaigns to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (25 November);

• Legislative reforms:
  • strengthening the criminalization of sexual assault (Law no. 1.517 of 23 December 2021),
  • measures to combat harassment and violence in schools (Law no. 1. 513 of 3 December 2021),
  • promotion and protection of women's rights through the repeal in all areas of Monegasque law of provisions that are obsolete or contrary to gender equality (Law no. 1.523 of 16 May 2022),
  • State compensation mechanism for victims of sexual offences and domestic violence (Law no. 1.555 of 14 December 2023) mécanisme d'indemnisation par l'Etat des victimes d'infractions à caractère sexuel et de violences domestiques (Loi n° 1.555 du 14 décembre 2023). In its comments (in French) published on 12 September2024, the Government stated that “following the adoption of Law no. 1.555 of 14 December 2023 and the publication of Sovereign Order no. 10.640 of 27 June 2024, [it] does not exclude considering the lifting of the reservation made by Monaco to article 30, paragraph 2, of the Istanbul Convention”, p. 2),
  • determining alternating residence (parliamentary draft law no. 261 adopted).
• Financial resources allocated to the Committee for the Promotion and Protection of Women's Rights and to women's rights associations;

• Protocol for the care of victims of domestic violence, coordinating the work of the Department of Social Action and Assistance (DASO) and the Association for Victims of Criminal Offenses (AVIP).

* * *

First thematic evaluation round "Building trust by delivering support, protection and justice" (2022-2024)

GREVIO's first thematic evaluation round, based on the questionnaire adopted on 13 October 2022, is devoted to :

• changes following completion of the baseline evaluation procedure, in key areas such as global and coordinated policies, allocation of financial resources and data collection (Part I);
• the implementation of certain provisions in the priority areas of prevention, protection and prosecution of perpetrators of violence (Part II);
• new trends in violence against women and domestic violence (Part III);
• annual administrative and judicial statistics (Part IV).

The Principality submitted its State Report (GREVIO/Inf(2023)14) on 16 June 2023 (published on 23 June 2023). The GREVIO delegation carried out an on-site visit from 2 to 5 October 2023 and held meetings with representatives of public authorities and bodies, NGOs and civil society working in the field of preventing and combating violence against women.

On this basis, GREVIO's First Thematic Evaluation Report "Building trust by delivering support, protection and justice" (GREVIO(2024)3), adopted on 21 June 2024, was published on 12 September 2024, together with Monaco's Comments (in French) on the Report. The First Report describes the situation observed by GREVIO up to 22 March 2024, and where appropriate, relevant developments up to 21 June 2024 have also been taken into account.

GREVIO's proposals and suggestions are essentially as follows:

• Definitions (article 3 of the Istanbul Convention): adopt a definition of domestic violence that fully complies with the definition given in Article 3.b of the Convention (paragraph 8 of the Report).

• Comprehensive and co-ordinated policies (article 7): develop a long-term global strategy, proposing a set of comprehensive and coordinated policies to prevent and combat all forms of violence covered by the Convention, including specific measures to prevent violence against particular categories of women, such as women with disabilities, foreign workers and women in prostitution (paragraph 17); evaluate these policies regularly on the basis of pre-established indicators: impact and reliability (paragraph 18).

• Financial resources (article 8): continue to allocate sufficient resources to programmes and measures to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence; continue and perpetuate the support allocated to organisations active in combating violence against women and domestic violence and in supporting victims (paragraph 22).

• Data collection (article 11): continue to develop the collection of data on all forms of violence against women covered by the Convention, disaggregated by the sex and age of the victim and perpetrator, their relationship and geographical location, in order to better assess the extent of such violence and the authorities' response; as soon as possible, have comprehensive data on the judicial process and the number of protection orders issued, their compliance and the penalties for non-compliance (paragraph 28).

• Priority areas for prevention:
  • General obligations (article 12): extend actions to forms of violence other than domestic violence, covered by the Convention (paragraph 37); carry out regular impact assessments of campaigns and other measures to prevent violence against women (paragraph 38). The Government has noted that a new tool is soon to be introduced to reinforce the measures already in place in the Principality: the "violentomètre" (violenceometer), ‘designed to facilitate self-assessment of a situation of domestic violence, will make it possible to raise awareness among potential victims of a greater number of forms of violence, whether economic, administrative, psychological, or physical and sexual’ (Monaco's Comments in French, pp. 5-6).
  • Training of professionals (article 15): regular and mandatory for all professionals concerned, including the judiciary; include all forms of gender-based violence covered by the Convention, as well as modules on detecting and dealing with female victims of violence who are exposed to intersectional discrimination; give lawyers access to training on violence against women; involve Monegasque NGOs active in supporting and accompanying female victims of violence in the training teams. The Government noted that "The Monegasque Institute for Training in the Judicial Professions and the Monegasque Committee for the Promotion and Protection of Women's Rights have come together to define the terms of a partnership, in the context of training courses on violence against women. Two joint projects are already planned for 2024." (Monaco's comments, p. 7).
  • Preventive intervention and treatment programmes (article 16): setting up accountability programmes for perpetrators of violence to prevent them from re-offending and to make them accountable for their actions, including sexual violence (paragraph 56).
• Priority areas for protection and support:
  • General obligations (article 18): continue to develop inter-institutional cooperation, which must cover all forms of violence against women and be based on a gender-sensitive approach focusing on the rights, safety and protection of women victims of violence, as well as their empowerment; continue to develop standardised protocols for inter-institutional cooperation in order to ensure effective support and protection for all women victims of violence (paragraph 63).
  • General support services - Healthcare services (article 20): put in place protocols aimed at strengthening the capacity of professionals to systematically detect cases of violence against women; extend the arrangements for care by the Department of Social Action and Assistance (DASO) and the health services to all forms of violence against women covered by the Convention, including female genital mutilation; consider the possibility of setting up a system of priority access to independent housing for women victims of violence (paragraph 77). The Government observed that "screening for violence against women is carried out, in particular, in the maternity ward of the Princess Grace Hospital (CHPG) for all parturients and for patients undergoing routine consultations, as recommended by the French High Authority for Health" (Monaco's observations, p. 7).
  • Specialist support services (article 22): setting up a specialised national helpline for women victims of violence, run in close cooperation with specialised NGOs, with multilingual assistance and arrangements to ensure that women with disabilities and foreign women have access to this service (paragraph 85); continuing to develop specialised services to meet the needs of women victims of all forms of violence covered by the Convention, and making them available to women exposed to intersectional discrimination (paragraph 86).
  • Support for victims of sexual violence (article 25): consider the possibility of setting up a specialised emergency help centre for victims of rape and sexual violence so that they have access to short- and long-term counselling and psychological support (paragraph 89).
• Priority areas for substantive law:
  
  • Custody, visitation rights and safety (article 31): ensure that the negative impact of violence against women on children is taken into account in legislation and that incidents of violence against women are a binding legal criterion when making decisions on custody and access rights; analyse the case law concerning the way in which the courts consider incidents of violence and how they give reasons for their decisions on custody and visiting rights, in order to be able to assess developments in this respect (paragraph 98); continue actions to raise awareness among all professionals concerned of the harmful effects of violence on children, including child witnesses, and to familiarise them with the provisions of the Istanbul Convention relating to the settlement of custody and visiting rights (paragraph 99).
• Priority areas for investigation, prosecution, procedural law and protective measures:
  • General obligations, immediate response, prevention and protection. Conviction rates (articles 49 et 50): improve the police response to violence against women, including its digital dimension, by ensuring that the police are adequately trained in all forms of violence covered by the Convention and are able to deal effectively with women who are victims of all these forms of violence (paragraph 115) ; ensure that the courts' treatment of cases of violence against women is firmly rooted in a gender-based understanding of violence against women and to guarantee, through the training of the professionals concerned, that the perpetrators of all forms of violence covered by the Convention are held accountable for their actions, thereby increasing the confidence of women victims of violence in the judicial system (paragraph 116); analyse relevant case law in order to be able to assess the effectiveness of the penal response to violence against women and amend legislation and practices if necessary (paragraph 117).
  • Risk assessment and risk management (article 51): generalise the practice of coordinated risk assessment to all services in contact with victims and apply it to all cases of violence against women covered by the Convention, on the basis of a common tool, and consider the possibility of including non-fatal strangulation among the factors to be considered when assessing risk (paragraph 123); set up a mechanism for the retrospective examination of cases of murder, attempted murder and suicide and attempted suicide committed in the context of domestic violence and to identify the shortcomings in the institutional and/or judicial response which may have led to the fatal outcome (paragraph 124).
  • Restraining or protection orders (article 53): ensure that they are applied to children in order to limit risks to their safety, and ensure that they are available and accessible to victims of all forms of violence covered by the Convention (paragraph 133).
  • Measures of protection (article 56): protect the rights and interests of victims during investigations and legal proceedings and ensure that women victims of all forms of violence covered by the Istanbul Convention, and children exposed to violence, are effectively protected against the risks of reprisals, intimidation or secondary victimisation (paragraph 139).

* * *

Some useful links:

• Monaco Committee for the Promotion and Protection of Women's Rights > https://dfm.mc/be-informed/pro...
• "Help for victims of violence" on the Governement Website MonServicePublic.mc > https://monservicepublic.gouv....
• Application in support of victims and witnesses of gender-based and sexual violence App-Elles® (covering Monaco since September 2023) > https://app-elles.fr/
• Victims of Criminal Offenses Help Association (AVIP) >https://www.gouv.mc/Action-Gou...

* * *