The Faculty for Social Wellbeing has appealed to the authorities to take the necessary and expedited action to address violence against women, in particular domestic violence, which it described as "a social issue that is leaving a profound scar on our communities."
"As a Faculty we condemn violence against women (and men) in all its forms and appeal to the authorities to strengthen its infrastructure to combat this phenomenon effectively.
"As per the 'CrimeMalta Annual Crime Review for 2016; 'Domestic Violence has continued its steady increase reaching 1272 instances [of reporting] in 2016 up from 1205 reports in 2015, which points to a 183% increase between 2008 (450 reports) and 2016, when specific statistics on Domestic Violence became available due to changes in legislation (2007)'"
Reports of such incidents are on the increase and this in itself is an encouraging indicator, Andrew Azzopardi, Dean of the Faculty for Social Wellbeing said in a statement. "It clearly shows that people are more aware of domestic violence, recognise it, and are finding it unacceptable and deplorable. Naturally these stats do not include the unreported cases, or worse still, the dark figures of crime."
"Nonetheless, it is positive that the media is picking up on the cases being reported. We also applaud the police force who have introduced the Victim Support Unit (VSU) led by Inspector Silvana Gafa', a team that will also include a Youth Worker for the first time."
He said that the law to implement the legal changes required to be in line with the Istanbul Convention has not been enacted yet. "Awareness on this matter in the public domain needs to be complemented with more dissuasive penalties that reflect this heinous crime."
Domestic violence against women has a lasting impact on children once they are exposed to intimate partner violence both in the short-term and also in the longer term when these children become adults, he said. In addition, "we also know that there is a significant overlap between intimate partner violence and child abuse with rates of occurrence in the range of 6% and 18% in community samples."
He highlighted a number of facts, including that domestic violence has now become the third most reported crime after theft and damages and has pushed bodily harm to 4th place.
"If one looks at the national prevalence study held in Malta by the Commission for Domestic Violence in 2011, 26.5% of women have experienced one or more acts of violence by a current or former partner which includes, physical, emotional or sexual violence."
"It is worrying that 54% of women in Malta who have experienced violence did not seek assistance (Commission on Domestic violence, 2011)"
He said that the most extreme form of violence against women and domestic violence is femicide and "we have seen that in the past 10 years in Malta, there have been 15 women killed at the hands of a current or former partner or family member."
"In Malta the cost of domestic violence amounts to millions of euros per year, when taking into account the lost economic output, the health and legal services costs, social welfare services, other specialised services and the physical and emotional impact on the victims."
The Faculty has recommended that a number of actions be taken, including the creation of a one-stop-shop with a multi-disciplinary specialised response team trained to address the situation holistically (police, legal, social work, health, psychological); a well-resourced national action plan, in-line with the Istanbul Convention, that is comprehensive and evidence-based; an active inter-ministerial committee to strengthen collaboration and more financial and human resources to shelters and services; a national programme on relationship education, targeting different age groups and genders to address gender stereotypes and issues around power and control.
The Faculty have also recommended the creation of a training programme for professionals involved in this matter to be further sensitised about violence in families and action that can and should be taken, and the strengthening of the Legal Aid Service with specialised lawyers in this field.
The Faculty believes that court sentencing need to be significantly harsher to reflect the seriousness of this crime and protection orders and treatment orders need to be supported by the related punishment if these are not adhered to. In addition, safe spaces in the court building for social workers and clients during case hearing need to be made available.
They have called on government to ensure the full implementation of national legislation and international human rights treaties and standards.
In addition, the Faculty called for databases of court decisions to be set up to raise awareness and ensure a better understanding among legal professionals of issues related to women's access to justice.
The Faculty have called for the need to alleviate some of the financial burdens of domestic violence victims: namely, social assistance cheques to be issued promptly, social housing availability needs to be improved and an uninterrupted flow of child support contributions to be ensured. They also called for the need to study potential intergenerational violence related phenomena.
"We need to realise that this is no longer a private matter but a community-wide responsibility that needs to be addressed by academia, civil society and the State in a coherent and well thought-out way."