Let’s begin with the obvious, since it’s not clear that it is obvious to everyone who matters: Violence against women should be of serious concern to all of us.

Let’s be clear what violence is. It’s domestic violence. It’s sexual harassment — at home, in the street, at the office, wherever. It’s stalking. They’re all forms of violence which women endure simply because they are women.

The “Grevio Baseline Evaluation Report” on Malta, published by the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO) within the Council of Europe, was adopted on 15 October 2020 and published on 23 November 2020. It is such a serious and damning report that I have asked for a formal debate about it in Parliament.

The Grevio report gives credit to the Maltese authorities for some initiatives, like the “Society’s Concern – Gender-Based Violence and Domestic Violence Strategy and Action Plan” and the entry into force of the Gender-Based Violence and Domestic Violence Act in May 2018, which brought Malta in line with the Istanbul Convention. However, that is clearly where the praise stops.

The Grevio Report says there are several issues which Malta’s Government must address urgently. It speaks of “urgent improvement (which) is warranted to reach higher levels of compliance with the requirements of the Istanbul Convention.”

You can’t read the report without thinking that the authors believe that the Government is giving only lip service to the issues. On paper, Malta has ticked the right boxes. In practice, there is much left to be desired.

That sounds familiar. The last seven years have seen Labour in government talk big but do much less. The Grevio Report steers away from partisan politics but makes it amply clear that misogyny continues to prevail in our society. You read the report and realise how hollow were the words of Joseph Muscat when he claimed to head the most feminist government in Maltese history.

The report underlines the lack of clarity and confusing messages. Labour Government has pushed forward the LGBTIQ agenda forcefully and successfully and obviously Grevio find no wrong in that. But the report shows concern that the issue of violence against women is a specific problem in itself and should be addressed in a focused way.

Gender-based violence and violence against women are not the same thing. They need to be tackled differently. The report states that, “it is of paramount importance that the different forms of violence against women are addressed as a gendered phenomenon. These forms of violence affect women disproportionately and are manifestations of gender-based violence against women, which is violence that is directed against a woman because she is a woman.”

The Grevio report goes into detail about the shortcomings of the system of care and prevention, which is proving to be of disservice to the victims. As a result, at times, the system is itself life-threatening.

Among the major concerns, the Grevio report highlights lack of training, an issue which “has serious ramifications.” This applies to all the professionals who work in the prevention sector but is lacking in the Police and consequently has repercussions on the justice system:

“Numerous shortcomings are also identified in the way that immediate support services for victims of sexual violence are currently administered,” and, “there are serious risks of loss of evidence due to the potential long waiting time required for the victim to be visited and the evidence to be lifted.”

There are also various gaps in the system, like obligatory mediation for victims who want to separate from the perpetrators not stay with them, limited knowledge by court experts, lack of clear guidelines for judges, visitation and custody rights. And these are just the tip of the iceberg which the Grevio report focuses on.

Sadly, the women who end up victims of violence find themselves living a nightmare of ordeals, with never ending anguish, especially for a mother who is trying to bring up her children away from the violence, with the hope of giving them a faint chance to make it in life.

In my early days in the parliament, I was part of the Social Affairs Committee. The members, then, had spent months learning about the system and its pitfalls. We had met victims who had shocking experiences: related to police reporting, witnessing in court and other unimaginable ordeals. We had met the experts and NGOs who work in the field.

Sadly, I am now understanding that the work then done by the committee and the recommendations put forward, have been completely ignored. Worse still, Labour, under both Muscat and Robert Abela, has also continued to ignore the basic requirements of the Istanbul Convention.

Although the Labour would like us all to believe that they are the sole champions for civil rights in our country, the sun did not rise in 2013. The first Domestic Violence Services offered by the state date back to 1994. The earliest legislation on domestic violence dates back to the Domestic Violence Act of 2006 together with the setting up of the Commission on Domestic Violence. Credit must also be given to the Good Shepherd Sisters who opened the first shelter for victims of domestic violence in Malta, Dar Merhba Bik, back in 1986.

All this is clearly not enough. The state is still failing to protect women. Our Constitutional Court has recently given a judgement to this effect, and now we have the Grevio report. Women have died — trying to protect themselves and their children from the violence of a man who was meant to love them.

We owe it to them, to their children and their families to address this issue seriously. We need to make fundamental not superficial changes.

Dr Claudette Buttigieg is a Maltese member of parliament and Deputy Speaker