“If we are going to continue with the line of thought that laws solve problems, then we are far off from the truth.”

This statement was made by President Emeritus Marie Louise Coleiro Preca when speaking to this newsroom a few weeks ago. She was asked if enough is being done to combat domestic violence and to protect women.

The news of Bernice Cassar’s murder, and the revelations coming out in court, are shocking this country to its core. Her murder, allegedly by her estranged husband who is denying the charges, is being treated as the first case of alleged femicide since such a crime was introduced into Maltese law.

Coleiro Preca is, of course, right in her above statement. Introducing a law doesn’t automatically mean people will not commit a crime.

“We introduced a very important legal amendment, acknowledging femicide as a crime. But even with the amendment, a horrible femicide again took place. Legislation is important, but before that a whole strategy must be thought out. Legislation would be part of the operational plan to implement what we want to implement,” she said.

The former President stressed that despite all that Bernice did, there wasn’t enough protection.

A whole plan and strategy is needed when introducing laws to ensure that they can be properly enforced, and more importantly, that crimes can be prevented.

"How can we expect from the police, things that they cannot give," she said. She spoke of the human resource shortage within the police force. “There is also the need for more training so that when a report is filed, the police would understand enough what is needed, and where protection is needed.”

There are thousands of domestic violence victims in the country. There are many who speak up, and many who don’t. Domestic violence is not just physical, it could be verbal and even psychological. It affects whole families and is an issue that we must tackle.

Police officers are many-a-time the first point of official contact for such victims.

But the police force needs more officers. Anyone who denies such a shortage should just look at the number of police stations closed around the country.

“Someone recently told me that not many people are joining the police force, and so even that is something we must look into. Why don't we have youths who want to join the disciplined forces? We need to ask this question so that we can motivate and encourage more young people to come forward and be of service to the country,” Coleiro Preca said.

We need to find ways to motivate our youths to take up critical professions like police officers. But in order to do that, we must identify why youths don’t want to work in such a field and we must make sure that such jobs offer a pay package that is attractive, and good working conditions and environments.

The former President also highlighted the length of time court cases takes, mentioning that the magistrate handling such cases has 1,400 pending cases. One must ask what the government was thinking when leaving such a shortage in the courts. It is clear more members of the judiciary are needed overall, and at least more are going to be appointed now. But aside from that, the courts must also be given all the resources they require, and that includes human resources in the form of support staff.

The former president also questions whether adjudicators should also have a psychosocial team with them, allowing the members of the judiciary not only to look at legal texts, but also to better understand issues. This could be an idea worth exploring.

Another point the former President stressed was the importance of educating children. “We invest in them by empowering them with ethical values of respect and listening to each other," she said.

But the main point is that introducing a law doesn’t mean that people will stop doing what they are doing. If we want to tackle domestic violence in the long term… then education plays a key role. At the same time we must further empower the police and courts with the right training on this issue, and the staff numbers they need to help tackle it. If we need new systems in place to ensure quicker action, then those must be explored.