21 Amendments of Bettina VOLLATH related to 2019/2166(INI)
Amendment 5 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 5 a (new)
Citation 5 a (new)
— having regard to the Hague Convention of 25 October 1980 on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction,
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 5 b (new)
Citation 5 b (new)
— having regard to the Hague Convention of 29 May 1993 on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption,
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 5 c (new)
Citation 5 c (new)
— having regard to the Directive 2012/29/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime,
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 5 d (new)
Citation 5 d (new)
— having regard to the Directive (EU) 2016/800 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2016 on procedural safeguards for children who are suspects or accused persons in criminal proceedings,
Amendment 63 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
C a. whereas between 70% and 85% of children know their abuser and the vast majority of children are victims of people they trust;1a _________________ 1ahttps://www.coe.int/en/web/human- rights-channel/stop-child-sexual-abuse- in-sport
Amendment 72 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas the lockdown and social distancing measures during the COVID-19 pandemic have been associated with an exponential increase in the prevalence and intensity of intimate partner violence cases in many Member States, resulting from forced confinement within the home and making it difficult for women to access effective protection and, support and justice; whereas in spite of the prevalence of the phenomenon, intimate partner violence against women remains under-reported in the EU for various reasons and there is a significant lack of comprehensive data;
Amendment 76 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D a (new)
Recital D a (new)
D a. Whereas domestic and gender- based violence has increased as a result of the lockdown measures put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic and according to the latest Europol Report1a child sexual abuse online in the EU has dramatically increased; _________________ 1a https://www.europol.europa.eu/publicatio ns-documents/exploiting-isolation- offenders-and-victims-of-online-child- sexual-abuse-during-covid-19-pandemic
Amendment 120 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I a (new)
Recital I a (new)
I a. whereas the right of the child to be heard and fully informed in a child- friendly manner at all stages of the criminal proceedings should always be a primary consideration in accordance with Art. 4 and 16 of the Directive (EU) 2016/800;
Amendment 122 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I b (new)
Recital I b (new)
I b. where the best interest of the child should always be the primary consideration in all decisions concerning children, including family disputes;
Amendment 169 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. stresses the importance to fully and swiftly implement the EU Gender Equality Strategy and its key objectives on stopping gender-based violence;
Amendment 192 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Notes that, in principle, shared custody and unsupervised visits are desirable in order to ensure that parents enjoy equal rights and responsibilities, as well as to safeguard the best interests of the child; underlines, however, that intimate partner violence is clearly incompatible with shared custody and care, owing to its severe consequences for women and children, including the risk of extreme acts of femicide and infanticide; stresses that when establishing the arrangements for custody allocation and visitation rights, the protection of women and children from violence and the best interests of the child must be paramount and should take precedence over other criteria; stresses, therefore, that awarding exclusive custody to the non-violent partner, most frequently the mother, represents the best alternativeonly way in order to prevent further violence and secondary victimisation of the victims;
Amendment 202 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls for mandatory targeted training for judicial and law enforcement officers, including judges, about domestic violence and its mechanisms, including coercion, manipulation and psychological violence, and about the relevance of intimate partner violence to children’s rights, and to their protection and well- being, as well as to provide adequate skills to enable the officers to assess the situation using reliable risk assessment tools; recalls the importance of European Judicial Training Network (EJTN) in this respect;
Amendment 214 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Strongly recommends that Member States establish specialised courts and judicial offices, as well as appropriate laws, training, procedures and guidelines for all professionals dealing with the victims of intimate partner violence, including raising awareness of gender- based violence, in order to avoid discrepancies between judicial decisions and discrimination or secondary victimisation during judicial, medical and police proceedings, ensuring that children and women are duly heard and their protection is given priority; emphasises the need to strengthen dedicated judicial offices and child and female victim- friendly justice, limiting the excessive discretionary powers of practitioners and establishing checks on child custody procedures by qualified professional figures;
Amendment 242 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to provide quality, gender- segregated and comparable EU-wide data on the prevalence, causes, consequences and management of intimate partner violence and custody rights, making full use of the capacity and expertise of the EIGE; stresses the key role of Eurostat and of Member States’ statistical institutes in producing high quality, timely and reliable statistics on gender-based violence, including intimate partner violence; recalls that such action is eligible for funding under the Single Market Programme for the period 2021- 2027, which should contribute in speeding up such production by Member States even in the ones where such data is still not collected or such statistics not produced yet;
Amendment 291 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Calls on the Member States to promote betterfull access to legal protection, effective hearings and restraining orders, counselling and victim funds for women victims of intimate partner violence, and to apply particular procedures based on common minimum standards and give support to mothers who are victims of domestic violence, in order to prevent them from becoming victims again as a result of losing custody of their children;
Amendment 297 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10 a. highlights for this reason the key role of economic support for the victims in order to reach financial independence from the violent partner; for the same reason, calls on Member States to provide rapid and effective decisions on paid child support to avoid dependence of the victim and potentially dangerous situations also for the child;
Amendment 306 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 b (new)
Paragraph 10 b (new)
10 b. Highlights the need for special attention and specific procedures and standards for cases in which the victim or the child involved is a person with disabilities or belongs to a particularly vulnerable group;
Amendment 309 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 c (new)
Paragraph 10 c (new)
10 c. Welcomes the initiative of the Commission to put forward an EU strategy on the rights of the child (2021- 24); underlines the need to protect the rights of the most vulnerable children, with particular attention to children with disabilities, the prevention of and fight against violence and the promotion of child-friendly justice; calls for a full and swift implementation of the strategy by all Member States;
Amendment 311 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Calls on the Commission to promote EU-wide public awareness campaigns as a necessary measure in the prevention of domestic violence and the creation of a climate of zero tolerance towards violence; highlights the strategic role of media in this regard; stresses, however, that in some Member States femicides and cases of gender violence are still presented in absolutory terms with regard to the violent partner; emphasizes that instead the media should strongly condemn this type of violence and abstain from treating the violent partner with an absolutory tone;
Amendment 339 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Emphasises that thearing from the child is important child has the right to be heard, which is a key element in order to establish what is in the best interests of the child while examining custody cases; points out nevertheless that in every case, but crucially in cases where intimate partnership violence is suspected, such hearings should be conducted in a child- friendly environment, with no pressure or influence from parents or relatives, by trained professionals, including those qualified in child neuropsychiatry, to avoid deepening the trauma and victimisation; calls for minimum EU standards on how such hearings should be conducted;
Amendment 350 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Underlines the importance of the exchange of information between courts, the central authorities of Member States and police bodies, especially in relation to cross-border custody cases; hopes that the revised rules under Council Regulation (EU) 2019/1111 of 25 June 2019 on jurisdiction, the recognition and enforcement of decisions in matrimonial matters and the matters of parental responsibility, and on international child abduction7 will enhance the cooperation between judicial systems to effectively determine the best interests of the child; calls, in this context, on the Commission and the Member States to implement the Brussels IIa Regulation effectively; ensure enforcement and effective application of the Brussels IIa Regulation; regrets in this regard that its latest revision failed to extend the scope to registered partnerships and unmarried couples; is of the opinion that this leads to discrimination and potentially dangerous situations for victims and children of registered partnerships and unmarried couples; _________________ 7 OJ L 178, 2.7.2019, p. 1.