Regarding the proposed amendments to the Family Law, following the public consultation process, the Autonomous Women’s Center once again appeals on the Working Group to reconsider certain provisions that could have serious consequences for the safety of children and victims of domestic violence.

The Autonomous Women’s Center emphasizes the importance of law clearly recognising every form of a child’s exposure to violence as a threat to their safety and development in all sections related to protection from domestic violence, as well as the exercise and termination of parental rights.

A child’s right to maintain contact with the other parent must never come at the expense of the child’s safety. The Center points out the problematic proposal that any prevention of contact between a child and a parent would be considered domestic violence, without takig into account that this right may be suspended when the child’s safety is at risk.

The proposal allowing the court to order psychosocial treatment or addiction treatment may be useful, but such an order cannot be referred to as a measure of protection from domestic violence. Therefore, the law must clearly prescribe that perpetrators of violence may be ordered to undergo treatment only alongside, or following the imposition of protection measures against domestic violence intended to protect victims, and not instead of such measures. .

The Family Law must clearly and consistently protect children and non-violent parents from all forms of violence, and the right to safety must take priority over any right that could place them in danger.

Read the full statement HERE.