• Launched in October 2019, the Grenelle on domestic violence has changed the protection and support for women victims of their spouse or ex-spouse.

  • Despite the deployment of anti-reconciliation bracelets, the lifting of medical confidentiality in the event of immediate danger to the victim or the establishment of common grids for assessing the dangerousness for police and gendarmes, the number of femicides is not decreasing. .

  • According to data collected by associations, 51 women have died under the blows of their companion or ex-companion since the beginning of the year 2021.

  • Refusing to speak of failure and anxious to strengthen the mobilization against domestic violence, the associative or judicial actors nevertheless regret “too timid” measures.

“History is repeating itself: too many female victims who denounced the violence committed by their spouse or ex-spouse are still left without protection. This is the bitter observation made on June 9 by the High Committee for Equality between Women and Men (HCE). Posted on Wednesday, this very first assessment of the policy to combat domestic violence comes in a worrying context. Chance of the calendar, the government made public the same day the inspection report carried out after the murder of Chahinez, 31, burned alive in the street by her recidivist husband. This report, which points to numerous shortcomings, prompted the government to present six measures to better protect women.

Earlier in the week, the Minister of the Interior had summoned prefects and directors of the security forces to send him an inventory of domestic violence.

Because the numbers are bad.

According to the first data collected by Beauvau, since January these acts of violence have increased by 20% compared to the same period last year.

A year and a half after the launch of the Grenelle on domestic violence, the acceleration in the number of feminicides and the almost systematic dysfunctions noted in these cases raise a question.

Is the policy pursued by the government effective and sufficient?

Refusing a too defeatist statement, the actors of the associative and judicial world call on the contrary for a start.

"Holes in the racket"

At the head of the National Federation of Solidarity Women (FNSF) since 2017, Françoise Brié refuses to qualify the current situation as a "failure". “It's a conjunction of different factors. The difficulties that have existed for years and regularly raised by associations are deeply rooted in the functioning of our institutions, ”she observes. Among these difficulties, the lack of dialogue between magistrates, police officers and social actors is unanimously denounced. “Family judges and police don't talk to each other. Ditto for the enforcement judge and the police, ”laments the lawyer at the Paris bar, Isabelle Steyer.

For Chahinez, this lack of coordination had dramatic consequences.

Her husband, however actively wanted by the police after another assault and filing a complaint, presented himself to the penitentiary integration and probation service responsible for following him.

But the police were never informed.

"Information sharing has been faulty, especially since each service has often incomplete or even non-existent knowledge of the activity of its partners," points out the inspection report.

A criticism visibly taken into account by the government, since one of the measures announced on Wednesday aims to create a body for "judicial monitoring" of domestic violence cases, bringing together magistrates, police, gendarmes and prison services for integration and probation at local level.

However, to better understand these "holes in the racket", some associations now demand systematic "feedback" after each feminicide.

“If we ask, it is to fill in the gaps and to look them in the face.

As long as we do not do this, we will not be able to protect women effectively ”, estimates Anne-Cécile Mailfert, president of the Women's Foundation.

A deployment that takes time

Another element of explanation, according to Françoise Brié: "The legislative changes inherited from the Grenelle take time to come down on the ground and be applied"

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For example, at the beginning of May, only 45 anti-reconciliation bracelets were active out of the 1,000 available. Today, this figure has risen to 96. “This represents a 100% jump in poses in one month, especially since the last circular of Eric Dupond-Moretti,” says the Chancellery.

As for “serious danger telephones”, 1,324 were allocated out of the 1,800 available, adds Place Vendôme. A figure which should climb to 3,000 by 2022. However, for lawyer Isabelle Steyer, this deployment remains undersized. “I find them very shy about the emergency. There are around 220,000 women victims of domestic violence per year. However, we are offered 3,000 bracelets and less than 2,000 telephones. It does not even represent 2% of women potentially concerned by protection needs, ”she notes.

But a massive deployment of these devices would inevitably lead to an increase in the workload for the police and magistrates.

However, this increase must be accompanied by an increase in the number of staff and the resources allocated, according to the main stakeholders.

Rarely, prosecutors mobilized on this subject on Monday to demand additional resources.

Asked by AFP, the prosecutor of Versailles, Maryvonne Caillibotte, justified: "The telephone serious danger, it is not only a case, the anti-reconciliation bracelet not only a bracelet: there is an accompaniment and which says accompaniment people say ”.

Deep roots and extreme vigilance

If the media coverage of the tragic feminicides of Hayange and Mérignac has put the subject back at the heart of government action, associations are calling for “permanent” mobilization. “During the Grenelle, we managed through enormous efforts to raise domestic violence to the rank of political priority No. 1. Then we moved on to another subject. But it can't be the permanent accordion! », Protested Anne-Cécile Mailfert.

Aware of the growing expectations of society on these questions, the government has already set a new meeting for the actors mobilized against domestic violence.

"Because the fight against violence requires constant monitoring and investment, the Prime Minister will convene, on the occasion of the second anniversary of the Grenelle, a monitoring committee for the implementation of the Grenelle measures against domestic violence in order to ensure their rigorous execution on the whole of the national territory ”, concluded Wednesday Matignon in a press release.

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  • Society

  • Eric Dupond-Moretti

  • Justice

  • Domestic violence

  • Feminicide

  • gender equality

  • Violence against women