The number of feminicides in France has never been so low since the government began to identify them fifteen years ago.
In 2020, 90 women were killed by their spouses and ex-spouses, announced Tuesday, February 2, the Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti.
A decline welcomed by the executive, especially as 2019 was a black year for violence against women, with 146 deaths officially recorded, 25 more than in 2018. These are results "still too modest but promising hope, "said the Minister of Justice in a video posted on Facebook.
For associations fighting against violence against women, it is however too early to celebrate a lasting trend.
“We must be extremely careful about the figures that are put forward because we were in quite exceptional configurations in 2020, due to the Covid and the confinement,” explains Céline Piques, spokesperson for the collective Dare feminism.
"We will see if the figures are confirmed in 2021, but for now it is too early to indicate the exact causes", she told France 24.
For his part, Eric Dupond-Moretti attributed this considerable drop "to the view that the whole of society has on this domestic violence and these heinous crimes", acknowledging in passing "the work of associations" in this collective awareness.
The Minister of Justice added that the drop in feminicides was also due "to the means that the Ministry of Justice has mobilized to fight against this violence", citing a series of government measures adopted following the Grenelle on domestic violence in 2019.
Among these devices, the minister cited the deployment, in September, of geolocated anti-reconciliation bracelets, which issue an alert each time a partner or a violent ex-partner approaches a victim;
or the distribution of “serious danger” telephones, allowing women at risk to alert the police at the push of a button.
Finally, expulsion orders allowing the eviction of the violent spouse's home have multiplied in 2020.
“Feminicide”, a term “recognized and integrated”
However, associations for the defense of women call to take a step back from the government's discourse.
Céline Piques recognizes that society has changed in recent years.
The term "feminicide" is now "recognized and integrated".
“We have stopped seeing domestic violence as mere 'arguments', 'news items' or 'crimes of passion'.
We hear less and less of this kind of talk.
It's really a cultural battle that we are winning and it's really important. "
"In 2014, Dare feminism ran a campaign around the term 'feminicide' and everyone laughed at it at the time," notes its spokesperson.
"Today, politicians use this term", she rejoices.
"It has consequences: people react to violence differently, especially neighbors and those around them. They may be better able to detect violence against women and put words into it."
France, far behind Spain
The spokesperson for the feminist collective also recognizes that the measures taken following the Grenelle in 2019 are a step in the right direction.
But "we see today that in terms of the number of protection orders, or the number of 'high-danger phones', we are really only at the very beginning of what must become a massive deployment", deplores- she does.
It is clear that France is far behind Spain when it comes to the implementation of measures to protect women.
In 2019, Spain issued many more protection orders than France, according to Céline Piques.
"We do not yet have the figures [of the protections implemented] from 2020. But if we are to believe associations such as the FNSF (National Federation of Solidarity Women), if additional protection measures have been implemented. place in France, it is not yet systematic.The justice has not yet started to deploy protection orders as it does in Spain, where it issues some 30,000 orders per year, while we are only talking about a few thousand here ".
Other measures are also slow to be deployed.
"Of course, additional resources are still necessary, and we will devote ourselves to it," the minister promised on Tuesday.
According to figures he announced, only 1,260 emergency phones had been distributed to women at risk at the end of 2020 and 17 electronic bracelets given out in mid-January - of which only eight are active.
These figures are ridiculous compared to the 225,000 women victims of domestic violence each year, says Céline Piques.
“We cannot blame the drop in feminicides solely on the Grenelle on domestic violence, which we consider to be largely insufficient.
Really, we are still in the infancy ”, she adds.
For Dare feminism, this is another factor that would have helped to reduce the number of feminicides.
“Many women who experience violence have not been able to leave their spouses because of the confinement and the economic crisis, which has resulted in reduced resources.”
However, as Céline Piques underlines, “a significant proportion of feminicides take place after separation or at the time of separation”.
According to UN data released at the end of September, the lockdowns have also led to an increase in complaints or calls to denounce domestic violence around the world.
In France, a 30% increase in complaints was recorded.
Review the definition of “feminicide”
It remains to be seen how the number of femicides is counted and by whom.
The collective Feminicides by companions or ex, which monitors reports of feminicides in the media, was indignant on Tuesday at the figures communicated by Éric Dupond-Moretti, believing that it had not taken into account those of “elderly women and sick people murdered by their husbands ”.
The collective counted 100 feminicides for 2020, ten more than the official data.
When @E_DupondM minimizes #feminicides and eliminates elderly and sick women murdered by their husbands 🤢🤮
Know that our count is never far from the official figure, and therefore, we will talk about it again!
2020➡️100 feminicides per companion or exhttps: //t.co/B83HiLTbV6
- Feminicides By Compagnons ou Ex (@feminicidesfr) February 2, 2021
Definitions of feminicide vary, which raises questions about government numbers, says Céline Piques.
"We really have to go back to the original definition, which is murder on the basis of sexism, which would allow us to have a much broader definition than spousal homicides. Because there are also homicides in couples who do not not residing together, or men who murder a woman because she refused advances. However, these cases are not counted ".
The spokesperson for Dare Feminism would also like to include the murders of prostitutes that occur every year.
"This is, for me, a really sexist murder and another example of femicide that goes unreported," she adds.
Eric Dupond-Moretti's announcement is the first of its kind by a Minister of Justice since the Chancellery asked for the first time, last year, "systematic feedback" to the prosecution for each spousal homicide , in order to have "a more precise follow-up" of these murders and "to assess the impact of the Grenelle measures".
In the meantime, since January 1, there have already been six feminicides in France, including three since January 27, according to the count of the collective Nous tous.
This article was translated from English by Bahar Makooi. See the original.
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