Access to Justice for Domestic and Gender-Based Violence Victims (RO0086)

Description of the problem

In recent years, appropriate measures have been adopted and implemented in Romania to combat domestic violence. The legislative changes made at national level, in particular by Law No 174/2018, amending and supplementing Law No 217/2003 on preventing and combating domestic violence, marked the introduction of additional protection measures — the temporary protection order, as a matter of urgency, immediately applicable on the spot by the policeman, in situations of imminent danger, but a deficient aspect in the application of the protection measures continues to be insufficient information on the legal provisions, means of intervention, existing social services (many of the victims do not know about the existence of the protection order and how to obtain such an order). One of the most important current challenges in the implementation of the legislation in force is the impossibility of ensuring (especially due to the lack of financial resources) the continuous training of staff responsible for preventing domestic violence in multidisciplinary intervention for the rehabilitation of victims of domestic violence, which represents an important obstacle in the provision of specialised 36 services in the field.

Description of the commitment

what Commitment Means Through this programme, ANES is committed to improving access to justice for victims of domestic and gender-based violence and of affected children by providing support and information on fundamental rights and freedoms, powers of courts, prosecutor’s offices and police, judicial proceedings (divorce, custody of minors, exercise of parental authority, protection order, etc.), as well as information and guidance to benefit from free legal assistance and mechanisms to guarantee non- discrimination on grounds of gender.

what are the results pursued Within this specific project, specialists working at local level in combating domestic violence, respectively specialists from the General Directorates for Social Assistance and Child Protection/Social Assistance Directorates/Public Services of Social Assistance will be trained and working tools will be developed that will support and streamline their work. At the same time, a study will be developed that will analyse the situation at county level regarding local strategies and action plans in the field, gender budgeting, evolution of the phenomenon, practices and trends, social services, protective measures (PPO/PO), legal advice, psychological support, labour market, etc.

what is the major objective Develop a legal information, guidance and support programme to facilitate access to justice for victims of domestic and gender-based violence and children affected.

Measurable activities (maximum 5) Responsible (institution/partner) Start date Date of completion

1. Development of a unitary methodology on information and legal guidance of victims of domestic and gender-based violence and of affected children, which will contain information on rights and obligations, other relevant legal provisions, effective counselling and guidance, in relation to the actions the victim chooses to exercise. The methodology will also include integrated sections dedicated to specific issues concerning domestic and gender-based violence against Roma women. The methodology will be developed with the participation of ANES representatives, with the active involvement of representatives of DGASPC/DAS/SPAS, representatives of other relevant institutions with responsibilities in the field (police, prosecutors, judges, lawyers specialised in cases with incidence in the field of domestic violence). The activity on the elaboration of the methodology will be ensured by a Consortium of NGOs, as a partner, consisting of the Center for Training and Evaluation in Social Assistance, Sensiblu Foundation, Necuvinte Association, the Foundation of the Center for Mediation and Community Security. ANES/NGO Consortium Partners 2022 2024

2. Organisation of 8 training sessions, attended by legal advisers from DGASPCs and DAS (social assistance services), other professionals from other institutions and authorities responsible in the field of reference, specialists of the NGO Consortium consisting of the Centre for Training and Evaluation in Social Assistance, Sensiblu Foundation, Necuvinte Association, Foundation for Mediation and Community Security, as well as other active members of civil society. ANES/NGO Consortium Partners 2022 2024

3. Organisation of 5 local workshops involving at least 100 representatives from ANES level, DGASPCs, other specialists from the Departments of Social Assistance/Public Services of Social Assistance, as well as representatives of the Centre for Training and Evaluation in Social Assistance, Sensiblu Foundation, Necuvinte Association, Foundation of Mediation and Community Security. ANES/NGO Consortium Partners 2022 2024

4. Organising networking events at regional/local/national level, attended by representatives of institutions with powers in the field of domestic violence, as well as NGOs and representatives of bar associations, magistrates in order to raise awareness of the need, the problem and to lay the foundations for future partnerships. ANES/NGO Consortium Partners 2022 2024

5. The elaboration of the national barometer according to the specific indicators focused on the situation at the level of each county, and will focus on the different forms of violence against women, with a focus on violence between spouses/partners and children witnessing situations of domestic violence. The main purpose of the National Barometer is to identify important elements that will support the medium and long-term development of central and local public policies on preventing and combating domestic violence and violence against women and developing specialised intervention and services to facilitate victims’ access to the necessary and appropriate support measures. The Barometer will be conducted according to specific indicators and will inform the necessary guidelines for local authorities in the development of the local budget, strategies and plans to prevent and combat domestic violence. The indicators will be carried out in open consultation with representatives of ANES and representatives of other relevant institutions with responsibilities in the field and will comprise a segment on the situation of Roma women. These indicators will be validated by ANES to substantiate the National Bar Association. The results of the Barometer in the field of domestic violence and gender-based violence will be disseminated through press releases, posts on the ANES/partner’s Facebook page, posts on ANES/partner’s websites, conferences/videoconferences. The Barometer will also be disseminated electronically to institutions with relevant responsibilities in the field, in order to be used by representatives of ministries and local public institutions with responsibilities in the field, specialists from the level of public and private social services providers for victims of domestic violence, professionals working at the level of local authorities, non-governmental organisations, judges, prosecutors, police officers, lawyers. ANES/NGO Consortium Partners 2022 2024

Other information Budget required (lei) (source, if it already exists) The activities are carried out within the predefined project “VERA — Positive change through integrated action in turbulent!”, implemented by ANES, with several NGOs formed in consortium, through the “Justice” Program financed by the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014-2021. The total budget is EUR 231,988. Correlation with other government programs/strategies National Strategy on promoting equal opportunities and treatment between women and men and preventing and combating domestic violence for 2022-2027. Governance Programme 2021-2024.

Action Plan Review

Commitment 9. Ensuring access to justice for victims of domestic and gender-based violence

● Verifiable: Yes

● Does it have an open government lens? Yes

● Potential for results: Modest

Ensuring access to justice for victims of domestic and gender-based violence

National Agency for Gender Equality (ANES), consortium of NGOs

For a complete description of the commitment, see Commitment 9 in Romania’s 2022–2024 action plan here.

Context and objectives

This commitment seeks to improve access to justice for victims of domestic and gender-based violence. ANES proposed this commitment and will implement it together with a consortium of national NGOs active in the field of gender equality. [53] Romania’s sixth action plan is the country’s first to include a commitment addressing gender-based violence. This commitment will be carried out within the international cooperation project “VERA - Positive change through integrated action in turbulent times.” [54]

According to the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), Romania lacks a legal definition of femicide and has no institution providing official figures for femicides or gender-based violence in the country. [55] As specified by the Romanian Observatory on Homicide Studies and Prevention, between 2002 and 2013 intimate partner femicide-suicide represented on average 7 out of 10 of the total number of homicide-suicide cases in Romania. [56] Violence against women does receive attention by the media. [57] However, the media often fails to describe the context in which violence is perpetrated, as cases are presented as isolated and unconnected. [58]

Public assistance for women victims of gender-based violence is spread across different sources. ANES has a toll-free helpline that helps victims identify appropriate solutions. [59] Victims can report to the police, who can issue a temporary restriction order for the aggressor, or apply for a judicial protection order, for which they need to obtain a medical-legal certificate at a forensic laboratory certifying the abuse, which can be costly and re-victimizing. [60] In addition, in 2021, Romania passed a National Strategy for Preventing and Combating Sexual Violence, which focuses on strengthening institutional capacities, offering education and information at all levels, and establishing a monitoring mechanism. [61] Also, in 2022, ANES launched the National Strategy for Promoting Equal Opportunities and Treatment for Women and Men and Preventing and Combating Domestic Violence for 2022–2027.

This commitment seeks to develop a uniform methodology on information and legal guidance for victims of domestic and gender-based violence and any affected children. This methodology will contain information on relevant legal provisions, effective counseling, and guidance. The methodology will be co-created by representatives of relevant state institutions with responsibilities in the field (ANES, police, judicial actors, among others) and CSOs, and will be disseminated through training sessions, local workshops, and networking events. The commitment also foresees the creation of a national barometer to measure domestic and gender-based violence. The barometer will contain specific indicators on the situation at the level of each county and will focus on violence between spouses and partners, children witnessing domestic violence, and violence against Roma women. The barometer will be built collaboratively with ANES and other institutions working in the field. Its results will be disseminated through press releases, social media, and specific events, and it aims to tailor public policies and local authorities’ interventions as well as develop legislation. [62]

This commitment will open government in two ways. First, the uniform methodology on information and legal guidance will facilitate access to information on currently available mechanisms to protect victims of gender-based and domestic violence. Likewise, the barometer can help improve access to information on violence against women and better inform public policies, helping to tailor interventions based on specific indicators. Second, in terms of civic participation, the commitment envisages co-creation of the methodology and the barometer with a consortium of NGOs.

Potential for results – Modest

The commitment seeks to fill critical gaps in addressing domestic and gender-based violence. It encourages government-CSO collaboration to deliver a unified methodology for access to information and legal guidance to protect women from violence and abuse. It also foresees the co-creation of a tool that will provide official figures, data, and analysis to set a clear picture of the current situation faced by women, inform public policies, and potentially mark a cultural change toward true gender equality. CSOs will play a major role in the elaboration of the deliverables, which could lead to long-term collaboration in this and other topics. Regarding the barometer itself, public institutions and CSOs currently lack accurate data on the relationship between domestic violence and gender, especially regarding the current situation of gender-based violence in Romania. The data could help provide evidence-based analysis of the magnitude and severity of this type of violence. However, as written in the action plan, the commitment’s activities represent a modest but important change to Romania’s practices and policies in regard to supporting victims of gender-based violence.

Moreover, the commitment will fundamentally add to the implementation of Romania’s 2003 Law 217 for preventing and combating domestic violence, [63] in particular to its amendment of 2018’s Law 174, [64] which typified domestic violence, introduced previously un-typified forms of abuse (e.g., psychological, social, spiritual), and laid out several state mechanisms aimed to assist women, in particular by regulating the temporary protection order. [65] Law 174 partially transposed to Romanian legislation the provisions of the Council of Europe Istanbul convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, [66] which Romania ratified in 2016. The 2020 baseline report on the implementation of the convention by the Romanian government outlines the role of ANES in the elaboration and implementation of legislative and policy measures in domestic violence and gender equality. According to the report, Romania still needs to implement holistic measures, ensure effective implementation through inter-institutional coordination and cooperation, and create data collection mechanisms in order to be more effective in tackling all forms of violence covered by the convention. [67] These deficits are targeted by the commitment, since it foresees the creation of a unique inter-institutional mechanism for assisting victims, and developing the necessary data to inform further interventions in this field.

Opportunities, challenges, and recommendations during implementation

This commitment presents a promising scenario of state-CSO collaboration to promote access to justice services. However, broader open government mechanisms might be required for it to deliver longer-lasting results. In this sense, the IRM recommends the following:

• Publish the barometer’s results as open data. Commitment 7 in this action plan foresees collaboratively targeting potential high-value data sets to publish in the portal gov.ro as a result of the implementation of Law 179 of 2022. Data on all aspects of gender-based violence, resulting from the implementation of the barometer, should be included individually or as high-value data sets to be published through the national data portal. This could foster the reuse of the data, create and maintain official statistics, raise awareness on the issue through data journalism, and inform civic activism.
• Include indicators of institutional performance in the barometer. The commitment as written states that the barometer indicators will focus on the situation of gender-based violence at the county level, reflecting different forms of violence against women, especially between spouses/partners and children witnessing these situations. [68] Participating stakeholders could further improve the barometer’s efficacy to reflect gender-based violence and policies by incorporating indicators on institutional performance to assist victims, such as registered police interventions in cases of gender-based violence, quantity of issued protection orders, or number of cases involving perpetrators with past criminal records on this same issue. This could help citizens and institutions assess the responses given to victims by the state apparatus and over time lead to the necessary institutional reforms.
• Include CSOs in the policy evaluation phase. While CSOs are given a key role in this commitment, no specifications are provided regarding the post-evaluation of its main activities. Once the activities are performed and implemented, NGOs should be welcomed to evaluate the commitment’s results, as well as monitor activities of the National Strategy for Promoting Equal Opportunities and Treatment for Women and Men and Preventing and Combating Domestic Violence.
• Provide access to legal counseling mechanisms and help women take action to address their legal needs. It will be important for the government and CSOs to leverage the barometer and the unified guidance to provide legal support for victims. The guidance could be accompanied by access to improved services and legal counseling. Technical platforms and telephone hotlines could also expand access to justice for vulnerable groups. Meanwhile, the barometer could be used to promote policies in areas with persistent challenges. CSOs can play an important role in leveraging these outputs, such as assisting in the collection of data for the barometer and gathering legal resources.