On 7th May 2024, the European Union officially adopted its first law on combatting violence against women with the Directive on Combatting Violence against Women and Domestic Violence Directive. This is an historic step for the EU as this is a first of its kind piece of legislation in the world. Very disappointingly, the legislation did not ban forced sterilisation, a practice which women and girls with disabilities, including deaf women and girls, are at higher risk of. Moreover, the Directive does not include a common definition and criminalisation of rape. Accordingly, EUD, alongside the wider EU disability movement, will continue to advocate for an end to this inhumane practice. The Directive does, however, requires all EU Member States to criminalise female genital mutilation, forced marriage, and cyber violence.
What does this law do for deaf women and girls?
- It makes specific reference to women with disabilities and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
- It creates requirements for better protection and support of deaf women and girls by:
- Creating aggravating circumstances for offences committed against a person with disabilities (article 11 referring to “a person made vulnerable by particular circumstances, such as a situation of dependence or a state of physical, mental, intellectual or sensory disability”).
- Encouraging EU countries to issue guidelines for law enforcement and prosecutorial authorities, including on how to treat victims in a trauma, gender, disability and child-sensitive manner (article 21).
- Requiring EU countries to ensure the availability and accessibility of helplines for victims, including end-users with disabilities by putting in places measures such as support in a language that is easy to understand (article 29). In which case, this should include the national sign language.
- Requiring EU countries to ensure that all support services covered by the law have sufficient capacity to accommodate victims with disabilities, considering their specific requirements (article 33).
- Requiring EU countries to adopt preventive measures and information presented in a format accessible to persons with disabilities (article 34). This should include information accessible in the national sign language.
- Requires EU countries to ensure justice professionals receive general and specialist training that is human-rights based, victim centred and gender, disability and child-sensitive (article 36).
For more information on how the Directive supports deaf women and girls, please read our previous analysis.
Next steps:
Once the law is published in the Official Journal of the European Union, EU countries will have three years to transpose it into national law.
The Directive will need to be evaluated in 8 years. While we hope that, by then, all EU countries have criminalised forced sterilisation, this revision will be an opportunity to renew our call for stronger EU legislation to protect deaf women and girls against violence.
