Parliament Speaker Annita Dimitriou presented her proposal for criminalization of gynecology to the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs on Wednesday.
In her statements, Ms. Dimitriou stated that with this proposal, the Republic of Cyprus and the Parliament are leading the way in defending human rights and eradicating stereotypes.
As he said, homicide is the most extreme form of gender-based violence and the specific amendment of the penal code will strengthen the legal arsenal of the Republic of Cyprus so that it is in line with its obligations to eliminate violence and discrimination against women or groups of women.
This amendment, he added, gives a visibility to a social reality that the legislator can no longer cover or overlook. He also said that it is very important that this amendment will contribute to the elimination of stereotypes, to empathy, but also to the culture of full respect for human rights.
"Today is a great leap forward in women's rights, in the strengthening of human rights and in tackling a now-accepted phenomenon of female genital mutilation that, after the pandemic in particular, is on the rise," she said.
Asked about the reservations expressed by the Legal Service, Ms. Dimitriou said that this is a differentiation of the description of the offense, while it does not change anything in the sentences. He expressed the hope that with the help of the experts on these issues and the Legal Service, it will be done in such a way that it will not be difficult to prove the murders of women.
He also said that Cyprus is the first country to criminalize sexism and that the Republic of Cyprus can take the lead in the issue of female genital mutilation and be a useful tool for dealing with the phenomenon. He added that similar actions are currently underway in other countries.
The purpose of the bill is to amend the penal code to introduce the crime of murder, which will carry a sentence of life imprisonment. As noted in the proposal, homicide, that is, the killing of women or girls under the age of eighteen, as an act due, inter alia, to domestic violence, or sexual violence, or to reasons of honor or religious beliefs and genital mutilation practices remains in most cases. with impunity, reinforcing the notion that violence against women is an acceptable or even inevitable phenomenon.
In this context, it is also stated that violence against women is widely accepted as a form of discrimination that violates the constitutionally guaranteed principle of equality.
The proposal establishes the homonymous crime of feminicide, in order to deal with the new criminological and anthropological phenomenon of feminicide (femicide), as manifested by men to the detriment of women, because the victims are precisely women.
In the sentence, homicide is considered the killing of a woman as a result of violence by a sexual partner, torture and misogyny, reasons of honor, religious beliefs, practice of genital mutilation, sexual orientation and / or gender identity, relationship dependence, trust or , violence to achieve intercourse, domestic violence, targeting in the context of armed conflict.
According to data provided to the Commission by the Scientific Director of the Association for the Prevention and Response to Domestic Violence (SPAVO) Andri Andronikou, in 2020 a total of 2.147 cases of violence were reported, of which 880 concern cases of women with increased violence. three months, 407 women received death threats, 322 women were subjected to violence with an object or weapon, and 129 women reported strangulation.
According to the Director of the Mediterranean Institute for Gender Studies, Susanna Pavlou, from 2010-2016, 28 cases of gynecology were recorded, of which 75% were committed in the context of domestic violence. From 2019-2020, 13 female homicides were recorded, including two children. As he mentioned, the majority of the perpetrators were men and Cypriots.