Violence against women: the role of national authorities and the legal proceeding

V diplomski nalogi obravnavamo nasilje nad ženskami kot posledico nasilja v družini oziroma v partnerskem odnosu. Bistvo naloge je raziskati razkorak med obstoječo zakonodajo in prakso ter ugotoviti, kako je ženska kot žrtev zaščitena. Porajajo se nam vprašanja: ali je zakonodaja zasnovana tako, da nas lahko popolnoma zaščiti pred povzročitelji nasilja, ali je ustvarjena za beneficijo žrtve in ali obstajajo napake v postopkih, zaradi katerih lahko žrtev konča tragično. Obstaja veliko število aktov, katerih namen je zaščititi ženske pred nasiljem. V nalogi smo utemeljili najobsežnejši obstoječi mednarodni akt, ki določa oz. nalaga državam pogodbenicam obveznosti za preprečevanje nasilja nad ženskami, Istanbulsko konvencijo. Ta dokument si med drugim prizadeva spremeniti tako razmišljanje moških kot tudi žensk, ki še niso presegli močno zakoreninjenega prepričanja o neenakovrednem položaju spolov v družbi. Konvencija označuje nasilje nad ženskami kot kršitev človekovih pravic in predstavlja nov mejnik evropskih in zato tudi slovenskih standardov na področju nasilja nad ženskami. Da bi potrdili naše teoretične ugotovitve, smo v praktičnem delu naloge intervjuvala subjekta, ki sta neposredno povezana z nasiljem nad ženskami. Tako smo intervjuja opravili z žrtvijo nasilja, ki ima izkušnje tako s samim dejanjem nasilja kot tudi s celotnim pravnim postopkom, ki mu je sledil, ter z regijsko koordinatorko za obravnavo nasilja na centru za socialno delo. Zanimalo nas je, ali je medinstitucionalni pristop državnih organov in nevladnih institucij ključen za zmanjšanje nasilja, ali sodelovanje med organi deluje v praksi, ali je zakonodaja na področju nasilja nad ženskami v Sloveniji tako dorečena, da zagotavlja uspešno in urgentno reševanje postopkov, in ali je ženska kot žrtev nasilja v predkazenskem in kazenskem postopku popolnoma varna pred povzročiteljem. Vsak od sodelujočih ima v postopku ključno vlogo pri izidu in nenazadnje varnosti žrtve nasilja, pa naj bo to sama žrtev, policist, delavka centra za socialno delo, tožilec ali sodnik, saj ima lahko vsaka napaka, do katere pride v postopku, za žrtev tragične poledice.In this bachelor thesis we\u27re going to discuss violence against women as a consequence of violence in a family or in a relationship. The main goal of this thesis is to research the gap between existing legislation and practice. We aim to answer questions such as: is the legislation created in a way that completely protects us from the perpetrators of violenceis it created in a way that benefits the weaker side-the victimand are there errors in the system which can lead to a tragical end of the victims. There is a considerable number of acts and laws, which are created with the intention of protecting women from violence. In this thesis we discussed- to this day- the most sizable international act, which determines or imposes obligations on state parties, to prevent violence against women. That act is called the Istanbul Convention. One of the main aims of this act is to change the mindset of men and also women, who have a strongly rooted opinion on the unequal position of genders in society. This convention denotes violence against women as a violation of human rights and represents a new milestone of European and- consequently- Slovenian standards in this area. With the intention of confirming our theoretical conclusions, we dedicated the second part of the thesis to the practical findings. To get a realistic picture of the legal system and its effectiveness, we conducted interviews with the subjects who are an active part of the system. Therefore, we conducted interviews with: the victim of violence, who has experience with the workings of the legal systemthe police officer, who works in the field of domestic violence and abuseand the regional coordinator for dealing with violence at the center for social work. We wanted to know whether the interinstitutional approach of state authorities and non-governmental institutions is important for reducing violence and we wanted to clarify whether the cooperation between authorities actually works in practice. We also wanted to explore the efficiency of Slovenian legislation in the field of violence against woman: how successfully and urgently can they solve the procedures. The last thing we wanted to find out is if the victim is completely safe from the perpetrator during the pre-trial and criminal proceedings. Each subject in the system has a crucial role in the turn-out of the legal proceedings and consequently also the safety of the victim of violence. That is why it is important for everyone involved to avoid making mistakes in the procedures, since the alternative could result in a tragic end for the victim