In an effort to provide a legal right to protection and help for women and girls who have been victims of violence, NRW Family Minister Josefine Paul (Greens) is calling for a fundamental right to a life free from violence.
Paul emphasized that one in three women experiences physical or sexual violence at some point in their lives, stating, “Every woman and girl who is a victim of violence is one too many. We need a legal right to protection and help in the face of violence.”
The initiative is linked to a draft bill proposed by the SPD and Greens in the German Bundestag, aiming to establish a reliable system of help for victims of gender-specific and domestic violence. A parliamentary hearing on the topic took place in Berlin on Monday, reviving the plan to pass the so-called Violence Help Act, which was initially planned by the previous government. The bill seeks to ensure the long-term financing of women’s counseling centers and women’s shelters through federal law, in response to the significant increase in violence against women in Germany in recent years.
Paul emphasized that the time has come to put this important initiative into action, stating, “We have already established a broad-based help structure in the states, but we still need to take further steps to implement the Istanbul Convention on the protection of women and girls from violence.”
The Istanbul Convention is a 2011 agreement of the Council of Europe to combat violence against women, establishing binding legal norms. Paul praised the federal government’s decision to take responsibility and financially participate in the initiative, stating, “The conference of equality ministers also supported this at their last meeting. Combating violence and providing help are societal tasks that we must implement together.