40 NGOs urge the Government for urgent actions to combat sexual violence

Dozens of NGOs sent an open letter on Monday to Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, Minister of Justice Alina Gorghiu, and Minister of Family and Equal Opportunities Natalia Intotero, urging the acceleration of measures to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence..

The associations remind that these measures are already outlined in Directive (EU) 1385/2024, which aims ‘to provide a comprehensive framework for the effective prevention and combat of violence against women and domestic violence at the Union level.’.

The directive reinforces existing measures and introduces provisions related to the following areas: ‘defining offenses and relevant penalties, protecting victims and access to justice, supporting victims, improving data collection, prevention, coordination, and cooperation.’.

In the first six months of 2024, there were 648 reported cases of rape and 1,983 cases of child rape filed with the police.’These figures do not include the hundreds of cases of sexual assault, sexual corruption of minors, recruitment of minors for sexual purposes, and sexual harassment,’ according to a message posted by the Filia Center on its Facebook page.

Petition for Victims’ Protection

The Network for the Prevention and Combat of Violence Against Women (VIF) has launched a petition requesting the government ‘to ensure the rights and safety of women.’.

The member associations demand:

Consultation with specialized NGOs: We request that organizations within the VIF Network be involved throughout the process of transposing the Directive.Their expertise is essential for effective and appropriate legislative changes.

Criminalizing acts of gender-based violence: The directive mandates the criminalization of acts such as female genital mutilation, forced marriage/early marriage or child marriage, non-consensual sharing of intimate or manipulated material, cyber-stalking for harassment, online harassment, incitement to violence or hatred online.

Protection for victims of rape: We demand that the criminal complaint for rape not depend on the victim’s retraction, so that perpetrators can be held accountable regardless of the victim’s desire to continue with the proceedings.

Supporting victims’ access to justice: We request the removal of the three-month deadline for filing prior complaints in cases of sexual violence.

Defining rape as lack of consent: We demand an amendment of the definition of the crime of rape to include the absence of validly expressed consent.

Violence prevention: The directive emphasizes prevention through education and awareness campaigns.We request the inclusion of consent and healthy relationship education in school curricula, along with appropriately budgeted measures.

‘By signing this petition, we urge the Romanian government to take firm and immediate action to protect women and girls from violence and to uphold commitments made within the European Union,’ the associations stated.

The petition launched on Monday aims to gather 3,000 signatures.By the time this article was published, 535 people had signed it.