Luxembourg Government Presents Strategy to Protect Domestic Violence Victims

On Friday 12 November 2021, Luxembourg's Ministry of Equality between Women and Men, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Internal Security presented the government strategy to strengthen protection against domestic violence in the Grand Duchy.

In November 2019, the respective ministers set up an interministerial working group on the subject of domestic violence, under the coordination of the Ministry for Equality between Women and Men, to bring together the public institutions and departments directly involved in order to discuss the means of adapting the current system. The group also focused on the avenues envisaged abroad and their potential application in Luxembourg.

Luxembourg's Minister for Equality between Women and Men, Taina Bofferding, emphasised that “domestic violence is a phenomenon which is very widespread in our society. It concerns all communities living in our country and all social backgrounds. Although we have a well-developed aid and assistance system based, among other things, on the 2003 law on domestic violence, the Luxembourg government has the ambition to improve and complete the measures in place and to define concerted actions within the framework of a global strategy”.

The Minister of Internal Security, Henri Kox, added that "it is essential to prevent as best as possible the phenomenon of domestic violence which is constantly evolving and which, because of its complexity, presents itself in different ways. The Grand Ducal Police play an important role in this prevention. Strengthening its workforce as well as improving the intervention measures in place thus become elementary in combating the phenomenon at its root”.

Ministers Bofferding and Kox, together with Luxembourg's Minister of Justice, Sam Tanson, explained that the strategy consists of measures and actions that will be implemented in the short, medium and long term by the three ministries.

For its part, the Equality Ministry will take the following actions: adapt the amended law of 8 September 2003 on domestic violence to make the psychological follow-up of perpetrators compulsory by the Riicht Eraus help service for perpetrators of domestic violence; create a second support service for victims of domestic violence on the basis of the aforementioned amended law; intensify information, awareness and prevention of domestic violence; revise the website www.violence.lu, making it more focused on the aid and assistance needs of victims and perpetrators as well as witnesses of domestic violence; provide better information on the various key players and their work; propose innovative projects, such as preventive theatre, to raise awareness and inform the public; extend training on domestic violence to other actors and organisations not contracted with the ministry; develop the Equality Observatory, the first part of which concerns domestic violence, in order to provide a more reliable and complete picture of the scope of domestic violence in Luxembourg; establish an emergency procedure bringing together key actors and institutions for domestic violence cases with a particularly high degree of acuity and dangerousness.

Moreover, Justice Minister Sam Tanson presented a series of measures aimed at supplementing the system currently in place in the fight against domestic violence. In particular, it is provided that the victim will be able to complete a form, issued by the police and on the instruction of the public prosecutor's office, giving instructions to be informed of the perpetrator's release from prison. This service will be offered free of charge by the victim assistance service of the public prosecutor's office. In addition, the "Infodroit" file, intended for victims and distributed by the police, will be equipped with a QR code, which will direct the victim to information on their rights and the various assistance services offered, depending on the offence committed.

The inclusion of discriminatory motivation among the aggravating circumstances in the Penal Code for hate crimes, in particular because of the sex of the victim, is being analysed. On the recommendation of the interministerial working group, Justice Ministry will also update the Penal Code by including provisions penalising new forms of cyber-violence. 

Electronic bracelets will be gradually introduced in the fight against domestic violence. Minister Tanson explained: “The use of the electronic bracelet will fulfill two missions. The main idea is to guarantee the protection of victims, it is both a preventive and dissuasive measure in order to prevent the situation from escalating. The victim will feel more secure and can more easily begin their process of resilience and reconstruction. Wearing a mobile electronic bracelet is intended to prevent perpetrators from reoffending at first, while allowing them to continue working and providing material for their families, which is all the more important when children are involved. It is also planned to make psychological follow-up compulsory in order to help perpetrators to change their aggressive behavior and thus contribute to their rehabilitation”.

Placement under fixed electronic surveillance already exists in terms of the execution of sentences. However, the use of the mobile electronic bracelet will make it possible to geo-locate perpetrators and alert victims in the event of reconciliation. This additional means of control is expected to complement the domestic violence system already in place. There are no plans to systematise this geo-location device, rather to reserve it for suitable cases.

The Minister of Justice and the Minister of Internal Security have decided by mutual agreement to extend the monitoring system in place, conditioned upstream by the essential establishment of a specialised psychological unit, which will be used for expert appraisals by the judicial authorities, among other things.

Regarding the role of the Ministry of Internal Security, as mentioned above, a psychological unit specialising in the phenomenon of domestic violence will be set up in the medium term within the Grand Ducal Police. This unit will be made up of personnel from the police force specifically trained in the matter, as well as personnel from the civilian framework, including psychologists and social workers. The prerequisite for setting up this specialised unit is to continue to attract and recruit diverse profiles within the Grand Ducal Police, adapted to accomplish these new tasks. The first phase of the 2020-22 recruitment plan has already made it possible to recruit corresponding profiles.

The three ministers reiterated that the fight against domestic violence remains a priority for the Luxembourg government.