“It’s a good sign” to generalize the possibility of filing a complaint at the hospital by the end of 2025, welcomes a lawyer

Maître Michelle Dayan welcomes an “easier” system for victims but insists on the need to devote resources to it.

“It is a good sign which is sent on the eve of the Day to Combat Violence Against Women, it has already existed for a while, but it must be generalized”reacts Sunday November 24 on franceinfo Michelle Dayan, lawyer specializing in family law, president of the Lawyers for Women association, while the government announces the generalization of the system which allows women victims of domestic violence to file a complaint in each hospital equipped with an emergency service or a gynecological service by the end of 2025.

“What is interesting is that the complaint goes to the woman and not that the woman goes to the complaint. Traveling, going to the police station, entering the door of a law firm is always difficult. Being able to file complaint where they are because they have no choice while they are in the hospital. We are where they are, it is the law that comes to them because they find it so difficult to go. towards the law”she greets.

In hospitals where the system already exists, “It's easier because there is at least this kind of apprehension about going to the police. They are often afraid of not being believed, of putting their fingers in a trap thinking that their husband is going to go in prison, in reality it rarely happens that a man goes to prison, when he bangs his wife for the first time”laments Michelle Dayan. “At the hospital, they feel safe, it is the place of health, of care. It is a judicial police officer who can, under these conditions, collect their complaints, they feel safe, in trust, it's something they do for themselves and not against each other”explains the lawyer.

This generalization will require resources, specialized officers will be needed to travel to hospitals, while“We already have a staggering stock of untreated complaints. We will need means so that it is not just announcement effects, we will need real means of a public policy that we want to carry out”insists Michelle Dayan. “We will also need resources at the level of justice, we must recruit more prosecutors and create specialized prosecutors who do just that,” she pleads.