When intimate partner violence becomes femicide

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When intimate partner violence becomes femicide

A socio-legal analysis of the Romanian legal framework in light of the Istanbul Convention

Author: Anamaria Tunduc

Spring Semester 2020 Thesis in Law (15 hp)

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Abstract

Violence against women is a worldwide phenomenon that is mostly found in the private sphere, yet, laws from the public sphere can work towards the ultimate goal of eliminating gender-based violence. This research paper is conducted through a socio-legal analysis from a feminist perspective on the issue of femicide as the most extreme consequence of intimate partner violence in Romania, as this country has the one of the highest rates of femicide cases across Europe. The analysis is done in relation to Romania’s ratification of Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention in 2016, and it aims to examine the way the country adapted its legal framework to comply with the provisions of Convention. At the same time, it analyses the way femicide is addressed from a socio-legal perspective.

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Abbreviations

EU

GREVIO

Istanbul Convention

European Union

Group of Experts on Action Against Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence

Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence

ANES National Agency for Equal Opportunities

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INTRODUCTION

“Each femicide should be carefully examined to identify any failure of protection, with a view to improving and further developing preventive measures. In addition, a “Femicide watch” by its mere existence would increase awareness about femicide and other forms of gender-based violence against women and galvanise actions for its prevention. State should increase their efforts to use all available global and regional women’s human rights instruments and experts’ mechanisms to put in place effective systems to prevent and end femicide and gender-based violence against women and girls.”

Dubravka Šimonović, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences

Background information

Violence against women is not at all a new phenomenon. Nonetheless, it is a major societal issue that, contrary to beliefs, affects women regardless of age, race and ethnicity in all countries around the world, and which takes place mostly in the private sphere. It is a “global, systemic” phenomenon characterized by “power imbalances and structural inequalities between men and women” (UNODC, 2011, p. 57). Violence against women is a structural phenomenon of gender inequality. It is a subject of interest not only from a human rights or gender violence perspective, but also from a social, legal and cultural one, or even as a public health related matter.

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to femicide/feminicide, generally defined as the intentional killing of females based on their gender, making this a woman-centred social problem. It is estimated that seven women die daily because of male domestic violence (PES, 2014), and despite Europe having the lowest rate of femicides compared to the rest of the world, the numbers are still staggering.

Since it is believed that many of the problems faced by women are caused by social, economic, cultural and political contexts, hence, “the personal is political” (Hanisch, 2006, p. 1), it is needless to say that demanding actions and solutions at a policy level has been the obvious next step in order to hold the perpetrators accountable. Therefore, given these circumstances, the Council of Europe paved the way in 2011 with the first regional preventive and legally binding instrument, the Convention on preventing and combating violence against

women and domestic violence, otherwise known as the Istanbul Convention, which interprets

violence against women as a violation of human rights and through which several forms of violence against women are defined and criminalised. In relation to this, the ratifying countries adapted their gender-neutral or even male-centred national legislation to one including the concept of gender-based violence.

It has been said that the measures taken to end violence need statistical evidence that shows whether violence is increasing or decreasing in order to prove their effectiveness (Walby, et al., 2017, p. 17). Despite the implementation of legal frameworks and the efforts made to eliminate violence against women, the available statistics show that there is a significant and continuously increasing rate of cases of violence against women across Europe. Consequently, femicide is one of the most precarious acts of violence that women can experience.

At the time of writing, the global pandemic of COVID-19 has affected most of the population of the world, with almost half being under lockdown. In the context of strict confinement rules imposed by governments and according to currently emerging data, this appears to have resulted in increased levels of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence (CoE, 2020), which in turn makes this an issue of greater concern.

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country with the highest number of female deaths in Europe, Romania has the highest percentage of femicides. In this country, there is a rate of 4.3 intentional homicide victims committed by an intimate partner or a spouse per million inhabitants (Eurostat, 2020; Blunt, 2019).

With Romania’s ratification and entry into force of the Istanbul Convention, it would be of wide interest to analyse Romania’s legal developments in relation to the Convention, but also to address the gender inequality and social aspects that lead to femicide from a feminist perspective.

Aim and Research questions

The main aim of this research paper is to examine from a feminist socio-legal perspective how the problem of violence against women, more specifically the issue of femicide as a consequence of intimate partner violence, has been addressed by the legal framework in Europe to begin with and subsequently, in Romania. The analysis will be done in relation to the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, hereafter the Istanbul Convention or the Convention. It is

necessary to shed light and to raise awareness, especially now in light of the current pandemic, about domestic violence no matter the forms it takes and to look at whether it can be prevented or not through legal measures. It is equally important to keep in mind, however, that intimate partner violence is one of the most prevalent forms of violence against women, which is a matter often perceived as invisible, and that femicide is the most extreme form of intimate partner violence.

In order to achieve the aims of this research paper, the following research questions should be answered:

• How does the legal framework fulfil its role in protecting women against gendered violence in Romania in light of the Istanbul Convention?

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By examining the above-mentioned issues which lead to answering the research questions, this paper seeks to address a more comprehensive view on the effects of the legislative measures linked to the Istanbul Convention and also to raise awareness about the invisibility of femicide in society since there is little discussion and research done on this matter from a socio-legal and gender perspective in a Romanian context.

Definitions and Limitations

Domestic violence is primarily described as a form of gender-based violence and it is defined by the Istanbul Convention as “all acts of physical, sexual, psychological, or economic violence that occur within the family or domestic unit or between former or current spouses or partners, whether or not the perpetrator shares or has shared the same residence with the victim” (Art. 3, b).

According to the World Health Organisation, intimate partner violence is defined as the “behaviour within an intimate relationship that causes physical, sexual or psychological harm, including acts of physical aggression, sexual coercion, physiological abuse and controlling behaviours. This definition covers violence by both current and former spouses and partners” (WHO).

As it can be observed, both the definitions of domestic violence and intimate partner violence are very similar. Therefore, the terms are to be used interchangeably throughout this research paper. However, it is important to note that the terms used to define the above-mentioned issues are gender neutral from a linguistic point of view. Nevertheless, the Istanbul Convention further defines violence against women, as well as gender-based violence against women, therefore, highlighting the gender dimension of the problem.

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Method and materials

As previously mentioned, this research paper aims to follow a socio-legal approach from a feminist perspective in order to address its aims and research questions. To begin with, socio-legal research saw its development as “the study of the law in its social context”, among others (Feenan, 2013, p. 4). Therefore, since the main purpose is to examine intimate partner violence through law, the main legal point of interest in this paper is represented by the Istanbul Convention and the effects following its implementation in Romania.

While the socio of the socio-legal generally represents “an interface with a context within which law exists” (idem, p. 5) there is a part where this law deals with women’s experiences of gendered lives (Hunter, 2013, p. 205). Under such circumstances, the feminist socio-legal thought emphasizes “the gendered nature of the socio” (idem). For the purpose of this paper and in line with a feminist, gendered socio-legal approach, intimate partner violence and femicide are to be considered the gendered socio. In order to approach this issue, feminist socio-legal theory will be used.

By using the law-in-context approach, which will allow an analysis of “legal rules in their social context and enable an understanding to be developed of how legal rules worked” (Feenan, 2013, p. 7) the goal is to show how the Istanbul Convention has been enacted in the Romanian socio-legal context.

In pursuing its goals, this research paper will make use of both primary and secondary sources. As previously noted, the Istanbul Convention plays a key role in the legal analysis that is conducted together with other traditional sources of law, such as the appropriate criminal provisions of the Romanian Penal Code and other Romanian legislative texts related to domestic violence. These sources have been acquired from the official websites of the concerned institutions. To highlight the problems posed by intimate partner violence and subsequently femicide and to present the various perspectives on the matter, secondary sources have been represented by scholarly texts and expert reports, among others. These have been consulted mainly through online access to Umeå University’s library, as well as other institutions’ websites.

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THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

To begin with, feminism may be broadly defined as an effort directed at challenging and changing existing power and gender relations between men and women in society (Ferree & McClurg Mueller, 2004, p. 577; Weedon, 1987, p. 1). On the other hand, intimate partner violence is a phenomenon that brings the attention to the interdisciplinary nature of feminist thought (Levit & Verchick, 2016, p. 204). The need for understanding why domestic violence occurs and what are its consequences on the society gave rise to feminist explanations that use concepts of patriarchy, gender, and power. Feminist insights on violence against women provide a theoretical basis for this research paper.

A basic feminist theory

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women, in a context where the criminal justice system enforces light sanctions against perpetrators, but also “the refusal of the state to intervene effectively in terms of welfare provision and criminal justice responses to support women is part of the problem” (Wendt & Zannettino, 2014). It is nonetheless important to mention that while using the patriarchal concept, feminists avoid blaming the female victim and do not focus on whether she provoked or not men’s acts of violence.

Feminist legal theory

Feminist legal theory developed from (the basic) feminism in general and it highlights “the role of law in describing society and in prescribing change” (Levit & Verchick, 2016, p. 9).

Dominance theory, otherwise known as radical feminism, a part of feminist legal theory, was first introduced by Catharine MacKinnon. It aims at the liberation from men by focusing on the power relations and power difference between women and men. According to this theory, men are privileged by the social institutions and the women are subordinated. Women fear violence against them. Law is complicit in portraying women as inferior and at the same time, it provides inadequate responses to violence against women while reinforcing male domination (idem, p. 20-21). According to MacKinnon, male violence against women reflects inequality and women’s subordination. Additionally, she claims that law fails to address the conditions that contribute to male violence (Weisberg, 1996, p. 282).

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Socio-legal feminist theory

Turning to a socio-legal feminist theory, it is important to mention that socio-legal theorists are equally interested in the social experience and effects of law as the feminist legal researchers. Yet, one major concern was the lack of a connection between women’s experiences and law. Thus, from a socio-legal perspective, this had to be tackled.

One the one hand, feminist theory of international law points out that, similarly to all legal systems, the human rights system and the international criminal law are created primarily by men. This resulted in protecting humans from violations which predominantly men are likely to suffer from and therefore, gender-based violence against women was not a relevant issue (Gebhard, 2018, p. 172). Thus, it can be said that “legal gender-blindness disadvantages women” (Hunter, 2013, p. 210) since laws don’t address their experiences. On the other hand, introducing a gender dimension into a legal discourse would result in the “constitution of subjects and of the social” (idem, p. 211). Furthermore, the feminist approach to socio-legal studies focuses on the implications of gendered power relations in law and society (Hunter, 2020, p. 260). In relation to all this, feminist socio-legal and criminological researchers demanded reforms in the legislative context of gendered violence, for example, homicide and laws criminalising violence against women, as it was considered that the legal system is the best way to accommodate women’s experiences in relation to men’s acts of violence. Despite the fact that the effectiveness of legal measures is highly contested, “recourse to the law remains one of the central planks of policy responses” on preventing violence against women (Walklate, Fitz-Gibbon, & McCulloch, 2018, p. 116).

The concept of femicide

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The current use of term femicide emerged in the feminist discourse of the 1970s. To begin with, femicide was considered to be “the misogynous killing of women by men” (Radford & Russell, 1992, p. 3). This has later been adapted to “the killing of females by males because they are females” in order to emphasize the inequality of gender relations and the concept of male power and domination over women (PATH, MRC, WHO, & Intercambios, 2008, pp. 8-9). Throughout time, feminist scholars have defined the concept of femicide in various ways, yet today’s commonly accepted definition asserts that it involves the “intentional murder of women because they are women” (WHO & PAHO, 2012). While the term femicide is not a legal one, it is steadily being introduced into the social and legal discourse on violence against women, and its use and understanding have been narrowed down to be a gender-related, intentional killing of women. Despite the emerging use of the term femicide at European level, for the scope of this paper, it has to be mentioned that femicide (femicid) does not exist in Romanian language as a term of itself, although it has been used in academic research and other studies.

From a legal perspective, femicide is a phenomenon part of homicide investigations where the use of the term murder, as well as the use of the legal term homicide are gender neutral, therefore, making invisible the gender-related characteristics of femicide as a social and legal phenomenon concerning women. In other words, from a neutral perspective, femicide means homicide of a female while highlighting the gender of the victim without implying any motive or context. On the contrary, from a political perspective, the use of the term femicide implies the motivations behind the killing as being related to the victim’s gender. Currently, the term is generally used when describing the intentional killing of a woman, regardless of the relationship with the perpetrator.

The introduction of the gender dimension in the intimate partner violence discussion and highlighting the fact that women are killed because they belong to a specific gender category is a necessary step in the efforts to eliminate this phenomenon. This is because, according to patriarchal terms, it means allowing to see the woman as inferior, and therefore, killing a woman would be an acceptable situation.

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called for the full compliance with national and international legal instruments of countries in order to put an end to femicide (Laurent, Platzer, & Idomir, 2013, p. 4).

Femicide typically happens both in intimate partner relationships and domestic relationships. It is true that the social, cultural and economic context, the pattern of gender-based violence in a specific community or country can be used to explain why femicides take place. However, although some might argue that femicides need to be addressed in their own specific contexts it is important that they are not treated as isolated incidents.

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ANALYSIS

The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence

Throughout the years, several measures were undertaken in order to protect women from violence across Europe. One of these measures is the Council of Europe Convention on

preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, hereafter the Istanbul Convention, that was open for signature on 11 May 2011 and which entered into force

on 1 August 2014. As its name says, this treaty aims at protecting women from violence in both the public and private sphere (Art. 4, para.1) preventing and prosecuting acts of violence against them, while ultimately eliminating this phenomenon through a human rights-based approach (CoE, 2011, p. 6). Once all the European Union member states give their approval, the EU can ratify the Istanbul Convention, and this will become EU law.

The Istanbul Convention acknowledges that all forms of violence affect women disproportionately. At the same time, it understands violence against women as a structural phenomenon and “a manifestation of historically unequal power relations between women and men”, which is in line with the feminist thought on patriarchy and gender inequality. The Istanbul Convention also emphasizes the gender dimension by using a dual focus on women and on domestic violence (Walby, et al., 2017, p. 24).

In order to monitor the effective enactment of the Istanbul Convention by the signatory states, an independent expert body was created. The Group of experts on action against violence against women and domestic violence, hereafter GREVIO, is responsible for monitoring, issuing reports as well as recommendations regarding the legislative measures taken by the signatory parties (Chapter IX).

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Convention does not refer to femicide, nor does it use this term in its content. Although, by making reference to criminalising acts of physical (Art. 35) and psychological (Art. 33) violence intentionally committed against a person, it can be implied that, domestic violence in general, and femicide (as per definition) as a form of intimate partner violence are addressed by the Convention.

Considering that this research paper undertakes a socio-legal analysis, looking into substantive law is the most apposite choice since it rules the way people in a society are to behave (Legal Dictionary, n.d.). At the same time, criminal law provisions are necessary in order to achieve the effective prosecution and punishment of the perpetrators and to protect women. For this reason, one of the steps is to conduct a legal analysis of the substantive provisions related to criminalising gender-based violence against women, intimate partner violence and thus, femicide, where the relevant provisions of the Istanbul Convention state that:

“Article 35 – Physical violence

Parties shall take the necessary legislative or other measures to ensure that the intentional conduct of committing acts of physical violence against another person is criminalised.

Article 46 – Aggravating circumstances

Parties shall take the necessary legislative or other measures to ensure that the following circumstances, insofar as they do not already form part of the constituent elements of the offence, may, in conformity with the relevant provisions of internal law, be taken into consideration as aggravating circumstances in the determination of the sentence in relation to the offences established in accordance with this Convention:

a. the offence was committed against a former or current spouse or partner as recognised by internal law, by a member of the family, a person cohabiting with the victim or a person having abused her or his authority;

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c. the offence was committed against a person made vulnerable by particular circumstances;

d. the offence was committed against or in the presence of a child; e. the offence was committed by two or more people acting together; f. the offence was preceded or accompanied by extreme levels of violence; g. the offence was committed with the use or threat of a weapon;

h. the offence resulted in severe physical or psychological harm for the victim i. the perpetrator had previously been convicted of offences of a similar nature.”

As it can be observed, the above-mentioned criminal law provisions of the Convention are introduced in a gender-neutral way. In other words, neither the sex of the victim nor of the perpetrator should be an essential element of the crime and this should not hinder the introduction of gender-specific provisions by the signatory countries (CoE, 2011, p. 28).

The Explanatory Report of the Istanbul Convention highlights the fact that physical violence encompasses violence resulting in the death of the victim (idem, p. 32), thus, such a provision is extremely important as it can be applied to femicide as the intentional killing of a woman. Through Article 46 and the mentioned circumstances (a – i) it is reinforced that in establishing the penalty these circumstances can be considered as aggravating, however, they are not compulsory to be taken into account in the context of a court case. Nonetheless, in case of intimate partner violence and femicide, the first of the aggravating circumstances covers the various circumstances of the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator, for example, as former or current marital or non-marital partner, but also as family member, regardless of the household cohabiting conditions (idem, p. 40).

Furthermore, under certain circumstances, the addition of the Article 42 of the Convention can prove valuable. This is due to the fact that its provisions state that “any of the acts of violence covered by the scope of this Convention, culture, custom, religion, tradition, or so-called ‘honour’ shall not be regarded as justification for such acts”. This means that these elements cannot be used as a justification for the perpetrator’s behaviour in the case of a criminal offence, such as violence against women.

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immediate protection to the victims, and even restraining and protection orders in order to protect the victims from further violence. This is illustrated as following:

“Article 53 – Restraining or protection orders

1. Parties shall take the necessary legislative or other measures to ensure that appropriate restraining or protection orders are available to victims of all forms of violence covered by the scope of this Convention.

2. Parties shall take the necessary legislative or other measures to ensure that the restraining or protection orders referred to in paragraph 1 are:

- available for immediate protection and without undue financial or administrative burdens placed on the victim;

- issued for a specified period or until modified or discharged;

- where necessary, issued on an ex parte basis which has immediate effect; - available irrespective of, or in addition to, other legal proceedings; - allowed to be introduced in subsequent legal proceedings.

3. Parties shall take the necessary legislative or other measures to ensure that breaches of restraining or protection orders issued pursuant to paragraph 1 shall be subject to effective, proportionate and dissuasive criminal or other legal sanctions.”

As it can be observed, the main role of the restraining or protection order is to prevent immediate and further acts of violence, with the overall aim to protect the victim. Each signatory country can choose the appropriate legal regime to issue such orders (CoE, 2011, p.45).

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data-collection on the number of femicide cases could sensitize the society on the issue of domestic violence as well as contributing to policy changes, for example.

There is no doubt that requiring member states to create national legal tools through substantive and procedural provisions, to offer protection and to make efforts to prevent violence against women from happening, the Istanbul Convention aims to protect women from all forms of violence. However, the main question is, if and how are the signatory countries implementing all the legal and social measures in order to protect women from intimate partner violence and consequently, femicide, since the Convention has been criticised for its criminal law provisions as they “do not succeed in challenging national criminal laws” (Niemi, Peroni, & Stoyanova, 2020).

The Romanian Legal Framework in relation to the Istanbul Convention

Romania is the 14th_{state that ratified the Istanbul Convention and the document entered}

into force on 1 September 2016. Since then, according to Romania's Government first report

on the implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention) the country “embarked

on an ambitious and comprehensive reform of domestic violence legislation” in order to implement the Convention’s provisions (2020, p. 1). In other words, the country has to comply with taking all the necessary measures imposed by the Covention so as to respond to the problem of gender-bassed violence and domestic violence.

First and foremost, the concept of gender equality is recognised as a principle of human rights through the Constitution of Romania.

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the most important measures taken by the Romanian Parliament with regard to preventing and combating domestic violence are the following legislative acts that have recently been updated:

• Law no. 174/2018 amending and supplementing Law No. 217/2003 on Preventing and

combating violence within the family, which introduces a victim-centred perspective

and additional measures to prevent domestic violence and to support victims that suffer from domestic violence, for example, the protection order. At the same time, this law brings modifications regarding the unacceptable justification of criminal acts, which brings it in line with Article 42 of the Istanbul Convention.

• Law no. 178/2018 amending and supplementing Law 202/2002 on Equal opportunities

and treatment between women and men, otherwise known as the Gender Equality Law,

in which the most important aspect is the one regulating the concept of gender-based violence against women, or men, depending on the situation, according to Article 3, d of the Istanbul Convention (ANES).

Initially, The Romanian Penal Code was amended by Law no. 197/2000 that was setting sanctions for perpetrators of acts of violence against family members that cause physical and psychological suffering. Later on, the Penal Code was amended by Law no. 286/2009 that brought the following changes in the Special part:

Title I – Crime against individuals, Chapter III – Offenses against a family member

Article 199 Domestic violence1

(1) If the acts set by Art. 188, Art. 189, and Art. 193-195 are perpetrated against a family member, the special maximum term of the penalty set by law shall be increased by one fourth.

(2) In case of offenses set by Art. 193 and Art. 196 perpetrated against a family member, a criminal action may be initiated also ex officio. Reconciliation shall eliminate criminal liability.

1_{The version in English of the articles may differ depending on the various unofficial published translations of}

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On the one hand, Art. 188 refers to homicide/murder and the perpetrator’s punishment with imprisonment, while Art. 189 establishes a different punishment under certain circumstances of an aggravated first degree (qualified) murder. On the other hand, through the Art. 193-195 battery and other acts of violence, bodily injury and death-causing battery or injuries are being punished.

As it can be observed, there is a higher punishment in the case of some of the offenses in the Criminal Code depending on the nature of the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator. Therefore, the provisions of the Romanian Criminal Code regarding domestic violence are in line with the Article 46 of the Istanbul Convention that mentions the aggravating circumstances.

With regard to other substantive provisions of the Istanbul Convention, the Criminal Code of Romania recognizes all the forms of violence referred to in the Convention as criminal offences, with the addition of the domestic violence definition in the Law no. 217/2003 as following:

“Article 3

domestic violence refers to any action or omission to act intended by physical, sexual, psychological, economic, social or spiritual violence, which occurs in the family or domestic environment or between spouses or former spouses, as well as between current or former partners, regardless of whether the aggressor lives with or lived with the victim.”

Through the introduction of this definition into the Romanian law, despite the fact that intimate partner violence is not recognised as a specific offence other than domestic violence, and since femicide does not exist as term nor it is a criminal offence recognised by law, in connection with the recognition of a gender-related motive for committing a crime, this has been a major step in creating the legal context for prosecuting male perpetrators who kill women.

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property of one of the partners, thus back then a criminal complaint against the abusive partner would only give her the option to return under the same roof as the perpetrator or leave with the risk of being found and abused again (Sandu, 2019). In 2011, Romania was the only remaining country of the EU not to have implemented the protection order. After a series of protests and unfortunate events of femicide, the discussion on the protection orders resurfaced. It was only in 2012 that the Law no.217/2003 was amended with the mention of a protection order. With the ratification of the Istanbul Convention, the same Law no. 217/2003 was amended in 2018, by regulating the provisional protection order, therefore, giving immediate rights to the Police to act upon the complaint depending on certain circumstances.

The protection order is of course not the only legal instrument to protect victims, but it is the most visible one, and in the Romanian context it could be considered a successful effect of the Istanbul Convention.

According to statistical data from the justice sector on the victims of family violence for 2018, there is a total of 1647 victims and 1360 indicted defendants of various domestic violence offences, from which 207 are murdered victims and 199 indicted defendants as per Article 188 and Article 189 of the Criminal Code. The total numbers have slightly decreased compared to 2017, when there was a number of 213 murdered victims and 206 indicted defendants (Public Ministry). At the same time, Police statistics for 2019, show an increased number of 244 cases that ended up in murder. It is important to add that these number do not indicate the sex of the victim and of the perpetrator or the relationship between them. On the downside, Romania does not provide data on women victims of intentional homicide by an intimate partner or family member (EIGE, 2019). The only statistical data with public access are general, as seen above, and provided by the Public Ministry. Although there is available collected data by the Police and the justice sector that records the sex of the victim and the perpetrator, as well as their relationship, this is available only upon official request (EIGE, 2018).

It is needless to say that the lack of in-depth national statistical data regarding domestic violence, victims and perpetrators and thus, femicide, hinders the capacity to get a real and comprehensive understanding of these phenomena. Through the Romanian National Strategy

for the Promotion of Equal Opportunities and Treatment for Women and Men and Preventing and Combating Domestic Violence for the Period 2018-2021 the country commits to launching

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strengthening the legislative framework, developing support and protection measures for victims, as well as preventing domestic violence overall.

In order to implement the National Strategy and oversee the execution of a gender equal perspective in all national policies and programmes, a government institution was given this responsibility.

The National Agency for Equal Opportunities between Women and Men (Agenția Națională pentru Egalitatea de Șanse între Femei și Bărbați) created in 2002 was re-transformed into an Agency in 2015 after having previously been downgraded into a Government Department for Equal Opportunities between Women and Men due to the economic crisis. Its responsibilities consist of developing and applying policies related to equal opportunities between women and men, developing the legal framework in accordance to international conventions, ensuring the integration and implementation of a gender perspective in the national policies, and of course, fighting domestic violence among others (Law no. 202/2002). Despite its responsibilities according to law, unfortunately, ANES is considered to be “a decorative institution” that has little competence to enhance the implementation of the public policies related to domestic violence and gender equality (Ionescu, 2020, p. 59). Its role can undoubtedly be questioned in a context where research show that “almost half of Romania’s population is not aware of the existence of a legal instrument that regulates domestic violence” (Safta, Stan, Iurea, & Suditu, 2010, p. 2035).

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DISCUSSION

Since this research paper aims to conduct a feminist socio-legal discussion, it is essential to underline the need of a social framework “in order to gain a full understanding of both the facts and the law” (Hunter, 2020, p. 265). For this reason, a short insight into the Romanian social context must be taken into account.

Following the fall of communism 30 years ago, it is said that in Romania, “from a liberal point of view, the personal was never political for women” and that women’s inequality is justified “by nature” (Miroiu, 2006, p. 84). Gender equality remains to this day a somewhat alien concept in practice for the majority of the country’s population despite having had implemented gender equality related legislation “on paper”, over the span of time. The explanation for this social reality of gender inequality is based on the traditional and patriarchal cultural norms that are deeply entrenched in people’s way of living and behaving in Romania (Oprica, 2008, p. 29) and where both women and men still believe in the folkloric expression that “beating comes from heaven” (Roman, 2001, p. 58).

It is frequently said that intimate partner violence, or domestic violence in no matter the form it takes, have their roots embedded in the social and cultural beliefs about gender roles and that they are supported by the patriarchal ideology and practices. It seems that the social and cultural acceptance of domestic violence is prevalent worldwide (Wimmer & Harrington, 2008, p. 625). Romania is no exception.

The general gender based violence discourse “affirms that men are violent towards women intentionally for the sake of controlling and re-establishing male superiority against women’s violation of patriarchal gender norms, and that this behaviour is culturally encouraged or accepted” (Bandelli, 2017, pp. 52-53). Similarly, a gender discourse of violence claims that men kill women for the same reasons that induce them to commit other forms of violence, such as rape. This is justified once again by the support from their culture to express control over women (Bandelli & Porcelli, 2016, p. 1076).

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causes, and more on the ineffectiveness of the protection measures for victims of domestic violence. This is most prevalent in cases where the authorities, police for example, know about the history of violence against women who are later killed by their aggressors (Sandu, 2019). Domestic violence, in general, in Romania, is a phenomenon that is under-reported and because of this, there are many more chances of it leading to femicide, the intentional killing of a woman. It is well known that intimate partners are the most frequent perpetrators. “Intentional” in the case of a violent crime usually means that “the victim was targeted by the perpetrator either in the heat of the moment or as a result of some degree of planning”, whereas in the case of femicide, “there can be a more narrowly targeted meaning” (Walby, et al., 2017, p. 64).

As previously mentioned, the law is thought to be the means to resolve social problems, while, it is also acknowledged that the more women resort to law, the more hostility is generated. Clearly, the criminalisation of violent behaviour and acts of violence against women is sending a strong message about what is acceptable or not, yet, an important role that prevents women from reporting violence against them is played by shame, humiliation and fear. If the lack of a protection order used to be a problem in the Romanian legal context, as previously mentioned, after its introduction, the problem that arose was the withdrawal of the criminal complaint by the victim. On the one hand, this is a consequence of threats from the perpetrator, which aim to provoke fear in most cases. For this reason, it is important to keep in mind that lethal acts of violence against women in intimate relationships are usually preceded by ongoing verbal and emotional abuse, acts of physical violence and threats, which could be prevented with the right measures. Another reason could be simply blamed on the economic factors that would not allow women to carry on with a criminal case. On the other hand, the issue concerns the lack of trust in the responsible authorities to protect victims from domestic violence. Women seem not to be believed and listened to, or even judged by the same authorities that should help them (Sandu, 2019).

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CONCLUSIONS

Undoubtedly, violence against women is gender-based violence and a human rights violation and it is a widespread phenomenon, or as it has recently been called, “a widespread pandemic without borders” (Simonovic, 2020). Therefore, first and foremost, having conducted this research, it can be concluded that violence against women, regardless of the forms it takes, is indeed a complex socio-legal phenomenon that requires a multidimensional approach.

It is also needless to say that violence against women has deep consequences for society at large and that victims of gender-based violence suffer lifelong consequences from intimate partner violence. For this reason, it is of outmost importance to address this woman centred social problem of intimate partner violence, and subsequently, femicide, that is generally looked at from a male-centric perspective of the law.

Thanks to (feminist) legal measures, femicide is increasingly being perceived not only as a social problem, but also as major problem in legal terms. It has been discussed that a successful prevention of violence against women and femicide could be achieved through legal measures and equality between women and men in society. However, can the social context predict if an individual will kill? Most probably not. But together with the legal framework, the right measures and by raising awareness on this major social problem, this phenomenon can be prevented, if not, at least women can be protected from suffering further violence caused by an intimate partner.

This research paper began from a need to understand how Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention is enacted in a specific socio-cultural context. This context was represented by Romania.

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recommendations will be as it plans to carry out an evaluation in the Autumn of 2020 “in order to assess the situation of the ground” (GREVIO, 2020). There is of course room for improvement, and although a proper intimate partner violence analysis is incomplete due to the lack of a systematic data collection, it is important to understand that improvements in data collection are absolutely necessary in order to better address this issue.

This brings into discussion the second question to be answered, which was related to how femicide is placed and addressed in a socio-legal context/perspective. Despite the current lack of relevant data on the exact numbers of femicide cases in Romania, it can be acknowledged that femicide is nevertheless a serious problem. Unfortunately, Romanian patriarchal cultural norms and the lack of appropriate education contribute to propagating violence against women, including intimate partner violence, among others. Due to the former communist background of the country, once its fall happened, people found themselves with other major problems to focus on rather than gender equality, thus, gender inequalities can be found in all social, economic and legal structures of society. Obviously, if also the authorities have a prejudiced and stereotyped perspective on female victims of intimate partner violence, the law will not be able to improve the problem.

Despite the fact that from a feminist perspective it could be argued that working towards achieving gender equality would decrease femicide rates as men would lose control over women, conversely, it is said that “laws intended mainly to protect women from abuse seem to expose them to a greater risk of lethal violence” (Gauthier & Bankston, 2004, p. 116). Although, intimate partner violence and femicide are acts of violence that occur within the home and family context, thus a private context, and since they are challenging issues to solve, it is essential to allow the public context, in this case the law, to at least contain the problem, if not solve it.

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When intimate partner violence becomes femicide