📋 Tender Overview
The legislative bill amending the Civil Code and other laws in connection with combating domestic violence was prepared by the Office of the Government in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice. We are thus fulfilling another point of the Programme Statement, according to which the system of protection against domestic violence and assistance to its victims should be improved.
The intention of the bill is to improve the existing legal framework for dealing with domestic violence, which is perceived as a society-wide and pathological phenomenon. Every year, the Police of the Czech Republic registers approximately 500 cases of the crime of abuse of a person living in a shared dwelling, over 70 murders motivated by personal relationships and more than 700 cases of rape. Every year, child welfare authorities deal with approximately 2,500 cases of domestic violence in families where children are growing up. Every year, over 1,200 violent people are evicted from their homes because of domestic violence. Due to the high latency rate of domestic violence, these administrative data form only a very small segment of the actual number of domestic violence cases.
Bill to amend the Civil Code and other laws in connection with combating domestic violence:
1) The legal definition of domestic violence is enshrined in the Civil Code.
2) An explicit and unambiguous definition is a necessary precondition for unifying the approach of the relevant actors involved in helping victims and combating domestic violence,
a) the obligation to reflect past or ongoing domestic violence in the settlement of the joint property of spouses is proposed,
b) the period of expulsion is extended from 10 to 14 days and, in order to ensure the maximum level of protection for victims of domestic violence, it is proposed to establish the obligation of the police officer to take other appropriate measures to protect the endangered person, in particular to ensure that the weapon is issued or taken away by the expelled person,
c) It is proposed to extend the prohibition of mediation to cases where the aggressor's conduct is the subject of an investigation and procedure by law enforcement authorities or where the aggressor's misdemeanour is being charged.
3) The submitted proposal includes other follow-up changes in laws dealing with the issue of domestic violence (e.g. in the Misdemeanor Act or the Act on Social and Legal Protection of Children).
