Institutional sexism: An obstacle to an effective protection against domestic violence

Abstract

The subject of this paper is an analysis of the social treatment of victims of domestic violence and their institutional treatment in the context of gender stereotypes, prejudices and discriminatory attitudes, which are deeply rooted and widely spread among professionals involved in the prevention and prosecution of domestic violence. The aim of the paper is to point out how, and in what way institutional sexism becomes a barrier to effective prevention, prosecution and sanctioning of domestic violence and the cause of discrimination of victims of this form of violence in the exercise of the right to legal protection. In this context, the current situation in Serbia has been observed in light of the international standard of “due diligence”, which is normatively operationalized in Istanbul Convention (2011). From the perspective of this standard, the authors discuss the standpoints of the CEDAW Committee as well as the latest opinion of the European Court of Human Rights in the verdict of the case Eremia and others v. Moldova (2013), which was the first time that the Court held that institutional sexism was the main reason for the state authorities’ failure to provide adequate legal protection against domestic violence. The authors underscore that the state action on the recognition, demystification and eradication of the deeply rooted institutional sexism is one of the key prerequisites for an effective prevention of domestic violence in compliance with the international “due diligence” standard. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 179046: Zaštita ljudskih i manjinskih prava u evropskom pravnom prostoru]

Keywords

• domestic violence
• gender aspect of domestic violence
• institutional sexism
• due diligence standard