National Council in favor of compromise on protection for foreign victims of violence
Published: Monday, May 27th 2024, 15:50
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The National Council has come closer to the Council of States on the protection of foreign victims of domestic violence. However, the criteria on which the authorities should base their determination of victim status remain controversial. The National Council is proposing a compromise on this point. It resolved a second difference.
The National Council and Council of States had already decided in the 2023 winter session and spring session respectively that anyone who leaves a violent relationship should be considered a case of hardship in future. This means that those affected will no longer lose their residence status.
The bill was drafted by the National Council's Political Institutions Committee (SPK-N). It defines the concept of domestic violence in concrete terms. Criteria for determining domestic violence are listed in the law as examples.
Among the indications of domestic violence mentioned are that someone was recognized as a victim under the Victim Assistance Act, had to receive medical treatment, or that the police had to intervene in one case.
Prior to the National Council debate on Monday, the Councils were still divided on whether the use of counseling by a specialist agency should also be considered an indication of domestic violence. In February, the Council of States removed the corresponding provision from the legal text. At the time, Beat Rieder, a member of the Council of States from the canton of Valais, said that the provision left it up to private organizations to prove domestic violence. This was going too far.
On Monday, the National Council voted in favor of a compromise proposal by 126 votes to 62 with no abstentions. According to the proposal, victims of violence should be considered to be those who receive support from a specialist agency or seek protection in a specialized facility, such as a women's shelter. The use of counseling, on the other hand, should no longer be sufficient.
An SVP minority in the SPK-N requested that the National Council join the Council of States in this matter, but was unable to assert itself.
On a second point, the National Council followed the line of the Council of States. It agreed to delete a provision that provided for temporary exemptions for victims of domestic violence from the integration criteria set out in the Foreign Nationals and Integration Act. A left-wing minority of the committee, which wanted to retain the exemption provision, did not find a majority for its request.
The matter goes back to the Council of States.
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