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On the night of Tuesday to Wednesday June 10, the LREM bill to better “protect victims of domestic violence” was voted. But the doctors do not all agree on this lifting of medical confidentiality.
Another step forward in the fight against domestic violence. It was unanimously that the Senate voted, on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday at first reading, after the National Assembly, a LREM bill to better "protect the victims of domestic violence", which introduces a exception to medical confidentiality in case of "immediate danger", according to AFP. Derived from the Grenelle against domestic violence, this law was defended by the Secretary of State for gender equality Marlène Schiappa. Doctors will be able to waive professional secrecy, when he "believes in conscience" that there is "immediate danger" to the life of the victim and situation of influence. And the measure increases the penalties for harassment within the couple, raising the penalty to ten years in prison when the harassment led the victim to commit suicide or to attempt to commit suicide.
"The breeding ground for domestic violence is a phenomenon of domination," said Marlène Schiappa, stressing that "for the first time" the concept of control enters the law.
The deputies and senators must now agree on a common version of the text in a joint joint committee, AFP specifies. A first series of measures had already been adopted at the end of 2019, in the bill of deputy LR Aurélien Pradié, including the generalization of the anti-rapprochement bracelet.
“We deplore at this stage 36 marital homicides in 2020, against 150 over the whole of 2019. This is obviously not a victory (…) but this reduction is undoubtedly a marker of the relevance of the measures who are not yet fully deployed, ”said Keeper of the Seals Nicole Belloubet.
While the College of Physicians supports this measure, some doctors remain divided and say they are against it.
Other data come into play. Thus, the bill also punishes the geolocation of a person without his consent, and creates an aggravating circumstance in the event of violation of the secrecy of correspondence by a spouse or ex-spouse, to better fight against "conjugal cyberviolence". The senators created an aggravating circumstance of the offense of repeated sending of malicious messages.
It also strengthens the protection of minors from exposure to pornography, a Senate amendment imposing age controls on publishers of pornographic sites.
A sign to make during video calls if you are a victim of domestic violence
by Celine Peschard