Domestic Violence in Postcommunist States: Local Activism, National Policies, and Global Forces

CHAPTER 7 Domestic Violence against Women: When Practice Creates Legislation in Slovenia

CHAPTER 7 Domestic Violence against Women: When Practice Creates Legislation in Slovenia SONJA ROBNIK “[In] our society it is still true that for a woman the most dangerous institution is her marriage, the most unsafe place her home, and the most dangerous person her partner” (Božac Deležan 1999: 14). This is the most commonly quoted statement about domestic violence against women in Slovenia.1 Experts, professionals, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) use it to demonstrate why the issue of domestic violence against women is important to address, and in this way stress the need for domestic violence legislation. The above quote is also included in Slovene political debates to redirect attention from the essence of the problem (that violence against women is gender-based violence) to the alleged damage that debates about domestic violence cause to the nurturing nature of the family as a center of love, warmth, and understanding. The Slovene political debates are especially lively when public attention is focused on questions of fertility, the increasing rate of divorce, and the decreasing rate of marriage. Since 2004, when rightwing parties won the majority in national elections and constituted a right-wing government, the debates about fertility and the family have frequently appeared on the agenda of the Slovene National Assembly.2 Although no clear connection between violence against women and fertility rates can be seen, fertility issues seem to be very handy for some right-wing parliamentarians trying to prevent the adoption of any measure that may be imposed on the family where violence occurs. In November 2007, when the Parliamentary Committee for Family, Labor, Social Affairs, and the Handicapped discussed and proposed the Family Violence Prevention Act, Janez Drobni, a very conservative right-wing male parliamentarian and a former Minister of Family, Labor and Social Affairs, stated: What will be the message of this Act to our youth, to boys, and girls? The message to the girls is that the society is becoming more and more violent, especially that men are violent, so be aware of tyrants. On the other hand, the message to the boys is that they 196 Sonja Robnik are welcome as long as they beget a child. (Seje Državnega zbora 2007) For Slovene right-wing political parties the decrease in the rate of marriage and the low fertility rate are important ideological issues, connected with what they call “the decrease of family values.” At the beginning of their four-year mandate, right-wing parliamentarians (both women and men) emphasized that there was no need to adopt a special law on the prevention of domestic violence. The reasons for their claim are hard to gauge. One possible reason was simply that they disagreed with the proposed Act on the Protection against Domestic Violence, prepared by the former left-wing government in early 2009. This proposal, which could be called a “left-wing government proposal,” had been prepared by the Ministry of Family, Labor, and Social Affairs and by the Expert Council just before the national elections in 2004.3 When right-wing parties won the 2004 elections, the very conservative Janez Drobni was appointed as the Minister of Family, Labor, and Social Affairs. Instead of adding the proposal to the government’s agenda, from where the National Assembly would have ultimately adopted it, the right-wing government tabled the domestic violence bill. Another reason right-wing parliamentarians neglected the legislation in the field of domestic violence might have been to avoid public debate on the family, which they referred to as “the basic cell of the human society.” However, remarkable progress has been made since 2004. The greatest credit for that can be given to Marjeta Cotman, who replaced Janez Drobni as the new Minister of Family, Labor, and Social Affairs at the end of 2006.4 Despite the many efforts of the Expert Council to convince the minister that Slovenia needed domestic violence legislation, the issue of domestic violence against women was one of the least important matters during Drobni‘s mandate from 2004 to 2006. The Expert Council also tried to convince Minister Drobni that Slovenia was required to fulfill its obligations emerging from the United Nations’ Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), along with other binding international documents (for example, the 2002/5 Council of Europe’s Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers to Member States on the protection of women against violence). The recent political upheavals show what a difficult...