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Social groups support domestic abuse councils

Social groups yesterday called for councils that provide services to victims of domestic violence, established under district courts, to be protected by the law because they currently have no legal status.

To provide better protection for victims of domestic violence, the first Coordinating Council for Victims of Domestic Violence (家庭暴力事件服務處) was established in 2002 by the Modern Women's Foundation and there are currently 17 nationwide.

The councils offer legal assistance and social welfare services to ensure that victims receive essential and timely support during the judicial process.

The social welfare departments under local governments authorize social groups to establish these councils on district court premises.

However, the Judicial Yuan is unwilling to give legal status to the councils because it is worried about neutrality issues, said the foundation's chief executive officer Chang Chin-li (張錦麗).

Lin Ya-feng, chief of the juvenile and family department at the Judicial Yuan, said that due to a shortage of personnel and limited budget and resources, it was difficult to require by law that the councils be compulsorily established.

The district courts support such councils but cannot be directly responsible for them because the judiciary should not interfere with social services, Lin said.

However, Chang said that the courts should not have a problem with personnel since social workers who gave legal advice at the councils were trained and provided by social groups, not the courts.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wang Yu-ting (王昱婷), who supported the legalization of the councils, added that neutrality was not a problem since receiving legal advice from the councils did not equate with assuring victims that they would win a lawsuit.

Most victims do not have adequate knowledge of relevant laws or the judicial process and therefore the councils provided help and support for them, Wang said.

The 17 councils across the country have so far helped more than 40,000 victims since the first was established four years ago.

Chang added that as these councils did not have legal status, the government was able to close them down at any time.

The Judicial Yuan and social groups should by law both be responsible for the councils and share resources, Chang said.

Lin Tsyr-ling (林慈玲), executive secretary of the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Prevention Committee under the Ministry of the Interior, said that even though such legislation has not been passed so far, the social groups should not worry about the councils being closed down due to budgetary constraints.

Lin said that the ministry offers subsidies for social groups of NT$4 million (US$122,852) per year, and hoped that the councils would continue to provide even more services so that district courts would start to view them as an "insider" instead of an outside organization using their space.
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