Violence, especially against marginalised communities such as trans people, is widespread and increased during the pandemic.
On 8 March, International Women’s Day, the European Commission launched its proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on combating violence against women and domestic violence.
TGEU welcomes the European Commission’s proposal for a directive on preventing and combatting violence against women and domestic violence. However, the directive falls short of truly addressing gender-based violence in the EU: if adopted in its current form, the opportunity to enshrine protection for some of the most marginalised people in EU law will be missed.
Violence against trans people in the EU occurs at an alarming rate and reaches their own home. 36% of trans women, 36% of non-binary people, and 33% of trans men reported to the FRA 2019 LGBTI Equality survey that they had experienced physical or sexual violence in the preceding five years. An extraordinary 60% of trans people experienced in-person harassment in the same period.
TGEU’s COVID-19 impact assessment highlighted that, “many women and trans people have been forced to ‘lockdown’ at their residence with their abusers, while services to support survivors have been downsized or made inaccessible.” The 2021 update of the Trans Murder Monitoring project showed that 24% of the reported murders of trans people occurred in the victims’ own homes.
The European Commission must strengthen its commitment and become fully inclusive of trans and gender-diverse people in its work on gender-based violence and domestic violence.