“We always have the feeling that we are not up to the challenges, denounces Anne Bouillon. 43 women have died under the blows of their companions in France since the beginning of the year: what does not change is the number of our deaths and it is unbearable”.
While the reconstruction of the murder of Chahinez Daoud takes place on Wednesday May 24 in Mérignac near Bordeaux (Gironde), Nantes lawyer Anne Bouillon, specializing in women’s and family law, believes on franceinfo that the parents of the victim “are right to demand accountability”. Djohal and Kamel Daoud initiated an amicable procedure against the state two months ago.
>> Reconstruction of the murder of Chahinez: “I am a broken mother, we pretend to hold on”, testify the parents of the victim burned alive by her ex-companion in 2021
Chahinez Daoud, a 31-year-old mother, was burned alive by her ex-companion on May 4, 2021, in Mérignac, after filing several complaints against him. “You can’t get used to this pain, to this horror”, reacts Anne Bouillon. The lawyer believes that her parents are right to initiate proceedings.
“Women do not die by chance, they die because they have to deal with violent men but also because there are faults in the management of protection.”
Anne Bouillon, lawyerat franceinfo
“They do not find what they should find: shelter, security”, insists Anne Bouillon. Although, according to her, “Things are undeniably progressing (…) We always have the feeling of being behind schedule, that we are not up to the challenges. 43 women have died under the blows of their companions in France since the beginning of the year: what does not change is the number of our deaths and it is unbearable”said the lawyer.
We must “unlock resources”
In a plan against domestic violence, the government wants in particular to set up specialized centres: “It’s going in the right direction, it’s magistrates who decompartmentalize information and are able to process it better”, believes Anne Bouillon, citing the example of the Nantes prosecutor’s office. But according to her, it would be necessary to go further, with the creation of “specialized courts”courts with jurisdiction over “the family and civil aspects but also the criminal dimension of a file (…) A single jurisdiction which concentrates all the competences as is done in Spain”explains the lawyer.
The most urgent remains “unlock resources”, says Anne Bouillon. “This plan does not answer a question, it is: how much do we put on the table? (…) You have to go to the courthouses to see how we work: with candle ends! access to law and protection which is precarious”. Like many associations, the lawyer pleads for a budget of one billion euros “to change the paradigm: the measures [de ce plan] are intelligent, they are going in the right direction but without dedicated means it will remain a dead letter”.