Domestic violence – how much does the inaction cost?

The Report, the first of its kind in the Republic of Moldova and in the region, was developed between July 2015 to July 2016 by the Women's Law Center at the request of the UN Women - United Nations’ Entity for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in collaboration with the World Health Organization Office in Moldova, in partnership with the Ministry of Labour, Social Protection and Family, with the support of the Austrian Development Cooperation. Three public sectors were addressed in this report: social protection, health care and justice.

As the analysis reveals, the highest costs for diminishing the cases of violence are incurred by the health sector, particularly, in terms of inpatient treatment, while the social sector incurs, in contrast, the lowest costs. About 87% of the costs are designed for placement and nutrition services. The specialised services – such as the psychological and legal counselling services, and child care services are extremely under-financed.

The report also points out that the private financial investments cover a big share of the cost of services that are not available or are partially existent in the public sector. Thus, 60% of the social services that the victims need are ensured by the civil society organizations.

Angelina Zaporojan-Pargari, the Chairperson of the Women's Law Center, said that the Report – the first of its kind in Moldova – integrates all the sectors and estimates costs of all services provided in the area of domestic violence and violence against women, and is the first and only in the South-East Europe.

“We hope that both the Report findings – highlighting the need to make a change in the paradigm in terms of the allocation of resources meant to prevent domestic violence cases – and the recommendations will bring Moldova closer to the ratification of the European Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. We wish that the efforts of governmental and non-governmental sectors would result in the sustainable financing of better quality services, that would be accessible across the entire country and focused on the needs of victims and survivors of violence” concluded Mrs Zaporojan-Pargari.

The cost covered by the victims of domestic violence for legal services is 4 times greater than that of the state. The victims prefer to hire private lawyers, although the legal services provided by private lawyers are 33.7 times more expensive than the state-guaranteed legal aid.

One of the reasons underlying this trend is the poor quality of the latter.

“We would like to institutionalize an analytic tool that would serve as reasoning for the development of effective policies, for the resources allotted for the elimination of violence. Analytical tools would enable us to collect data on domestic violence and violence against women efficiently” said Viorelia Moldovan-Batrinac, Chief State Advisor to the Prime Minister.

“Survivors of gender-based violence lose their confidence, dignity and hope and get in return fear and pain. In many cases, they pay with their lives. Improving the assistance and support systems implies costs, but the cost of the inaction is unacceptable” pointed out Corneliu Eftodi, Programme Manager, UN Women Moldova.

It is important to state that the report contains data regarding the severe economic and social consequences of domestic violence, while the analysis of the costs presented today may act as a factor for a more efficient use of the existent resources and places more responsibility on the state and non-state actors to end domestic violence in the Republic of Moldova.

Some of the basic recommendations of the Report are the following:

- allocate resources for prevention and support services, in order to avoid the huge costs of domestic violence;

- provide ongoing training for first-line professionals in order to provide a better response;

- develop several awareness raising campaigns on the criminal liability resulting from violence against women and domestic violence, and promote zero-tolerance towards domestic violence;

- carry out awareness raising and information campaigns, on a regular basis, and in cooperation with the civil society organizations, to address gender stereotypes that lead to discrimination of women in the professional and private lives;

- investigate further the possibilities of integrating specialised services in the recently established Mental Health Centers (psychological support and counselling, medical treatment, etc.);

- improve the access to justice for victims of domestic violence and violence against women;

- improve the quality of state-guaranteed legal aid.

Background data:

On 28 July 2016, the Parliament approved a new law introducing amendments to the mechanism regarding the response to domestic violence cases. The Report on costs assessment supports the implementation of the new law and provides a real opportunity for the initiation of better budgetary practices, which will increase the level of protection of domestic violence victims.

The launching event of this Report was part of the “16 Days of Action Against Gender-Based Violence” Campaign which aims to raise awareness about violence and mobilize society to take action to prevent abuse of women and girls.