Canton Bern ready to call feminicide by its proper name
The executive council of canton Bern is prepared to explicitly mention feminicide in its crime statistics. However, it does not wish to go it alone, preferring to wait until a national definition and criteria have been established for recording these acts of violence.
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Canton Bern ready to call feminicide by its proper name
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The motion put forward by Green Party parliamentarian Manuel C. Widmer calls on the government to include feminicides in the annual crime statistics for the canton of Bern, separately and as such. At present, there is no official institution that systematically documents this type of crime in Switzerland.
The authors of the motion point out that feminicide reflects violence rooted in patriarchal power structures in society. They believe that violence inflicted on women is often regarded as a private matter. “In Switzerland, the term ‘feminicide’ is still not firmly anchored in political discourse”.
Uniform standards
In its recently published response to the motion, the government supports in principle the creation of a separate category in the annual crime statistics. But it stresses that it would be inappropriate to limit the figures to the canton of Bern alone.
Bern’s executive council considers it necessary to make a comparison at national level and to agree on a single definition and uniform factors for analysing the data. It therefore refers to the postulate “Feasibility study for keeping statistics on feminicides” submitted by parliament to the Federal Council.
In the view of the Bernese cantonal government, feminicides could be included in the crime statistics of each canton on the basis of a uniform definition and criteria.
Translated from French by AI/ds
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