Doing more to deter family violence

The Women’s Charter (Family Violence and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, which was introduced in Parliament on Tuesday, proposes several changes to protect victims better. The setting up of a 24-hour emergency response team would be a boon for those with immediate safety concerns. Beyond that, the changes would strengthen the ambit of personal protection orders, which are court orders that restrain a person from committing violence against a family member. Importantly, too, the definition of family violence – the act of causing hurt, placing a family member in fear of hurt, and wrongfully confining a family member against that person’s will – will be updated to include a wider range of violence, such as sexual, emotional and psychological abuse.

The proposed changes would sharpen Singapore’s abhorrence of domestic abuse. The country adopts a holistic view of the scourge to include child abuse, violence between spouses or former spouses, elder abuse, and abuse of vulnerable adults whose mental or physical infirmity, disability or incapacity leaves them unable to protect themselves from abuse, neglect or self-neglect. Clearly, there is no lack of recognition on the part of the authorities and society of the many ways in which violence can take place insidiously within the privacy of the family. While privacy is to be respected, it can never be an excuse to indulge in or to sanction violent behaviour.