La construcción de europa a través de la cooperación judicial en materia de protección de víctimas de violencia de género

Resumen

The main objective of this doctoral thesis is to analyze the protection offered to victims of gender violence throughout the EU, considering freedom of movement and the right to be saved as essential people’s rights, enabling criminal, civil and administrative law to protect the quality of human life and to seek for a better future for the present and next generations. Nevertheless, this protection cannot be effective without a real mutual recognition within the EU. Protection orders are meant to protect a person against an act that may endanger their life, physical or psychological integrity, personal liberty, sexual integrity or dignity. The aim is to avoid contacts between the offender and the victim. This kind of protection measures can be adopted as part of civil and criminal proceedings depending on the European Country in which the procedure is taking place. This is the reason why we have: 1) Directive 99/2011/UE on the European Protection Order and 2) Regulation (EU) 606/2013 on mutual recognition of protection measures in civil matters. The three protection measures included in Directive 99/2011/EU and in Regulation (EU) 606/2013 are found in the national legislation of all the member States. Their inclusion in the Directive and the Regulation seeks to establish a minimum standard of protection for victims, without modifying the internal legislation of the member States. The Directive was supposed to lead to an approximation of this diversity. Actually, the different national systems for the protection of victims are maintained. This is why we have to ask ourselves: Are we on the right track with the Directive 99/2011/EU or are we just losing time? Is the instrument of the European Protection Order actually useful or is it only a false promise of protection to the victims? In the second case scenario, we must find a solution studying both European legislation and our national legislation. We consider that protection measures are essential if we want to continue building Europe. Furthermore, there is a positive state obligation to protect citizens against particulars that may endanger they integrity or life. If the State does not protect us, it could be a failure of its obligations to protect us. We firmly believe that European protection measures are totally necessary instruments if we want to create a real Space of Freedom, Security and Justice. Victims will only be free to move around the EU if we guarantee their right to feel secure. Moreover, only real Justice can guarantee freedom and security. As a consequence, we acknowledge the need of cooperation between different European States as the only way to fight against crime in a globalized society.