Estonia to clarify penalties for domestic and psychological violence

Estonia will make domestic and psychological violence clearer in its criminal law as it prepares to adopt an European Union directive on combating violence against women by summer 2027, ERR reported. Organisations supporting victims have called for the changes, and the Ministry of Justice has promised to introduce them.

Statistics on violence against women and domestic violence in Estonia are among the worst in Europe, according to the report. Social Affairs Ministry victim support policy head Kristiina Luht said the directive was needed because countries were not doing enough to address the problem, including providing services, prevention and criminal penalties for certain forms of violence.

Luht said Estonia had been preparing for the directive for some time and had already made progress, but that some changes still needed to be incorporated into law. One planned change would strengthen the protection of children whose close relatives are violent. Minors would be presumed to need protection in domestic violence cases even when they were not directly attacked.

The law would also require specialists to assess the support and protection needs of every victim. It would formally establish cooperation between victim support services, law enforcement agencies and local governments. Luht said such cooperation had so far been used in high-risk domestic violence cases but would have to cover all cases in future.

The changes would also provide a stronger legal basis for examining cases in which the system has failed a person and for exchanging data between government agencies.

The directive requires national action plans to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence. It also requires certain offences to be criminalised.

Both the Social Affairs Ministry and civil society organisations are concerned that domestic violence is not currently defined as a criminal offence in Estonia’s Penal Code. Luht said the term is used only in the Victim Support Act and argued that the Penal Code should clearly define domestic violence so that everyone understands what it means.

She also said psychological violence should be punishable as a crime, rather than only physical violence. Luht warned that Estonia could miss an opportunity to define domestic violence clearly in criminal law while carrying out the broader process of adopting the directive.

Luht said the end of a relationship or a divorce did not necessarily end the close relationship between the parties. This was especially true when they had children, she said, because the children could be used to continue manipulating or harassing the other person.