Pandemic highlights inability of state bodies to help victims of domestic violence

The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the inability of state institutions to effectively address the growing incidence of domestic violence, according to a study carried out by the Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the Faculty of Humanities of Charles University. The authors of the study, which assessed the implementation of the government’s action plan against domestic violence, say the police, courts and child protection authorities only manage to deal with a small fraction of cases, while the majority go undetected or fall through the net.

According to another analysis, undertaken by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the Czech Republic also lacks accommodation in specialized shelters for victims of domestic violence.