© dpa
Social Affairs Senator Cansel Kiziltepe and Interior Senator Iris Spranger are committed to improving the protection of women from violence.
"The rising numbers of femicides and domestic violence against women are shocking," said the two SPD politicians on the International Day against Violence against Women (25 November). "We must do everything in our power to prevent further cases."
To achieve this, it is necessary to recognise dangers at an earlier stage. "We will establish better, interdisciplinary risk management in Berlin and therefore introduce so-called multi-institutional case conferences in high-risk cases," the senators announced. "Case conferences are a very effective procedure that has been practised in other federal states to reduce the risk of homicide. We must not do without it in Berlin."
Women affected by violence are often in contact with various organisations, explained Kiziltepe. "They seek protection in a women's shelter, support from a counselling centre, talk to the youth welfare office or obtain court orders for protection against violence." There may be indications of imminent femicide everywhere. "Case conferences with all of these parties give us the opportunity to collate this information into an overall picture."
Femicide means that women are killed because of their gender - in other words, because they are women. According to official data from the Federal Criminal Police Office, a woman was the victim of a femicide almost every day in Germany in 2023. In 155 out of a total of 360 cases, the perpetrator was the partner or ex-partner. In Berlin, 9,830 women were victims of intimate partner violence in the same year.