Greece puts panic button into law to fight gender-related and domestic violence

The establishment of a pilot program for the use of the digital application “Panic button” , which is installed on smart phones and alerts the Police in cases of domestic violence, is provided for by an amendment submitted to the bill of the Ministry of Justice that incorporates a European directive on exchange of information about third country nationals.

The bill is introduced for voting, today, in the plenary session of the Parliament. As noted in the amendment, the panic button, which sends a short text message (sms) to the police, refers to incidents of family violence associated with a threat or danger to life or physical integrity, for the purpose of immediate intervention by the police force.

Beneficiaries

Eligible for registration in the application during the pilot operation of the program are female victims of domestic violence who live in the Region of Attica and the Regional Unit of Thessaloniki, who address the locally competent police authorities or a Consulting Center of the Network of the General Secretariat of Demographic and Family Policy and Equality of Gender of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.

After the end of the pilot application, the “Panic Button” program will be evaluated by the competent services of the Ministries of Labor and Social Affairs and Citizen Protection.