PARIS, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- The French government opened a national conference on Tuesday on domestic violence, hoping to come up with decisive measures to stop femicide as female citizens have been murdered by their partners at an alarming rate in the country.
The meeting of government officials headed by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, activists, associations, magistrates, lawyers, representatives of security officers and victims was convened to draft "emergency measures" during three months of consultations across French cities.
Kicking off the conference, Philippe pledged tougher action on femicide in France, where 101 women have allegedly been killed by their husband or partner so far this year. This means that a woman was murdered every second day.
According to feminist campaigners, at the current rate, France is set to report around 150 cases of femicide this year.
In the whole year of 2018, 121 women were killed through domestic violence, according to Interior Ministry data.
"Often, those who go through this ordeal tell us: where is justice? They find the 'justice of men' unacceptable," Philippe told the gathering.
"Domestic violence is ... often a process of sexist influence, so deeply rooted in our mentalities and our practices that some men get used to impunity," he said as he unveiled a package of measures, which includes a 5-million-euro (5.48 million U.S. dollars) fund to provide 1,000 additional shelters to female victims of violence from January 2020.
A geolocation platform will also be launched by the end of November to help identify "quickly and efficiently" the emergency places of accommodation for women in need.
"The first priority is to protect women who are victims of domestic violence by providing them with shelter rapidly, because women bow and stay with their violent husbands due to lack of financial means," the prime minister said.
The government has also pledged to accelerate judicial procedures against perpetrators of domestic violence, introduce electronic bracelets for violent husbands and withdraw their parental authority, and improve training on domestic violence for police officers.
The conference conclusions will be published on Nov. 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
