禁制家庭暴力行為 Prohibiting Domestic Violence

 禁制家庭暴力行為

疫情籠罩下市民居家抗疫，同時增加出現家庭爭執的機會，家庭暴力事件亦有增多趨勢。如遭受家暴，受害人可如何處理？香港法例又如何保護受害人？

律政司所制定的「檢控涉及家庭暴力案件的政策」提及到，家庭暴力泛指現在或曾經是親密伴侶的成年人或家庭成員之間因暴力、恐嚇行為、身體虐待、性虐待或精神虐待而引起的任何刑事罪行，包括謀殺、誤殺、普通襲擊、強姦或猥褻侵犯罪等。

《家庭及同居關係暴力條例》規定，任何合資格人士可向區域法院或原訟法庭申請強制令，禁止施虐者對申請人或同住的未成年人使用暴力，或禁止施虐者進入或留在婚姻／共同居所或其他指明地方。強制令最長維持24個月，法庭可視乎情況延長之。如法庭認為施虐者已經或有可能對受害者造成身體傷害，可在強制令中附上逮捕授權書。如執法人員合理地懷疑該人違反強制令，便可用所有所需的權限作出拘捕。被捕人士會被帶到發出強制令的法庭，就違反強制令應訊。

Prohibiting Domestic Violence
Under the pandemic of COVID-19, many respond by ‘stay home’, which results in a higher chance of family conflicts and a rise in the number of domestic violence cases. How can you respond if you are the one facing domestic violence? What protection can we get from the laws in Hong Kong?

The Department of Justice’s Policy for Prosecuting Cases involving Domestic Violence refers “domestic violence” as any criminal offence which arises out of violence, threatening behavior or physical, sexual or emotional abuse between adults who are or have been intimate partners, or between family members. Possible criminal offences are murder, manslaughter, common assault, rape, indecent assault, etc.

Under the Domestic and Cohabitation Relationships Ordinance, an application for injunction can be made by an eligible person to the District Court or the Court of First Instance. The Court may grant injunction to restrain the offender from using violence against the applicant or a child living with the applicant, or excludes the abuser from the matrimonial/shared home or a specified area. The Court may attach a Power of Arrest to the injunction if it finds that the abuser has caused or is likely to cause actual bodily harm to the victim. The police will then be allowed to arrest the offender with all necessary power where he is reasonably suspected of breaching the injunction. The arrested will be brought before the Court, which made the injunction, to answer for the breach.