KUALA LUMPUR, March 8 — The government is committed to changing the law to enhance protection for domestic violence victims, minister Datuk Seri Rohani Abdul Karim said today in her speech for International Women’s Day.

Rohani said the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry which she heads is looking towards a future when no one will have to suffer domestic violence anymore, adding that it is committed to amending the Domestic Violence Act (DVA).

"Among the changes, are amendments to ensure that there are no gaps in the safety given to survivors by the various protection orders,” she said, noting that 9 per cent of Malaysian women who had ever been in a relationship had suffered domestic or relationship abuse.

The proposed amendments resulting from the ministry’s collaboration with groups such as the Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO) and the Joint Action Group for Gender Equality (JAG) will be tabled in Parliament "very soon”, Rohani said.

Her speech was read out by the ministry’s policy division acting undersecretary Chua Choon Hwa at the WAO’s launch of its 2017 case study report titled "Perspectives on Domestic Violence: A Coordinated Community Response to a Community Issue”.

Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO) president Carol Chin (left) and the Women, Family and Community Development policy division acting undersecretary Chua Choon Hwa with the WAO’s 2017 report in Kuala Lumpur March 8, 2017. — Picture by Choo Choy May

In its 2017 report, WAO listed out 18 recommendations to the government, including a call for Rohani’s ministry to strengthen the DVA by making stalking a domestic violence crime.

Among other things, WAO also wants the DVA to be changed to include abuse by intimate partners under the definition of domestic violence, noting that five out of the 110 domestic violence survivors seeking shelter with WAO in 2014 had been abused by their boyfriends.

The group also called for changes to the DVA to expressly grant enforcement officers the power to arrest the abuser who violates a protection order granted to their victim, as well as to allow the issuing of interim protection orders to victims even if they do not wish to lodge a police report against their abusers or see the latter being prosecuted.

Today, Rohani also expressed sadness over domestic abuse victim Nurhidayah A. Ghani who was repeatedly abused until her final and fatal beating by her husband Jamaluddin Ali, noting that it was a death that could have been prevented if her community had intervened.

"Nurhidayah’s case illustrates the dire consequences that may result when the community does not come together to respond to domestic violence,” she said.

Reiterating her comments in Parliament last November, Rohani said the women ministry is looking to introduce a comprehensive law through the Gender Equality Bill to both ensure gender equality and prevent gender discrimination.