How to report domestic violence

If you are in immediate danger, call 911 or 114 first. To file a formal report you do not need to go to any particular place — any of the following institutions can take it.

Where you can report

Find the specific contact for your department — court, MAIE and CONADEH — in the directory by department.

What happens when you report

You do not have to wait for a hearing to be protected. Article 6 of the Law establishes protective measures imposed of the authority’s own motion, on the mere filing of the report, by the competent court, by the Ministerio Público, or by the Secretaría de Seguridad through the Policía Nacional. They aim to stop the violence and prevent worse, and there are ten:

• Temporarily remove the reported person from the home you share. He may take only his personal effects and his work or study tools — the Law says expressly that your safety, your health and your life prevail over his right to occupy the home.
• Prohibit him from going near the home, the workplace, or the places you habitually frequent.
• Detain him for no more than twenty-four (24) hours if he is caught in the act.
• Prohibit him from acts of intimidation or harassment against you, against any member of the family group, or against people connected to you.
• Immediately and temporarily seize any weapons in his possession. The judge may order this at any time.
• Refuse, suspend or cancel his firearms permit, where firearms have been used in acts of domestic violence.
• Return you to the home if you had to leave for safety, together with restitution of your property and household goods — applying the removal of the reported person immediately.
• Enter or search the home without any procedure in cases of flagrancy, or by court order if he breaches the removal.
• If you have to leave the home for safety, take with you the property that secures your wellbeing and that of the family group.
• Refer you to a safe address. The State — through INAM, the Secretaría de Gobernación y Justicia and the municipalities — must maintain temporary shelters and refuge houses for you and your children.

Where the measures are imposed by the Ministerio Público or the Policía Nacional, those institutions must send the proceedings to the competent court within the following twenty-four (24) hours. The measures are temporary and their duration is assessed by the Court. The Law also provides for precautionary measures — such as compulsory attendance by the reported person at re-education services — and interim measures, in addition to the protective ones.

The official care-route leaflet published by the Centro de Derechos de Mujeres (CDM), ASONOG and OCDIH, with European Union support, describes the same route in practical terms.

If you need free legal advice to prepare or follow up your case, the Defensa Pública and the legal clinics of UNAH, UTH, UCRISH and UCENM offer representation at no cost.

If you need to leave your home now

Reporting and getting to safety do not have to happen in a strict order. If your priority right now is leaving your home safely, see safe places.