Violence against women and girls is the most universal, hidden, and unpunished violation of Human Rights that exists today. It is structural and cultural and continues to be widely condoned by States, even in countries that consider themselves more developed.
We have normalized as something habitual that news programs open their edition with the macabre announcement of another macho murder that adds to an abominable list. If ETA managed to establish itself in 42 years (between 1968 and 2010) in a notable position on the ladder of citizen assassinations in terms of Political Terrorism, with a total of 829 victims, Gender Terrorism is not far behind with 929 murdered, from 2003 to 2017 (14 years). So far this year alone, 44 men are being investigated for murdering 44 women and 8 minors.
With each murder, laments are reproduced from all social spheres and moments of silence. A bipolar society, which is only scandalized by each atrocious crime, despite the fact that this scourge is fed by a large base of comfortably installed, normalized, and even promoted micro-violence from all conceivable forms of social influence.
On the other hand, the data indicate a shocking macho anchoring at early ages, which has increased the work of specialized juvenile courts. This is contributed to by an educational plan lacking a gender perspective, despite the mandate contained in the Equality Law, and new technologies that are ductile channels for all types of sexist violence, to disturbing extremes.
We are facing a powerful historical, endemic, and multifaceted scourge that is engendered from a deep-rooted social base underestimated by all policies. A base that is generated and regenerated in a society that devalues the image of women with each sexist advertisement, with a labor market that denies social value to the time dedicated to family care and establishes different parental leave based on sex, a RAE that defines the weaker sex as a group of women, or an official photo of the Spanish Justice system without a trace of women. A base that feeds on globalized sexual violence and educational tools contaminated with a language and a history where only men live.
It is not easy to reverse a process, with centuries of experience and great ability to adapt and reinvent itself with each new historical stage.
The approach, without a doubt, must be multidisciplinary, from all fronts in which gender stereotypes and prejudices sink their deepest roots, but the priority must be prevention, through schools, because education is the most powerful weapon to change a society.
It is imperative to implement the measures approved by Congress to approve a State Pact against Gender Violence and its development through initiatives that have economic resources, schedules, and concrete implementation and monitoring plans audited and subject to control by independent bodies that guarantee their compliance.
The objective is clear: to achieve real equality and a framework of coexistence in which men and women can fully develop their life projects, knowing and recognizing themselves as equal in value. It is about building a world in which gender policies finally become unnecessary and redundant by having achieved that respect and recognition between men and women occupies the place in society that was previously subjected to machismo.
In particular, from AMJE we consider it essential that the following measures are emphasized through concrete initiatives, which must be provided with the corresponding budget item to be something more than a formalism or a toast to the sun.
Prevention and awareness
1st - Approach from Education as a vaccine against macho violence. Incorporation into the school curriculum as mandatory training at all levels of education of specific content on equality and non-discrimination, as well as the study of the achievements and significance of the feminist movement as a specific training objective of the History subject. Review of study plans and programs in order to include as training references relevant women in history, science, and philosophy.
2nd - Implementation of Awareness Plans and Campaigns with a periodic and permanent character especially aimed at young people in order to raise awareness about the elimination of gender prejudices and stereotypes, prevent macho violence behaviors in men, and promote an image of strong and positive women and a healthy and respectful masculinity. Extension of the educational program "Educating in Equal Justice", as a tool for transformative education from justice, by bringing our young people closer to the courts.
3rd - Obtain the commitment of social media in the non-dissemination of content that affects macho violence and discrimination and collect from them positive actions of dissemination and positive assessment of egalitarian attitudes and ways of life based on respect.
4th - Provide mandatory and specific training in gender perspective and non-discrimination to all professionals involved in the educational process, as well as provide them with tools to detect situations of macho violence against young girls. This training must be integrated into the syllabuses of competitions, masters, and courses aimed at teacher training.
Institutional Response and legal reforms
5th - Address a reform of the Penal Code and procedural regulations that, in accordance with the Istanbul Convention, gives specific treatment to crimes in whose commission a clear macho origin is appreciated based on the objectification and discrimination of women, both in the couple and outside of it. The objective and subjective scope of gender violence must be expanded to adapt it to the Istanbul Convention. The concept of gender violence contained in our legislation, which is limited to violence exerted by couples and ex-partners of women, must be expanded and extended to other behaviors that involve attacks of extreme gravity on women for the mere fact of being such as crimes against sexual freedom, forced marriages, economic violence, female genital mutilation, trafficking in women for the purpose of sexual exploitation, sexual harassment, or hate crimes based on gender.
6th - Reform of the Victim Statute in order to recognize the consideration as such and extend the entirety of its legal regime to the minor descendants of those women who have been victims of some type of macho violence. Minors must be given specific treatment and protection, including comprehensive social assistance and the possibility of providing them with autonomous legal assistance and a judicial defender in the event of a conflict of interest.
7th - Address the necessary procedural reforms in relation to the current regulation of the dispensation to testify in cases of crime victims, as well as our criminal legislation in relation to the mitigating circumstances of confession and reparation.
8th - Modification of the LOPJ and the Demarcation and Plant Law in order to increase the number of Exclusive Courts in matters of Violence against Women whose competence must be extended to all macho crimes and not only those committed in the context of the couple, guaranteeing and conditioning this competence, in any case, to the workload they assume allows an individualized and in-depth treatment of each case. Compatible Courts must be eliminated and tend towards greater specialization of these crimes, residing them in a specific body that has adequately trained judicial and assistance personnel. The regionalization of these courts must be done only in specific cases when the assessment of all the circumstances, especially those of women, advises it and not as a mere instrument of the cuts policy.
9th - Offer protection means, quality information, and dignified and coherent assistance support to cases of unreported gender violence, not making the complaint the only possible way to access information, assistance, and aid. In this sense, the status and proposals for an effective implementation of the Victim Statute must be analyzed autonomously and not linked to the vicissitudes of the criminal process.
10th - For judicialized cases, we demand more material and personal resources, as well as a rational judicial organization adapted to the workloads.
11th - Specialized police officers available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to attend to cases of macho violence throughout the national territory.
12th - The constitution and rapid implementation of multidisciplinary teams with specific training integrated by professionals from the legal profession, prosecution, forensic medicine and psychology, judiciary, police and lawyers of the administration of Justice that guide, coordinate, and ensure the correct response in cases of macho criminality during all phases of the process.
13th - Establishment of comprehensive victim support teams made up of specialized professionals and integrated within the Victim Assistance Offices, ensuring that they are permanently oriented and informed of the vicissitudes of the process and the resources to which they can access.
14th - Improvement of the comprehensive monitoring system of cases of gender violence and police detection of risk (Viogen) also incorporating the assessment of the aggressor and the situation of the children, not limited only to the risks of physical aggression. It must gather all the complaints filed and be complemented with the expert opinion of social workers, psychologists, and health professionals (strengthening of the Forensic Assessment Units) whose number and specialization must increase. Increase the coordination and communication of information between said registry and those existing at the administrative and penitentiary level.
15th - Increase social resources to be able to refer women and their daughters and sons, increasing the number of shelters, supervised flats, and family meeting points. Recover the powers and provide sufficient financial resources to local entities in matters of assistance to victims in order to put in place sufficiently equipped and accessible resources for them.
16th - Mandatory and specialized gender training to overcome prejudices and stereotypes, of all levels of the justice system, prosecution, judiciary, forensics, legal profession, and personnel serving the administration of justice to truly integrate equality and promote a justice with a gender perspective as a cross-cutting principle that crosses our entire justice system.