Childhood is considered the most vulnerable stage of life, a period in which the rights of minors must be guaranteed so that they can grow up in an environment of love and protection. In contexts of gender violence, minors are trapped between vulnerability and a judicial system that, instead of protecting them, often makes them invisible and uses them as pieces in legal battles, neglecting their most fundamental rights.
Despite international efforts to ensure child protection, such as the principles set out by UNICEF, many children continue to live in circumstances where their safety and well-being are neglected. The case of Gabriel and Daniel, sons of Juana Rivas, and my own, are painful examples of how the judicial system, instead of protecting minors, ends up subjecting them to injustice and abandonment even when the danger is evident.
A judicial system that does not protect us
Given the recent events in the case of Juana Rivas, where the Italian Prosecutor’s Office has presented an indictment against her ex-partner for mistreatment of her children, it is worrying that the youngest of them continues in the custody of her alleged attacker. This highlights a harsh reality: in the majority of judicial processes, the rights of minors are relegated to the background compared to the right of parents to exercise power, including those who have been convicted of violence.
My father was sentenced to one year and nine months in prison for mistreatment of my mother. Despite my constant pleas not to want to see him, visits were imposed on a regular basis. Ignoring his sentence, he was given my custody when he was only 9 years old. I lived with him for almost two, but the worst was yet to come
I feel deeply identified with the situation of these brothers, in which the judicial system, far from protecting us, has contributed to our suffering. My father was sentenced to one year and nine months in prison for mistreatment of my mother. Despite my constant pleas not to want to see him, visits were imposed on a regular basis. Ignoring his sentence, he was given my custody when he was only 9 years old. I lived with him for almost two, but the worst was yet to come. As a result of my refusal to comply with the visitation regime, my mother was convicted on up to four occasions for judicial disobedience. Although she was pardoned in three of them, former Minister of Justice Pilar Llop decided not to grant the fourth and final pardon. My mother, María Salmerón, had to enter a reintegration penitentiary center at the age of 58, a situation similar to what Juana, Gabriel and Daniel’s mother, experienced.
Statistics and studies on gender violence and its impact on minors make it clear that children are invisible victims. According to the Spanish Ministry of Health, 79.7% of minors who live in an environment of gender violence suffer psychological abuse, while 99.4% present emotional and psychological disorders. However, less than 15% of cases of gender violence end with the suspension of visitation to the abusive parent. This deficiency in the judicial response is alarming. Courts are not adequately connecting gender-based violence to the harm it causes to children, perpetuating a cycle of suffering.
The importance of listening to children
The Convention on the Rights of the Child, in its article 12, establishes that the State must guarantee that all children and adolescents have the right to freely express their opinion on matters that affect them. This principle, which should be a priority in all judicial cases, has been rigorously applied by Judge Isabel Giménez. I applaud this pioneering judge, recently awarded the Menina Justicia Feminista award, who is known for her humanized and empathetic approach in cases of gender violence, giving a voice to minors and explaining her decisions in a language understandable to them.
The situation of minors in cases of gender violence cannot continue to be ignored. The persistent misinterpretation of key concepts such as the “best interests of the child” prioritizes the abuser’s right to continue maintaining a bond with his or her children, without taking into account the fundamental rights of children to have a safe childhood.
When I was a child, my desires and feelings were never considered. The psychological reports in which my anguish, my fears and my emotional suffering were recounted were ignored by the judges. “Given the deterioration of this situation, Miriam has distanced herself emotionally from her father. When asked why she has not spoken to him or expressed it to the technical staff, Miriam declares that she is afraid that they will tell her father, since then ‘he is going to tell me off’.” This type of response is common among children who live under the control of an abuser, but despite this, the necessary measures are not taken to guarantee their well-being. For this reason, testimonies like the recent one from Gabriel Rivas are fundamental, giving a voice to his brother Daniel who lives daily the hell that he himself has gone through.
The situation of minors in cases of gender violence cannot continue to be ignored. The persistent misinterpretation of key concepts such as the “best interests of the child” prioritizes the abuser’s right to continue maintaining a bond with his or her children, without taking into account the fundamental rights of children to have a safe childhood. We need a change in the mentality of judges so that the existing laws that protect us from vicarious violence are effectively applied, a violence that has reached its highest peak with 62 boys and girls murdered since 2013 at the hands of their parents or partners of their mothers, with the sole purpose of causing them pain. It is time for children’s voices to be heard and given the opportunity to live without fear.
Miriam Ruiz Salmerón has a degree in Journalism, with the TFG ‘Vicarious violence: minors as the most powerful weapon of an abuser’ (honors)
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