As sources from the Ministry of Equality have explained to Europa Press, by autonomous community, the Basque Country has the most operational centers, with three (in Bilbao, Vitoria and San Sebastián). It is followed by the Community of Madrid, Aragón and Castilla-La Mancha with two (in Madrid, Huesca, Teruel, Albacete and Guadalajara). Meanwhile, with an open center there is Cantabria (in Santander), Murcia, Melilla, Navarra (in Pamplona), Castilla y León (in Salamanca) and the Balearic Islands (in Mallorca).
In any case, the department headed by Ana Redondo has indicated that the forecast conveyed by the autonomous communities, with whom the Ministry is “in permanent contact”, is that they will be open “within the deadline.”
The last of the law of ‘only yes is yes’
The crisis centers for comprehensive 24-hour sexual violence care are included in the Sexual Freedom Law, better known as the ‘only yes means yes’ law, and have an opening deadline of December 31. However, initially, they had to have been operational before the end of 2023, but the European Commission approved an extension to extend the deadline until December 2024.
Since 2021, more than 83 million euros have been transferred to the autonomous communities for the creation of these crisis centers and the objective is for each one to launch at least one per province. They are financed by the Ministry of Equality through the Next Generation funds, from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan of the European Union.
24 hour centers
The 24-hour care centers for victims of sexual violence will serve women over 16 years of age who are victims and survivors of sexual violence, whether the violence has occurred recently or in the past. To access them, it will not be necessary to file a complaint and the focus will be focused on the victim and survivor.
Andalusia is one of the communities that to date does not have any of these crisis centers open and this year it is the second with the most murders of women due to sexist violence this year (with 22.7% of the cases), only by behind Catalonia, which has 27.3% of the total. This year, 44 women have been murdered in Spain for this reason and 1,288 since 2003, when data began to be collected.
According to what has been announced by the Junta de Andalucía, the 24-hour crisis centers will be operational in the community at the beginning of the year in all Andalusian provinces. These will be mobile units, except in Seville and Huelva, they will be located in the surroundings of health centers and will complement the service that the Board has already provided to victims of sexual violence for years.
Precisely, Catalonia plans to open this Monday, December 16, four new SIE (Servei d’Intervenció Especialitzada) to care for victims of sexist violence (including sexual violence 24 hours a day), which will have equipment financed with European funds. In this sense, the Department of Equality and Feminism of the Generalitat states that the expenses of the staff of these centers are borne by the Generalitat’s own funds and the State Pact against Gender Violence. With the opening of these centers, Catalonia will have 21 SIE throughout the territory but the four new ones will be the first with European funds.
Sectoral Equality Conference
Also this Monday, December 16, the Minister of Equality, Ana Redondo, plans to meet with the autonomous communities at the Sectoral Equality Conference, where they will address the accreditation system for victims of sexual violence, among other issues, as Redondo recently announced in the Senate.
According to the Crime Report prepared by the Ministry of the Interior and consulted by Europa Press, between January and June of this year, 10,010 complaints have been registered for crimes against sexual freedom and 2,465 for sexual assaults with penetration.
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