The Region warms up for the 25N with workshops, ‘performances’ and exhibitions before the demonstrations in Murcia and Cartagena
The word of the victim is in many occasions the main evidence that the Justice has to prosecute the abuse, however, the number of cases in which this key testimony is not present increases. The latest data from the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) show that the number of resignations of victims of gender violence to testify against their partner or ex-partner has risen to 230% so far this year. Specifically, up to 363 complainants have opted for silence in the first half of the year. A number that already exceeds the resignations registered in all of 2020 and that, for the first time in years, comes to break a decreasing trend in this problem.
The dispensation that the law offered to battered women so that they could not testify, during the trial, against their partner or ex-partner – included in Article 416 of the Penal Code – had been causing many procedures to be shelved for years. The Prosecutor’s Office repeatedly warned about the impact that these resignations had on the judicial battle. The superior prosecutor, José Luis Díaz Manzanera, was in favor on many occasions of a legislative reform that would avoid this situation and eliminate this dispensation. A reform that became effective in September with a variation of article 416, which was included in the law for the protection of children and adolescents. It introduces the exception of taking advantage of this dispensation when gender-based violence has been reported. A 180 degree turn that, without a doubt, will be noticed in the coming months in the Murcian courts.
Look at sexual violence
The Region is revving its engines these days for the commemoration of 25N, International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Beyond the demonstrations that will cross the streets of Murcia and Cartagena on Thursday afternoon, the week is full of events to remember the importance of the fight against violence that, year after year, leaves dozens of murdered.
The Community has deployed a program of activities that began last day 4 and will last until December 17. The center of integral attention to women victims of aggressions and sexual abuse (Cavax) of the Ministry gave the starting gun yesterday to an ‘online’ course on ‘A critical look towards sexual violence’. The cultural center of Ceutí opens tomorrow, at 8:00 p.m., the ‘performance’ ‘El Camino Paralelo’ and the regional craft center will premiere on Thursday a sample of the project ‘Empoderarte’.
Withdrawals soared in the months prior to the reform that prevents victims from renouncing the process
In Murcia, the exhibition ‘The Blue Cotton Prison’, by María José Cárceles, opens tomorrow, which can be visited at the Carmen Artistic Laboratory until December 11. The City Museum will also disseminate the podcast ‘Do Fuerza Hay, Right is Lost’ on violence against women in the games of Alfonso X El Sabio.
In Cartagena, the City Council has also prepared an extensive program to try to raise awareness against sexist violence. In recent weeks, a series of ‘online’ presentations were held that will culminate on December 1 with a talk about the micro and macromachisms that allow gender violence. Two awareness-raising workshops are also being carried out from the CAVI with girls and women who have suffered gender violence, aimed at students of the Early Childhood Education and Social Integration cycle of the Mediterranean IES. Next Saturday, in addition, there will be a workshop on self-defense aimed at women.
Workers’ Commissions plan to gather tomorrow at the Palacio de San Esteban to denounce “the breaches” of the Regional Pact against Gender Violence.
They criticize that the Council on abuse has not been convened for a year
The Regional Advisory Council against Violence against Women was born in 2015 to confront a scourge that, year after year, places the Region as one of the communities most affected by abuse. Workers’ Commissions denounce, however, that the Community has not convened a single meeting of this body for a year, that it should meet every four months and that it is aimed at advancing in the eradication of sexist violence.
The Ministry of Women, Equality, LGTBI, Family and Social Policy, in the face of this criticism, maintains that the functions carried out by this entity are the same as those of the gender violence commission of the Equality Observatory – which started about a year ago -. He explains that he has even tried to suppress the council, although it has not been legally possible, and stresses that “it makes no sense to duplicate the operation of the work that is carried out.”
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