"The situation is an emergency. This September is one of the worst months in history, one of the worst months for women in this country and for sexist violence." "The situation is serious, very serious, urgent."
This is how the Secretary of State for Equality, Ángela Rodríguez, has described the situation of gender violence at this time, with more murders already (50) than last year. And it has done so after the meeting of the crisis committee, made up of the department headed by Irene Montero and the autonomous communities, in which they analyzed the ten murders of women at the hands of their partners or ex-partners committed last month (25 murders in July, August and September). Faced with this situation, she is urged to abandon the denialism that is spreading in society, fundamentally at the hands of the far-right Vox, and put an end to the "complicit silence of the aggressors."
Rodríguez has urged all public institutions and powers, "holders of rights and obligations", not to promote denial of sexist violence, "because that saves lives", and to use all necessary resources in proactive detection. "Detection is failing," he insisted.
What does the Secretary of State mean by proactive detection? That all public services, from education, health, socio-health, emergencies... report any case in which violence against women is detected. "It cannot be understood that a woman murdered by her partner has been going to the mental services of a health center for years and her condition as a victim has not been detected," she explained.
And it asks citizens (relatives, neighbors...) who suspect a case of sexist violence to call 016 or 112. "In several cases of murder studied, the neighbors were aware that the woman was being mistreated."
It is the first time that the Ministry of Equality recognizes that the situation of violence against women is "serious, without palliatives", something that it has avoided in recent weeks despite the evidence, the figures and the murders. And it urges us to act now because this year will possibly be one of the worst in recent years: 50 women murdered already, and there are still three months left until the end of 2023.
The crisis committee, the sixth since December 2022, meets when five murders occur in a month. In this, they have also agreed to provide training on gender perspective and detection of gender violence to the legal shifts in matters of family law (separations, divorces...) and to court personnel, especially family law, since that the majority of victims try to escape violence through separation, and not by reporting.
In addition to a European 016, a European Viogen (police record of victims who have reported and their level of risk to adopt protection measures) has been proposed, at least in the Schengen area. And the possibility of sharing some data related to episodes of violence against women, in particular criminal records, for tourist visas, starting with stays of a certain duration, is being analyzed.
