Fourth meeting of the crisis committee of the Ministry of Equality to analyze the 8 sexist murders (the eighth, in the Sevillian town of Utrera still unconfirmed), which have left 4 orphaned children, committed this July, and the message is clear: society must raise its voice without doubt against all kinds of sexist violence, because this lack of unity and clarity leaves the victims unprotected.
"Women must know that the public is with them. This attitude of rejection saves lives". This was indicated by the Government's delegate against Gender-Based Violence, Victoria Rosell, who appeared after meeting with the representatives of the autonomous communities in charge of issues of gender-based violence (minus Asturias and the Basque Country, due to agenda problems ), those of Viogèn, the victim surveillance system of the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Justice, the president of the Observatory against Gender Violence of the General Council of the Judiciary, Ángeles Carmona, and the prosecutor of Delegate Room of Violence against Women, Teresa Peramato. The crisis committee was chaired by the acting Minister of Equality, Irene Montero.
Rosell emphasized the youth of the last three murders, who were under the age of 30 (the woman found strangled in Girona on July 27 was 26; the woman stabbed to death in Barcelona, 29, and the young woman who lost life on Monday after receiving several blows to the head with a hammer in Utrera, 22). "It is very important that young people do not receive messages that relativize gender violence or even deny it" because these messages clearly deprotect the victims, in clear allusion to Vox and its supporters.
Only one of the 8 murders had filed a complaint against her abuser. At this point, Rosell insists on the need for those around the victims to "get involved" if they detect any sign of abuse, because many times women do not know how to see it, or are afraid or do not know how to act : "The environment cannot be a cover-up or an accomplice".
The experts who make up the crisis committee believe that it is necessary to delve into prevention to avoid murders and to make known the resources that victims can turn to, such as the 016 telephone (24 hours 365 days a year) , the purple points, health centers, educational centers, social services, police. And they agreed on the need to activate all the protocols against gender violence in hotel establishments, in party rooms and in any party that is celebrated during this August, along with July (also in the month of December), because is when more sexist murders are recorded.
"It is necessary to act before, to avoid murder. The penal system can only act when the crime takes place, it is necessary to prevent and prevent", insisted Rosell.
Experts go further. The former delegate of the Government against Gender Violence Miguel Lorente is betting on specific campaigns to stop the increase in sexist murders every summer. The same has been requested by Yolanda Besteiro, spokesperson for the Federation of Progressive Women, who believes that they would help raise awareness of gender violence at a time when denialist voices are heard, above all, on social networks.
Awareness campaigns should be launched in the summer season, just like the Directorate General of Traffic (DGT), because, as Rosell acknowledges, "summer is a busy time, you need to be especially alert to violence more extreme gender".
Some data: in July 2010 and 2019, ten women were killed, and in the same month of 2015, nine.
Lorente insisted on the "evil" that denialism is causing to the victims, who feel more unprotected in the face of the lack of social unity, in addition to empowering the abuser, and warned of the imitation effect: "Right now there is men thinking of killing their wives".
Despite the wave of murders, the Government representative pointed out that the problem of gender-based violence "is getting better, in the sense that there are fewer and fewer murdered victims and male violence is coming to light more". But you must not let your guard down.
