"Dear HHH: My name is Isabel... You must not see or talk to the man who hurt your mother (your biological father)", "I have decided that you will continue to live with your mother", " I am convinced that feeling afraid when you are with your father is not good for you..." and "I am the judge who has decided that you can hug your mother again". The sentences are part of the four missives, addressed to children, that a substitute judge from Barcelona, Isabel Giménez (1967), has included in court rulings. The last one, which denies visits to a father accused of gender violence, has been a "revolution" because it applies the law with a gender and childhood perspective. She has also placed this magistrate as a reference because she addresses the minors in the opinions to explain to them the decision she has made.
Giménez has been working as a substitute judge in civil and commercial matters for more than 20 years, and a recent resolution with which she aims to prevent vicarious violence has brought her a shower of praise. "For years I have been sickened by the abuse and mistreatment of children... These are situations that are covered up", explains Giménez to this newspaper from the office of the City of Justice in Barcelona. For more than two decades, he has been solving everything from quantity claims to “any dispute”. And when it comes to civil matters, he brings family cases.
On April 15, he signed a resolution rejecting the request for visits to a father. He had been reported for gender-based violence in 2018 and, despite reports attesting to the woman's injuries, he chose not to testify at the criminal trial and there was no conviction. The couple has a daughter, who would have witnessed assaults and also been a victim. Visits were arranged at a meeting point to which the father never showed up. Until five years later he applied for joint custody and, subsequently, to be able to see the minor on weekends. When she found out, the girl lived in terror with the idea of seeing "the gentleman who almost killed her mother", the sentence details. And Giménez, based on reports, decided to dismiss the request and impose protective measures so that the father cannot approach the minor, explicitly mentioning the risk of vicarious violence. He decided it a few months after the hearing because he was waiting for documents to certify the daughter's condition. The resolution, which can be appealed, included a letter addressed to the girl to explain the decision and reassure her.
For many people, this way of addressing causes involving children by adopting a gender perspective and also protecting childhood is innovative. But it is not the first time that this judge acts like this. "It's the fourth letter I've written", explains Giménez. The first was aimed at a young man who suffered from school bullying and was absent a lot from class, so that he had been ordered to enter a juvenile center, after the administration considered that the mother was not taking care of the child. He came out the next day by Giménez's court order to assess whether he was really a victim of school bullying. "I removed him from the center because I saw that the risk was not the mother, and I issued the resolution without listening to the DGAIA", he points out. He has also sent letters via resolution to a minor victim of an abduction, for whom he has planned a visiting regime that allows the mother-daughter relationship to resume, and to a child with Asperger's syndrome who was afraid of his father, to whom custody has been withdrawn.
In the last resolution, he adopted protective measures "understanding that there was vicarious violence". The magistrate assures that she can "look up" and investigate past situations that, even if they have not resulted in a conviction, can help her make a decision as protective as possible for the minor.
This judge likes to talk to children a lot, and she talks to them whenever she can. But he preferred not to proceed in this way in the already famous sentence because she was a "revictimized" girl with post-traumatic stress, attached to her mother and with fears. The minor, the judge, had verbalized to an expert her fear that "the man who almost killed my mother will come", she stopped eating and did not want to go out because she knew the father's intention to want to see her.
"The Lopivi [organic law 8/2021 on Comprehensive Protection of Children and Adolescents against Violence] says to listen to children, not to explore them", remarks this judge. It is precisely the application of this law that is one of the praises that is repeated the most. The lawyer and expert in vicarious violence Eliana Camps celebrates Giménez's action, and values the letter as "innovative" and of "sublime delicacy". According to the expert, there are judicial mechanisms to stop vicarious violence that consist of applying the law, but "it is not applied because the pater familias prevails over the benefit of the minor", she regrets. Camps assures that this sentence "has generated a revolution". With a tragic start to the year, the lawyer warns that there is an increase in vicarious violence and that the most extreme cases - which end in death - are the tip of the iceberg because in the majority there is no death result, but yes aggression or instrumentalization of the minor to "put him against the mother".
Marta Ariste, lawyer for Leo's mother (the first victim of vicarious violence in Catalonia), celebrates that "for the first time" the child is at the center. The lawyer appreciates that the judge considers that if the father has acted violently with the mother, he can act in the same way with the girl or use her to hurt the mother and exercise vicarious violence. For Ariste, with the "wave" of vicarious violence, the courts must think that this is a "reality". He regrets that this judge is an "exception", but he also considers that her performance provides "a little light" that will perhaps help to make a change in the courts. "The statistics say that the murders have taken place during visits", points out Ariste, who wonders "why is there an obsession with maintaining the father-son bond if there are signs?"
The resolution has also been received with great hope by the associations. For Rosalía González, president of the Associació Contra la Violència Vicària M.A.M.I, the action of the Catalan judge gives "immense hope", claims that "a father is not a sperm donor" and that there is not the same consideration with the mothers alluding to the beginnings.
The idea of the letters is something innovative and commendable for the sources consulted. "I try to convey to them the explanations of what I have decided because it affects them in life... I also try to tell them that they have been very brave", he explains. For this reason, Giménez clarifies that the idea is not an "invention" of his, but has been inspired by the Constitutional Court of Colombia. Because this magistrate is also part of the Association of Women Judges (AMJE), an organization that gives her the opportunity to meet professionals and legal realities in the world. According to the magistrate, the letter is like a "small reparation from the court".
Giménez calls for specific training in childhood issues and also regrets that the workload makes it difficult to "think". "In a story of abuse or mistreatment, you have to believe and protect the minors", he claims. The magistrate regrets that sometimes the children are listened to, but they are not heard". She is determined to change that.
