Medina Del Campo Against Gender Violence

November 25 is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, named by the United Nations General Assembly on December 17, 1999. This date was chosen to honor the Mirabal sisters, three political activists from the Dominican Republic who were brutally assassinated in 1960 during the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo for going against the regime (1930-1961).

Violence against women is understood as “any act of violence that has or may result in physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering for the woman, as well as threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether they occur in public life or in private life ”(definition of violence against women made by the UN General Assembly in 1993).

Violence against women and girls is a serious violation of human rights. Its impact can be immediate as well as far-reaching, and includes multiple physical, sexual, psychological, and even fatal consequences for women and girls. It negatively affects the well-being of women and prevents their full participation in society. In addition to having negative consequences for women, violence also impacts their family, community and the country (Source: UN WOMEN What We Do: End Violence Against Women | UN Women (unwomen.org)

 

SOME DATA…

In the European Union in reference to physical violence, 31% of women have suffered one or more acts of physical violence since the age of 15. Regarding sexual violence, it is estimated that one in 20 women (5%) has been raped in EU countries since the age of 15. Psychological violence: 43% of women in the 28 EU countries have suffered some type of psychological violence by their intimate partner. (Official data from the European Commission).

Regarding domestic violence, 22% of all women who have had a partner have suffered physical and / or sexual violence by their partner since the age of 15. Regarding harassment based on sex, between 45% and 55% of women in the EU have suffered sexual harassment since the age of 15. (Official data from the European Commission)

In Spain according to the XII Annual Report of the State Observatory on Violence against Women 2018, in 2018, 85.4% of victimizations for crimes against sexual freedom and indemnity were committed against women. 

54% of the women murdered in Spain between 2003 and 2017 have been killed by their partner or ex-partner, according to information from the Death Statistics by cause of death from the National Institute of Statistics (INE) and Death Victims of Violence from Gender of the Government Delegation against Gender Violence (DGVG).

According to the data registered on gender violence in this year 2021 by the Government Delegation against Gender Violence, data confirmed as of November 8, 37 women have been murdered in Spain at the hands of their partners or ex-partners, 5 minors were registered as fatal victims of gender violence and 24 children under 18 years of age have been orphaned by this type of violence.

1,118 women victims of gender violence in Spain since 2003 and 44 minors since 2013, which is when this type of statistic is collected.

 

REGULATORY FRAMEWORK

From the normative field, some international initiatives can be mentioned, such as “The Charter of the United Nations” of the year 1945 and / or the 5th Conference held in Beijing in 1995, which is conceived as starting points of the journey of equality of genre.

At the European legislative level, there is the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence of the year 2011 and / or the Gender Equality Strategy 2018-2023, the latter seeks effective equality between women and men. 

From the Spanish national sphere, there is Organic Law 3/2007 of March 22, for the effective equality of women and men and / or the “Royal Decree-Law 6/2019, of March 1, of urgent measures to guarantee of equal treatment and opportunities between women and men in employment and occupation ”.

In this way, on an autonomous level, one can refer to the Statute of Autonomy of Castilla y León from 1983, Agreement 130/2015 of September 10 of the Junta de Castilla y León, which establishes the comprehensive care model to victims of gender “objective zero violence”.

Finally, at a local level, we can mention the importance of the III Municipal Plan for equal opportunities and against gender violence of the Medina del Campo City Council, which takes into account all spheres of society, such as education, employment, associations, health and gender violence in among others. All this, in order to be an action guide to tackle the inequalities produced by Gender Violence in the town of Medina del Campo.

 

WHAT DO WE DO TO PREVENT GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE?

Gender violence is a problem that affects all areas of society, such as work, social, family, cultural, political, etc. In addition, both its prevention and intervention entail enormous costs for public administrations and private entities. More specifically, in Europe, according to the European Institute for Gender Equality it has calculated that the cost of gender violence is 366,000 million euros per year, of which 79% of this cost, or what is the same 289,000 million euros go to violence against women. In Spain, according to the Secretary of State for Equality, gender violence has a cost of about 30,000 million euros a year.

For all these reasons, from the Medina del Campo City Council through the Equality Program, as every year, it has organized different awareness-raising activities during the month of November 2021 to commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and in which VIRAGO has been present in many of these actions:

 

Training activities for young women to work on the prevention of gender violence:

During the month of November, the VIRAGO training module “PROMOTION OF THE EU YOUTH STRATEGY ”, through the collaboration of different support professionals, in the following groups:

  • 1st group: students of the Integrated Vocational Training Center. An educational center in our town aimed at job insertion, reintegration and updating, whose main objective is to increase and adapt the knowledge and skills of current and future workers throughout their lives.
  • 2nd group: women users of Cáritas Interparroquial (NGO that works with population at risk of social exclusion)
  • 3rd group: women volunteers from the town of Medina del Campo, who intend to acquire new knowledge related to the subject of the module.

Through this training module, the leadership and participation of young women as a tool for the prevention of gender violence in the youth population has been specifically worked on.

 

Activities for November 25 International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women:

  • Cinema-Forum “The Assistant”. Monday, November 22

It is based on the realization of the video forum on the film “The Assistant” of the year 2019. First, a visualization of the film is carried out and then a brief debate is carried out, raising some questions for reflection.

  • Play “CINCO HORAS CON MARIANA”. Tuesday, November 23

A visualization of a play is made, in which the protagonist tells the story of a man who with macho beginnings, through the care of his daughter, realizes the importance of the role of women and the changes in favor of gender equality that society needs.

  • Conference on Sexual Education, Where are we headed? Wednesday, November 24

A seminar on sexual education is held, through the collaboration of different entities that are in charge of conducting the talks. Likewise, the first part deals with topics such as: “sexual education as a prevention tool against gender violence”, “the consumption of porn and its consequences on sexual health”. In the second part, good practices for the prevention of sexual violence are shown, such as “the NI HEROES NI SIRENAS sexual education program”, managed by the municipal equality program itself and ends with the Erasmus + project “Stop child abuse to through training and augmented reality ”.

  • Institutional act against gender violence. Thursday, November 25 in the morning

This act is held to commemorate November 25 International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Through the presence of local political figures and women’s associations in Medina del Campo, an awareness-raising video is displayed, a manifesto created by the Women’s Participation Council is read and a minute of silence is observed.

  • Act of citizen participation against gender violence. Thursday, November 25 in the morning

This act is held to commemorate November 25 International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. In it, there is the presence of the political figures of the town and the participation of the citizens of Medina del Campo who want to show their rejection of gender violence. The manifesto prepared by the Council for the Participation of Women is read, the mention of each victim of gender violence in Spain in the year 2021 and at the same time a white carnation is deposited for each victim on a white ribbon and finalizes with a minute of silence in commemoration of the victims.

In Medina del Campo, on December 1, 2021

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