The Government delegate in Asturias, Adriana Lastra, has delivered the Menina 2024 recognitions. These are the distinctions that all delegations and subdelegations of the Government grant on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and are framed within the State Pact against Gender Violence.
In this year’s edition the Government Delegation in Asturias has decided to award the highest distinction to Marián Moreno, professor, writer and expert in coeducation. Since 2020 she has been a coeducation advisor at the Asturian Institute of Women where she has developed an intense work promoting the implementation of the Coeducastur program. After handing her the Menina, the delegate of the Government, Adriana Lastra, stressed that Moreno “is a reference in the necessary coeducation, in the essential promotion of gender equality in the educational field, because one of the ways to end gender violence has its basis in inculcating these feminist values from childhood”.
In addition, special mentions have been granted to the VICOP of the Local Police of Gijón and the Gender Violence Unit of the Local Police of Oviedo because, according to Lastra, “their necessary collaboration with the Civil Guard and the National Police is fundamental so that the victims feel protected, so that they are encouraged to report their abuser”. A special mention has also been given to the Network of Employment Counsellors for Gender Violence of the Public Employment Service of the Principality of Asturias, “trusted people for many women who do not know what to do with their lives once they decide to leave the couple who do not treat them as they deserve”.
Unity Against Gender Violence
In an event attended by the Vice-President of the Government of the Principality, the President of the High Court of Justice, the Chief Prosecutor of the Principality of Asturias, the mayors of Oviedo and Gijón, the Chief Colonel of the Area/Command of the Civil Guard of Asturias and the Chief Officer of the National Police in Asturias, among other civil and military authorities, the delegate of the Government has sent a message of unity.
Adriana Lastra has set as one of the objectives of the Government of Spain to achieve a new State Pact against Gender Violence. “Anyone who sits outside the Pact, and I look directly at the extreme right-wing denier, is a threat to women,” Lastra said, mentioning that “every time the existence or severity of gender violence is denied, a victim feels unprotected and an abuser feels protected.” For this reason, he has stressed, for the Government of Spain “the fight against male violence is a central issue, it is a matter of State”.
Twenty years of the law against gender violence
In her speech, the government delegate recalled Teresa Aladro, who three years ago was murdered by her partner in Pola de Laviana: “This is an act of remembrance and reparation, an act of justice for Teresa and for all the women who have had their lives cut short by their partner or ex-partner.” Since 2003, 1,287 women have been murdered by their partner or ex-partner, 42 so far this year, two in the last few days. And he also mentioned Sara and Amets, the girls whose father took their lives ten years ago in San Juan de la Arena “for the sole reason of inflicting the greatest possible harm on their mother from which they had just separated.”
Adriana Lastra has mentioned the case of Ana Orantes who denounced on television that she suffered ill-treatment and that she was murdered shortly after, “it marked a before and an after in the collective consciousness of the need to take measures against a violence silenced for so many decades.” In this regard, Organic Law 1/2004, of December 28, on Comprehensive Protection Measures against Gender Violence, approved by the government presided over by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and which “represented a paradigm shift in our legal system and is a benchmark in the fight against male violence due to its integral and innovative approach”.
The Government delegate has assured that the central Executive continues to work “on all fronts” against violence against women: “We know that on a day-to-day basis, we have to respond quickly to cases of violence, and we have done so by increasing resources in both prevention and victim care.”
He has highlighted the state funds received by the autonomous communities and municipalities within the State Pact against Gender Violence. Money that, in the case of Asturias, served to create the first Crisis Center for victims of sexual assaults, a pioneer in Spain and that will soon have a second headquarters. “Cases of sexual violence are unbearable,” Lastra said.
The Government delegate has reviewed the figures of the Ministry of the Interior’s Comprehensive Monitoring of Cases of Gender Violence, VioGén System. Today there are 2,100 women protected by the Security Forces and Corps who “live in fear for their partners or ex-partners, because behind the coldness of the data there are truncated lives, women who do not live free”.
Lastra has sent a message to women who suffer gender-based violence and do not dare to denounce: “Denounce, do it. You have all the mechanisms at your disposal so that you can safely take the step. All the services of attention, advice, monitoring of any type of need, are at your fingertips. Take the step. We are here to protect and accompany you.” Call that has been extended to the environments of the victims: “Do not be complicit and get in touch with the Security Forces and Corps, because it may be in your hand to save a life.”
Let shame change sides
The government delegate recalled that this year’s campaign of the Ministry of Equality ‘Not one more. Not one less’, focuses on the social rejection of the aggressors, emphasizing that shame must change sides. “Because in gender violence there is only one culprit, the abuser,” said Lastra, betting on ending the problem “at the root”: “We seek and we must make the male chauvines feel cornered, separated by a society that looks towards a citizenship, a democracy, without violence.”
“2024 has been the year of the horrible case of Gisèle Pelicot”, continued the delegate of the Government, “it has marked a milestone in the fight against gender violence by not hesitating to publicize the sexual assaults she suffered for decades, her courage has transcended the judicial field and has been an important step so that, as she herself said, shame changes command”.
Another danger for which the government delegate has expressed concern is the way in which gender violence reaches young people, “driven by the rise of new technologies and social networks.” “Digital environments facilitate the reproduction of misogynistic discourses and access to content that perpetuates gender stereotypes,” explained Lastra, “so it is crucial to educate young people in the responsible use of technologies, promote relationships based on respect and equality, and establish effective complaint mechanisms that protect victims in these digital environments.”
In this regard, he recalled that this year the Government Delegation in Asturias has launched a campaign on social networks aimed at young people to raise awareness about gender violence.