The Government delegate in the Canary Islands, Anselmo Pestana, closes the series of interviews that the Government Delegation has conducted with professionals in the police and judicial field to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the approval of Organic Law 1/2004, of December 28, on Comprehensive Protection Measures against Gender Violence.
In the interview, the government delegate points out that the Law against Gender Violence has been a before and after in the legislation on this matter and “has saved many lives in these 20 years, particularly thanks to the gear of the Security Forces and Corps, which have allowed children and women to be saved from murder.”
“It was a before and an after in our society because it focused that policy as a State policy, of society. And it was approved unanimously, because there was a consensus beyond ideas (…) That was also a very important signal to society,” says Anselmo Pestana.
“Unfortunately, 20 years later there is a part of society, especially in the male sector of society, where this type of policy is questioned and they do not understand, when the data tells us, they keep telling us categorically, even blatantly, that it is still a serious problem in our society,” he adds.
The government delegate recalls that there are about 1,300 women who have been murdered in Spain due to gender violence since 2003, a figure that does not deny the existence of this scourge as a social problem and that requires the commitment of all to protect the victims and guarantee respect for the integrity and physical dignity of women.
“The instruments of protection and prevention must continue to be refined. I agree with the President of the Government that we have to review the law and all the measures (…) If we believe that this fight is worthwhile, we will have to continue making progress in having more public resources in all the Security Bodies and Forces, whether they are Autonomous Police, State Police – Civil Guard and National Police – but also Local Police,” he says.
Anselmo Pestana recognizes the challenge posed by the emergence of new forms of violence against women in the technological field in these twenty years, including social networks, and bets, in this regard, to raise awareness about this problem from the school and family level to the youngest children, just at the stage in which they are shaping their vision of the world.
“It’s a problem we have in society, in any society,” he warns. Some have it in much higher ranks than our country, but our country also has it. And the fight and the eradication of violence against women in all its dimensions is a fight that must be for the whole of society.”
In the series of deliveries that concludes today, the Government Delegation has also interviewed María Auxiliadora Díaz Velázquez, judge of the Violence against Women Court number 2 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, a Carlos Tallón Díaz, chief inspector of the Family Care Service of the Provincial Brigade of the Judicial Police of Las Palmas (UFAM) of the National Police, and María Ángeles Artiles Navarro, of the Judicial Police Organization Unit (UOPJ), Team of crimes against the people of the Civil Guard, and Patricia Talens Hernández, agent of the VioGén Team of the Neighbourhood Company (Gran Canaria) of Civil Guard.