Nicanor Sen highlights the need to educate in equality and respect to move towards a fairer society in the award of the II Izcala Awards

• The government delegate in Castilla y León participates, together with the Secretary General of Penitentiary Institutions and the Director General of Penal Enforcement and Social Reintegration, in the presentation of the second edition of the ‘Izcala Awards’, with which the prison of Topas has recognized the work of Mercedes Gallizo and Myriam Carretero in favor of equality between men and women • “It is essential to value the relevance of the feminist movement as a representative of the plurality of women and a driving force of social transformation, not only in terms of equality but in the progress towards a society more just and committed to human rights.”

March 4, 2024.- The government delegate in Castilla y León, Nicanor Sen, participated this Monday in the delivery of the ‘Izcala Awards’ promoted from the Equality Unit of the penitentiary center of Topas, which recognize the work of those who work for equality between men and women.

An awards ceremony that has been presided over by the Government delegate together with the Secretary General of Penitentiary Institutions, Ángel Luis Ortiz González; the Director General of Penal Execution and Social Reintegration, Miguel Ángel Vicente Cuenca; the Subdelegate of the Government in Zamora, Ángel Blanco, and the director of the penitentiary center, Carlos García, and which in its second edition has wanted to recognize the work of Mercedes Gallizo and Myriam Carretero.

Mercedes Gallizo is the current president of the Society of Penitentiary Infrastructures and Equipment (SIEPSE) and previously was General Director of Penitentiary Institutions between 2004 and 2008, and from this date until 2011 General Secretary of Penitentiary Institutions.

For his part, Myriam Carretero came into contact with the reality of the prison in 2002 during the practices of Psychology. Later, she stayed in Topas as a volunteer, assuming the coordination of the Intervention program with people deprived of their liberty promoted by Caritas.

“Two names that add to the list of women who, with their actions, champion the fight for equality” said Sen, who has had a memory for Ana Soledad Acosta and Encarnación Pérez, the first two women who received this recognition and also the first two women who assumed the direction of the prison of Topas and the Subdelegation of the Government in Salamanca, respectively.

An event framing the events of International Women’s Day, a day of reclaiming in which, according to Sen, it is important to congratulate ourselves on the progress achieved as a country, but also to be aware that “we are still far from achieving effective equality between men and women, a fight to which we must all join”.

In this sense, Sen has valued the feminist movement as a representative of the plurality of women and an engine of social transformation, not only in terms of equality “but in the progress towards a more just, sustainable, plural society and committed to human rights, from a multidimensional and transversal approach”, he said.

Hence, the government delegate has stressed that the path demanded by democracy is to educate in equality and respect: “We must move towards a culture of equality that promotes respect, repudiates any kind of violence against women and eliminates any gender differences.”

The objective of all the policies of the Government of Spain, which Sen has now concluded, is working to bring forward the Law of Joint Representation, a law that “is necessary to continue removing the obstacles that make more than half of the population more difficult than the other”.