The Head of the Coordination Unit against Violence against Women, Laura Segura, has warned against those who “with their speeches and acts, as well as with their silences and complicit hugs, deny gender violence, put at risk the achievements reached”.
The head of the Unit stressed that “in the face of every attempt at disinformation and confusion they will find a violet point and a safe space for the victims; that in the face of censorship and the parental pin they will find co-educational schools and that, in the face of misogyny, machismo and attempts to backtrack, they will find, as a wall, feminism and feminist policies and equality policies”.
Segura has made it clear that “we can’t afford to stop or backtrack” in the realm of real equality or in the fight against male violence. “We can only move forward and do so with a single objective, that the inequality that fuels gender violence disappears from our society,” he stressed.
For this reason, he has appealed to all citizens “to counter from all levels and unanimously the denial discourse that jeopardizes the progress achieved, complicit discourses that perpetuate the male violence and that endanger the freedom, integrity and life of women.” Because, he added, “they foster fear, shame and guilt in the victims, making the doors of violence smaller.”
In this sense, Segura has stressed that there is a key challenge: the breaking of silence in the face of this violence and the end of the impunity of those who exercise it. A challenge, he added, “for the whole of society, so that the weight of the complaints does not continue to fall on the victims.”
Involve the whole society
The Head of Unit has stressed the importance of continuing to consolidate each of the achievements made in equality and in the fight against gender violence and, in turn, to continue moving forward to end each of the male violence, “violence suffered by women because they are women and for the eradication of inequality, whose most terrible expression is gender violence.”
In this sense, he has emphasized the need to perceive this violence as a structural violence “based on the inequalities that cross us and that is one of the cruellest manifestations of subordination and imbalance in the power relations between men and women.”
For this reason, he assured that “we must and will continue to work on improving detection mechanisms and especially on prevention from equal education in schools, from the earliest ages, because equal education saves lives.”
Laura Segura has insisted that the coordination and action of all institutions, administrations, entities, agencies with the unique commitment of the construction of an egalitarian society and free of violence against women is indispensable. “The attention and accompaniment to women who are suffering violence is key, to give them alternatives so that they can feel protected, safe and strong to break with the circle or the ladder of violence,” he argued.
In the fight against gender violence, he said, “the involvement and awareness of all citizens is fundamental, because we need a clear response of rejection from society, an individual and collective position against gender violence, in all its manifestations, and in these moments that we live, more than ever.”
Segura has recognized that “we are seeing the rights and freedoms of women that were guaranteed in jeopardy”, given that “we witnessed the questioning, and even the proposed repeal of the Comprehensive Law against Gender Violence, a pioneering law that managed to remove from homes and silence the violence that women suffered in their own homes”.
A law, he added, “has allowed the establishment of comprehensive protection measures and to prevent, punish and eradicate this violence, as well as providing assistance to women and their sons and daughters.”
“We even witness the justification of abusers and the laundering of gender violence, because gender violence is not hard divorces, because it is the loss of power on the part of abusers that ends up in violence, even murder, because it is not domestic or domestic violence because machismo is the source of this violence,” he said.
22.22% more complaints
In her statement to the media, the Head of the Unit reported on the situation of Gender Violence in our city, mainly during the first and second trimesters of 2023.
Thus, as he explained, with regard to complaints of gender-based violence, the first quarter ended with 66 complaints, with an increase of 22.22% compared to the first quarter of 2022, where 54 complaints of gender-based violence were registered.
The second quarter ended with 75 complaints, an increase of 7.14% compared to the second quarter last year, which recorded 70 complaints. And in this 2023 the distribution of complaints by months has meant 17 in January; 22 in February; 27 in March; 24 in April; 25 May; and 26 in June. As far as this month of July is concerned, 18 complaints of gender-based violence have been registered to date.
Regarding the analysis of the use of existing State services on gender violence in the city of Melilla, Segura has pointed out that since the launch of Telephone Service 016 on information and legal advice on gender violence in September 2007 and until May 31 of this year, 1,906 relevant calls have been received in Melilla.
Since January 1 and until May 31, 45 calls have been received compared to the 68 calls registered in the same period of the year 2022. There were 77.7% of the calls made by the user herself - 35 calls - and 22.22% - 10 calls - by relatives or close associates.
Thus, the first quarter ended with 22 calls at 016, compared to 42 calls received in the same period of the year 2022, which represents a decrease of 47.62%.
In the month of April 8 calls were registered compared to the 6 calls that were registered in the same period last year and in the month of May 15, with 20 calls registered in May 2022.
Regarding the number of users of the Telephone Service for Care and Protection for Victims of Gender Violence (ATENPRO), Segura has indicated that in January of this year there were 18 users registered; in February, 17; in March, 14; in April, 14; and 13 in May.
219 active cases in VioGen
With regard to the active cases in VioGén, the head of the Unit explained that the active cases in January were 198; in February, 203; in March, 210; in April, 212; 221 in May; and 219 in June.
“To the 219 cases active in the VioGén System in Melilla as of June 30, 2023, we must add the 2,103 cases inactivated from 2007 to this date, which makes a total of 2,322 total cases and 2,161 total victims in our city from 2007 to the present,” he said.
Regarding the distribution by risk levels, there are 112 active cases of unappreciated risk; 85 of low irrigation; 20 of medium risk and 2 cases of high risk.
With regard to the active cases, there were 140 with minors, 29 of whom would be in a vulnerable situation and 12 cases of special relevance.
“At the present time, we have 213 cases in assets and a case of high risk, 7 are cases assigned to the Woman-Minor Team (EMUME) of the Civil Guard, the risks being mostly medium, low and not appreciated, and none in the CETI,” he said.
Police protection
In the chapter on women with police protection, Segura has indicated that in January there were 108 women who had this protection; in February, 103; in March, 102; in April, 103; and in May, 110 women.
And with regard to the number of protection orders and measures for gender violence, the data offered by the head of the Unit imply that, from January to December 2022, there are a total of 84 orders initiated, of which 76 were adopted and 8 were denied.
Regarding the number of inmates who have served sentences in penitentiaries with crimes of gender violence, the evolution of inmates by months this year has been as follows: 12 in January, 14 in February, 15 in March, 15 in April and 12 in May.
With regard to the granting of temporary residence and work permits for foreign women victims of gender-based violence per year of resolution, in the first quarter of this year, 5 temporary residence permits have been granted, 3 in April and 2 in May, in other words, a total of 10 permits to date.
Segura has highlighted that, in Melilla, there have been no fatalities due to gender violence since 2016, with 5 women murdered in the city since 2005.
Today in our country there are 1,212 women killed by gender violence since we have official data, this year 28 women have been killed by their partners or former partners and 33 children orphaned and orphaned by gender violence. And a minor mortal victim, murdered along with her mother.
“Terrible and unbearable figures that show that gender violence could be considered as the main social problem that we have today”, he stressed while recalling that the majority of gender violence remains hidden and is not reported, since it is around 78%.
And all this despite the fact that these data only refer to the violence that is exercised in the area of the couple or ex-couple, being the reality of gender violence much greater, if you take into account the rest of the violence that is exercised on women, such as sexual violence, trafficking of women and girls for the purposes of sexual exploitation, sexual exploitation, prostitution, forced marriages, female genital mutilation…