The Head of the Coordination Unit Against Gender Violence of the Government Delegation in Melilla, Laura Segura, has announced that from her area the Punto Violeta campaign will be taken back to all the houses of the Melilla Fair.
A campaign launched by the Government of Spain to prevent gender violence and raise awareness among all citizens, as well as to inform how to act in cases of gender violence, both in the case of being a victim of male violence or if an aggression is present.
As explained in an interview given to Melilla Television’s ‘El Inicio’ program, the Punto Violeta campaign has a guide that will be distributed through the signage that will be sent to all the houses and through a QR code anyone can make use of it, so that, “in addition to being information points, they are also spaces that guarantee the accompaniment to the victim”.
In addition, from the Unit they will be distributed during the abanicos patron saint’s parties with this QR code and abanicos with adaptation of the guide of the Violeta Point to easy reading.
In the words of Segura, it is intended to replace, this year, the lack of the Violet Point as such in the Fair, since the Autonomous City will install the information that has to do with gender violence within the general information space.
“We lose a very important space, the violet points are not only information spaces, they are spaces that also create the feeling of security in a Fair,” he said, and pointed out that, if there is a violet point, “it means that the Fair is a safe space to be able to attend to a victim in case of aggression and is a space of reference.”
“In collaboration with the State Security Forces and Corps, we will have activated all protection and prevention mechanisms to make the fair a safe fair,” he said.
In summer, more complaints
During the interview, the Head of the Unit also explained that “summer is the time when there are more reports of gender violence, this being the year in which we have the most reports in the summer period, at least in the last four years”.
What is more, he pointed out that the month of June has been closed with 26 complaints; July, with 32 and, although it is pending the closure of the month of August, this month will exceed the 30 complaints.
“Summer is the period of greater coexistence in couple relationships, it is also a time of rest and, in turn, there are more moments in leisure spaces and these are spaces where, sometimes, violence is exercised,” he said.
“Sadly I cannot say that the data has improved. We can be pleased that it is denounced, because we know that a very small percentage of the gender violence that actually occurs is denounced”, he has argued and recalled that around 20% is denounced, therefore “whenever there is an increase in denunciations we have to think that a silenced violence is being put on the table, but the data are not good”, he said.
In this sense, he pointed out that, “although from the feeling that we are going to get worse, we are managing to save lives with each act of awareness, prevention and protection”.
Days on Trafficking
On the other hand, Laura Segura has also announced that on September 18 and 19, the training that has been carried out with professionals around the International Day against Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking of Women, Girls and Children will be resumed. “A few days that are done with entities, but also with all the institutions that are involved in this matter such as the police or the civil guard,” he said.
In addition, it has contemplated the realization of more training activities for other sectors, such as the State Security Forces, journalists, teachers, etc., ensuring its following project in the field of education: “As soon as the school year begins, the violet suitcases will rotate again in each of the primary and secondary schools in the city.”
Segura recalled that the Organic Law on the Comprehensive Guarantee of Sexual Freedom closed a space that was totally empty in terms of protection, accompaniment and reparation for victims of sexual violence and says that she hopes that the changes in the law will curb the unexpected results in terms of reductions in sentences in some of the cases appealed, she explained.
The head of the Unit said that, with what has happened around the situation that footballer Jennifer Hermoso has had to live in at the World Cup, the spirit of the law has been put on the table again, whose message seems to have got through, the importance of putting consent at the center. “The law has opened up a very complicated path in society. It is easier to make a law and do justice but, nevertheless, it is more difficult sometimes to change social thinking and culture and, nevertheless, there has been an important social response,” he said.
In this context he has pointed out as violence both the kiss without consent of Luis Rubiales, as well as the abuse of power, his subsequent statements and the rest of the event that have been given subsequently, which, as he has pointed out, and confirm that the situation that is being experienced in masculinized and very patriarchal spaces such as football, “has been and will continue to be very complicated”.
Segura, who has condemned Rubiales’ statements in which he downplays the fact itself, normalizes what happened, victimizes himself and singles out the victim while pointing out and threatening the people who support the victim to leave her alone. “It is very important to also analyze the male chauvinistic culture that has tried to cover up, remove and demand the victim,” he said.
At the same time, he stressed that this is an historic moment in the fight against violence against women, “because Spain no longer consents to this type of act and because we have put consent at the center”, he stressed. “We do not start from the power of men to use the body of women, but from the consent of both, and this is what the law has also put at the center of the debate,” he said, while noting that it is important for society to be aware that silence favors aggressors.
“Spanish footballers have won twice, and are opening the way, not only in being leaders in women’s sport, but also in the fight against machismo,” he said.