“Spain has consolidated itself as one of the countries driving progress in gender equality.” The Head of the Coordination Unit against Violence against Women of the Government Delegation in Melilla, Laura Segura, has participated in the Conference ‘Women, profession and leadership: Knowledge and challenges in the Social and Legal Sciences”, organized by the Committee on Equality, Conciliation and Inclusion of the Faculty of Social and Legal Sciences of Melilla.
“Spain remains the fourth most advanced country in gender equality within the European Union, but we must continue to move forward, accelerate progress and consolidate each of the achievements and work to end the inequalities that still affect us as a society,” he said.
Segura has stressed that we must bear in mind “the great challenges posed by a reactionary wave that puts at risk what has been achieved” and has warned that “we are in a very complicated moment” and that “we have to be aware of the moment we are facing” in relation to the rearmament of machismo that we are experiencing.
This echoed Simone de Beauvoir’s phrase that ‘a political, economic or religious crisis will suffice for women’s rights to be challenged again’
Laura Segura has stressed that we must address the challenges that we as a society have ahead of us, “since the data produced by the numerous studies carried out leave no room for interpretation of reality, women’s lives continue to be worse than those of men in all areas of life.”
In her speech, the Head of Unit stressed that, women who are in positions of institutional and political responsibility in matters of equality and gender violence “what we do is to push on the efforts of others and in the hope that those who will come will do so more strongly.”
“Feminism is identity, because it changes us forever, it challenges us and we take it everywhere, where there is a feminist that space is better and more just,” she said and recalled that feminism “questions injustice, oppressions on women but also questions privileges.”
All this, he pointed out, given that women are not in a neutral space and encounter difficulties that force them to “show our worth, conciliate without guilt, develop them in spaces that have traditionally been men’s and occupy and transform them as we feminist women know how to do, creating teams, with empathy, but with decision and determination, and receiving a lot of violence for our exhibition”.
Response to victims
In her speech at the Assembly Hall of the Melila Campus, Laura Segura explained what the Coordination Units against Violence against Women consist of, which depend on the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Public Service and the Ministry of Equality, through the Government Delegation Against Gender Violence and which are located in the Government Delegations in each Community and Autonomous City.
“They are one-person bodies whose main objective is to improve the effectiveness and personalization of the response aimed at women victims of gender violence and their sons and daughters,” he said.
They are also concerned with other forms of gender-based violence, such as trafficking in women and girls for the purpose of sexual exploitation, forced marriages, and genital mutilation.
“They are a network for coordinating and monitoring the resources and services of the General Administration of the State and collaborating with regional and local administrations in matters of gender violence,” he said.
In this sense, he has made it clear that “the work that has been carried out by the Unit in our Delegation has allowed the Unit to present itself as a reference institution for coordination in violence against women in our city”, a coordination, he added, that is given not only with institutions, but with civil society.
Segura also recalled that, since 2020, the follow-up tables launched by the Coordination Unit are in operation, such as the Follow-up Table on Awareness and Prevention of Gender Violence; the Follow-up Table on Care and Intervention for Victims of Gender Violence; and the Follow-up Table on Protection for Victims of Gender Violence.
Also since, in 2020, the Protocol of Collaboration between the State Security Forces and the Local Police of the Autonomous City of Melilla for the protection and follow-up of victims of gender violence was signed and the Police Coordination Table began to be convened, it was decided to stop convening the Follow-up Table “Protection of victims of gender violence” and not duplicate functions.
These bureaux include all the institutions and entities that are involved in gender violence and are fundamental bodies for coordination and follow-up, as well as prevention and awareness raising.
Apart from the Follow-up Desks, the Coordination Unit against Violence Against Women has been convening and developing the working table with non-governmental organizations and associations working with women in our city, a fundamental space for proposals for improvement, detection and prevention, as well as action in situations of gender violence, but above all, in other forms of violence against women. At the same time, specific meetings are held with each of the entities throughout the year.