• Prosecuting attorneys’ work seen as ‘fundamental’ to combating abuse
• Specialists in gender violence, domestic abuse assisted 47,000 women in 2015
The Spanish government’s domestic abuse and gender violence monitoring agency, the Observatorio contra la Violencia Doméstica y de Género has announced its annual award to individuals and organisations committed to combating abuse against women will go to the more than 200 public prosecuting attorneys specializing in gender violence, whose assistance to victims providing initial evidence, in filing of complaints and following through on prosecutions has been crucial in the steady increase of convictions for abuse against women in Spain.
In 2015, the number of cases in which Spanish judges meted out jail time for violence against women or domestic abuse rose for the second straight year to reach 62.7 percent of all sentences handed down. In courts dedicated to gender violence cases, that figure reached 77.2 percent, with 14,528 convictions resulting in men spending time in jail for having used violence against a woman.
According to the Observatorio, more than 200 prosecuting attorneys specializing in domestic abuse and gender violence were on duty every day in Spain during 2015, providing help to more than 47,000 women who came forward to present evidence of abuse and assisting them in filing complaints and prosecuting their abusers.
► Read More in Spanish at La Vanguardia and Europa Press …
