• First step in establishment of federal ‘Pacto de Estado’ against gender violence
• Working group to include input from women’s groups, NGOs, regional agencies
Spain’s Ministry of Health, Social Affairs and Equality has hosted the first session of a working group that will study measures to be incorporated into a much publicized and National Pact against Gender Violence (Pacto de Estado contra la Violencia de Género), agreed to by all political parties represented in the federal Congress of Deputies and long advocated by women’s rights and feminist groups as necessary to combat gender violence and domestic abuse nationwide.
The working group for the National Pact against Gender Violence met Thursday and has agreed to the participation in its deliberations of all non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and regional government agencies working in the areas of gender violence prevention, in support of the women and children victims of gender violence and domestic abuse and for stiffer penalties for perpetrators.
According to Gloria Vázquez, president of Galicia’s Ve-la luz association, the establishment of the working group and it’s open-doors policy toward gender-violence NGOs represent a positive step forward in the struggle to reduce gender violence and supports its victims in Spain.
Vázquez told reporters last week that Ve-la luz, which beginning in 2010 has campaigned continously on behalf of gender violence victims and staged the 2013 Mujeres del Sol hunger strike by 10 women activists in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol plaza to publicize the plight of victims, will actively participate in the working group’s hearings and deliberations in order to incorporate its recommendations into the measures it hopes will eventually become part of the National Pact against Gender Violence.
► Read More in Spanish at Público and Europa Press …
