Two sentences rekindle the debate about the machismo in the justice

Two new sentences that bring back memories of the case of The Herd have outraged public opinion in the last few days. One is of the court of Lleida, that sentence to four years and six months, for the abuse and not sexual assault, to two men who raped a young woman in Vielha in August of 2017, because it's not screamed or offered physical resistance, but said “repeatedly and crying ‘no’ and ‘please, to’ holding on tightly to the iron bars” of a window. The judges understand that there was no violence and intimidation as to consider it as a violation, as dictated by the law.

The second, of the Hearing of Pamplona, the same room that sentenced him to The Herd, the sentence to 10 months and 15 days for “abuse occasional” a man who slashed his wife and tried to asfixiarla in front of their children, 3 and 6 years. One of them, at least on one occasion, shouted: “Leave her alone, not kill them!”. The man released the neck voluntarily when he saw that he was drowning. The judges considered that the defendant left to strangle voluntarily, so that they were not the crime of murder in the degree of attempt.

the consent of the victim seems to be the key in this matter. For not indulging in what makes lack to put up to kicks, to risk an assault or to lose the life? Do you have to leave the Penal Code differentiate between abuse and aggression to try this last way, any attack on sexual freedom? Why the judges do not see bullying?

The main reasons given by jurists, lawyers, feminist groups and experts on gender-based violence to explain these statements can be summed up in a lack of training of the judiciary about the attacks on the sexual freedom that prevents a correct interpretation of the facts.

the Demonstration in Sant Jaume Square in Barcelona against the putting into provisional release of the accused from The Herd on the 27th of April 2018. Massimiliano Minocri

Lucy Avilés, judge and spokesperson of the Association of Women Judges, points out that in the case of the young boy that was raped in the town of lleida is calling the offense adjusted to the Penal Code, and for this reason it is desirable that “the legal values take into account the Istanbul Convention”. This agreement of the Council of Europe sealed in 2011 on the prevention and fight against violence on women puts the consent as the axis, and penalizes any sexual act committed without him. In Spain the agreement was ratified in 2014 but not applied effectively, although recent agreements by the committee of experts that prepared the amendment to the Criminal Code proposed to unify the figures of abuse and assault in a single type: assault, a legal adaptation to the social concept of rape to Avilés it is “important”: “The sentences do not match sometimes with the idea that we have women of what is an attack on our sexual freedom”. In these crimes the component of physical superiority and emotional of man over woman is to be read in terms of gender.

The intimidation, pointing Susana Gisbert, attorney specializing in gender-based violence and spokesman of the Prosecutor's office Provincial of the province of Valencia, not only get by putting a knife in the neck: “sometimes it takes just one look to subdue a victim. It would not take or change the Criminal Code if the judges changed their interpretation of what happens. To wear glasses violets”.

that “lack training, training and training,” repeated Elena Ocejo, president of women Lawyers for Equality. Training that foreseeably will become a legal specialty such as Minor or Mercantile, as Casinomaxi agreed last October 11 by unanimity in the Congress; until now, that's specialization on gender violence released in a workshop on line and 10 days of practices.

Legality and clarity

“What we are asking is that a gender perspective is mandatory according to the UN, the European Commission, the Council of Europe and our national laws,” says Ocejo. He explains that since in Spain there is the Law of Equality (2007), the obligation is to interpret and apply the laws according to that principle. “And statements such as these violate full. Then they say that the radical feminist demand... Yes, demand legality”. Ignacio Gonzalez, a spokesman for Justices and Judges for Democracy, the question would be “clearly” legal. “The rules should be more clear so that there is no doubt about what is to apply”.

Estefanny Molina, managing attorney, Women's Link, understood that the interpretation of the judges “trivializes violence against women because they do not have clear how does the dynamic of that kind of violence.” For feminist groups, this form of interpreting is a “crime court”, as he described it yesterday, Ana María Pérez del Campo, president of the Federation of Associations of Women Separated and Divorced.

MORE INFORMATION to The Audience of Lleida conviction for abuse, and not for assaulting two men who raped a young woman in The court of the Herd conviction for mistreatment of a man who tried to strangle his ex-wife a VIDEO Of a joke to a rape, so does the pyramid of male violence

Yolanda Besteiro, president of the Federation of Progressive Women, regretted the effect that these decisions may have on the following victims: “We ask women to have trust in the institutions and then they have to interpret the law to protect them and apply that way. How are they going to trust?”.

In the field of psychology warn of the consequences that can lead to these court decisions: “re-victimization, helplessness, and anxiety.” Laura Asensi, a clinical psychologist and forensic examiner and professor of the University of Alicante, explains that these women become new victims: “What should be protection and restoration of the damage is a new abuse. Women become victims of crime and a lack of understanding of the system”. Stress, anxiety, depression, sleep disorders... The conditions are multiplied or intensified, and can even reach to generate new, according to the expert. Another psychologist, Marisol Rojas, an expert in gender-based violence, mentioned learned helplessness: “It's that feeling that occurs in women when they perceive that, whatever they do, it doesn't matter. That although take the step to report and go through all the scans and medical psychological necessary, then not believe and in the end the process makes them to suffer more than solve your problem”.

Nuria Coronado, feminist and an expert in this field, says that it is “a second stab” in a system that “is not one-eyed but blind.” “While men do not put themselves in the place of the victim, understand and empaticen with it, there will be no true justice.” “Ballasts” called by the jurist expert in the field of gender Octavio Salazar: “The problem it is the same as always, a legal culture macho in that you still have a lot of capacity to action the gender stereotypes, there to evolve into another in which the paradigm is not the man, and where women are recognized as a subject equivalent”. Salazar advocates banish the bias definitely. While, he says, “we will find sentences like these”.

The minister of Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, stated yesterday that “a few facts (not in the sense of people) and a few concrete resolutions may not generate confidence in the judicial system”. and he encouraged the victims to continue reporting.

"The women are afraid of that should protect them"

Javier Portillo

Amnesty International (AI) has presented on Thursday a report that points out that women who suffer gender violence in Spain face a “way of obstacles in the assistance, obtaining justice and full compensation for damage”, according to Barbara Tardón, one of the authors, who adds that “we have a judicial system that is not specialized in cases of violence-sexual”. Something that, according to the researcher, “it causes women to have fear of the institutional system that should protect them.” The non-governmental organization, which has devoted two years of study to this epidemic, denounces “the absence of specific public policies to prevent, combat and assist victims and survivors of sexual violence”. Tardón warns that “in any community there are crisis centers with trained professionals and open 24 hours a day to accompany and assist the victims”. In the report itself, under the title now it is time that I believe, has been pointed out that only seven autonomies “have a care service specializing in sexual violence”, and that, in some cases, “are in charge of NGOS.”

The organization ensures that there are two issues that have been left out of the 212 measures of the Pact of State against the Violence of Gender: “The development of a public policy to combat sexual violence, and measures to provide reparations to all victims”. AI alert that neither are there any information campaigns aimed at women so that they know what steps to follow to report, “or of awareness-raising and prevention against different forms of sexual violence in all areas, with special attention to the field of education.”