After a black summer of sexist violence, the Ministry of Equality has met this morning for the fifth time since its creation the crisis committee to analyze all the homicides that occurred in the month of August, in which seven women have lost their lives at the hands of their partners or ex-partners. In the subsequent press conference, the Government delegate against Gender Violence, Victoria Rosell, has confirmed the crimes this weekend in Seville and Jaén as sexist murders, so the total number of women murdered by gender violence in 2023 it already amounts to 42. It has also announced the future expansion of the committee, although it has not indicated any details or specific measures in this regard.
For her part, the Secretary of State for Equality, Ángela Rodríguez, has underlined “the usefulness of the crisis committee and what it has to do with its scope”, explaining that the meeting has focused on detecting risk factors that allow avoiding future sexist murders and highlighting that, as a novelty, in today’s committee the moment in which the woman goes to the house that she shared with her partner to collect her belongings has come to be considered as a situation of special risk, and has proposed that « institutionalization of accompaniment” for women in this situation of particular vulnerability.
On the other hand, Rodríguez has indicated pregnancies or “any other process in the gynecological field, such as an abortion” as risk factors and has defined as such the moments in which family reunifications occur. It has also called for expanding the intercultural mediation of the institutions towards migrant women and has highlighted the situation of vulnerability in which women who suffer from some type of addiction find themselves, as well as those of an advanced age, those who have mental health problems or those who are in a situation of poverty.
“There is nothing more worrying than there are rulers who doubt the existence of sexist violence and the insecurity that this can convey to the victims,” ??Rodríguez added, referring to Vox, who also alluded to the case of Luis Rubiales, defining as “sexual violence” his kiss to Jenni Hermoso after the final of the Women’s Soccer World Cup. “I think we must make an important reflection, the awareness that is made in the face of society not only serves so that in general we can say that we are facing cases of sexual violence, such as that of Jenni Hermoso, but also to give women security” , declared the Secretary of State.
Additionally, from the ministry headed by Irene Montero, who has chaired the crisis committee but has not attended the press conference, they have asked that the requirements for obtaining a weapons license be reviewed, since 6 of the 40 women murdered between January and August have died as a result of the use of a firearm against them. In addition, they have emphasized the need for all public employees, from teachers to nurses, to have training in gender violence.
In Spain, since there are records -year 2003- 1,226 women have lost their lives at the hands of their partners or ex-partners. 2023 is being the worst year in gender violence in the last four.
