The Government will launch a game of 5 million euros to impulse local and county policies directed to prevent sexist violence. The ‘councillor’ of Igualtat i Feminismes, Tània Verge, has admitted that the prevention is the “great forgotten” in policies to eradicate violence against women, for which reason it has defended direct aid to town halls and county councils.
Verge presented this line of subsidies during the meeting of the National Commission for a Coordinated Intervention against Sexist Violence (CNVM). He has also announced a new interdepartmental working group to deal with violence with “greater community impact”, such as multiple violations and the attempts to femicide.
Lilac points and exploratory marches
“We must move together in the same direction and carry out structural transformative actions”, Verge defended in an attention to the media from L’Hospitalet de Llobregat before presiding over the CNVM meeting, which brought together representatives of more than hundreds of organizations and entities. The ‘councillor’ has pointed out that the 5 million grants may be used for actions such as, for example, reinforcing the purple points, organizing exploratory marches to detect unsafe areas in the municipalities or creating safe itineraries with public transport.
Verge has urged town halls and county councils to “strive” to achieve a “country response” in terms of prevention of sexist violence. The ‘councillor’ has specified that the subsidies will be accompanied by a guide prepared by the Department of Equality and Feminism so that all actions follow the same standards. “These are policies that must be transformative and attack the structural causes to advance in eradication,” she added.
Avoid revictimization
On the other hand, it has announced the launch of a working group that will focus on dealing with violence “with a high community impact”. Apart from Igualtat i Feminismes, Interior, Salut, Educació and Drets Socials will participate with the aim of establishing a “better circuit” to give “individual and effective” responses to each of these cases, such as multiple violations or attempts to femicide.
Verge has highlighted that the intention is avoid the re-victimization of women and “combating the discourses of sexual terror” that are associated with these situations. At the same time, he pointed out that the interdepartmental group will work on these cases to be able to “analyze them exhaustively” in order to identify weak points that require improvement to prevent more victims in similar situations.
Persistent underreporting
Related news
Asked about the data recently presented by the Mossos d’Esquadra on complaints of sexual violence, the ‘councillor’ considers that it has been verified “that there continues to be a significant situation of underreporting“. Verge has called for “losing fear” and changing the collective imagination with which most of these attacks are located at night and solitary. “Most cases are not like that,” he asserted, recalling that most of the violations are registered in familiar and familiar spaces.
In this sense, he defended the importance of prevention with the involvement of public and private powers. “Everyone must work to identify risk factors, eradicate them, raise awareness and put collective consent at the center,” she stressed.