Marches and demonstrations for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

The streets of the main cities of the world were filled this Saturday with demonstrations on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against womenthe most widespread human rights violation globally that, according to the United Nations, affects one in three women in the world.

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The demands of these marches were joined by messages from leaders, institutions and social organizations that advocated joining forces to achieve a future of equality, in which women can live free and without fear.

This was done by the president of the United States, Joe Biden, who, in an institutional statement, described it as “abhorrent abuse of the human rights” the violence that thousands of women and girls in the world continue to suffer today.

Europe, far from reflecting reality

Violence against women and girls continues to be one of the most unpunished crimes in Europe and an obstacle to the advancement of human rights. womenaccording to international organizations and women’s groups, that is why, this 25N, Europeans also raised their voices.

The European Union (EU) estimates that 22% of women have suffered physical or sexual violence by their partners, and that 43% have suffered psychological violence. These data, although high, are from 2014 and do not reflect the entire reality, since the majority of cases are not reported.

For a decade there have been no surveys at European level that allow us to draw a more approximate picture of the violence that many women deal with in their daily lives.

Furthermore, each EU country has its own legislation on the matter, so the crimes included under the umbrella of the gender violence They vary from one another, which complicates their comparison and quantification.

In Spain, for example, the number of sexist murders in 2023 already amounts to 52. According to the Gender Violence Area of ​​the Ministry of the Interior, these crimes have increased in the country by 29% since data began to be recorded in 2003.

To denounce these figures, Spanish feminism took to the streets, but divided, demonstrating once again their differences, in two marches that took place at different times, and were attended by representatives of the Government.

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Latin America: violence with the face of a girl and a professional woman

In Latin America, one of the regions in the world with the highest rates of femicideswomen also made themselves heard.

Hundreds of Venezuelans, dressed in outfits that simulated butterfly wings, marched this Saturday in Caracas and covered nearly 2.3 kilometers under the slogan “Woman: life and freedom.”

The march was led by feminist activists, non-governmental organizations and political parties opposed to the Government, who demanded “full equality” from the State and the end of violence against women in the Caribbean country, where, according to data from the NGO Utopixa feminicide is recorded every 43 hours.

The figures are also very high in Colombia, where at least 410 women were victims of femicides between last January and September, an average of 52 cases per month, as warned today by the Attorney General’s Office (Public Ministry).

According to the report from the Colombian Attorney General’s Office, which also includes figures from the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, between January and September there were at least 36,626 cases of domestic violence against women, of which 27,327 were due to intimate partner violence.

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Peru is also going to close 2023 with more femicides that in 2022, in a year in which discrimination against women has had a girlish face due to the notorious cases of sexual abuse of minorsas feminist organizations remember on the date that calls for an end to violence against women.

In Guatemala, hundreds of women They toured the main streets of their capital to demand justice for thousands of victims of violence and freedom for those who are under political persecution.

For their part, a hundred activists rang a bell that they took to the Millennium Threshold, a monument located at the entrance to Ciudad Juárez, in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua, one of the most violent for women.

They said that so far this year the average of 100 femicides has already been exceeded with 135, while more than 500 rapes and more than 500 sexual abuses and 5,800 reports of domestic violence against women have been reported.

Ecuador registered 277 femicides between January 1 and November 15, according to the Latin American Association for Alternative Development (Aldea).

Elizabeth Otavalo, mother of María Belén Bernal, who was murdered by her husband when she went to visit him in a police precinct, was one of the hundreds of people who protested today and demanded “truth, justice, reparation and non-repetition.”

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Women’s rights activists in Bolivia wore purple scarves and badges that merged with several Palestinian flags, and they also displayed the figures of the Palestinians on banners. femicides in Bolivia and the faces of some aggressors.

In Bolivia, so far this year, 74 femicides have been committed, while the judicial processes for violence against women There are 42,634, of which 32,118 correspond to acts of domestic violence, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.

Representatives of social, peasant and feminist organizations demanded justice this Saturday and condemned all forms of violence – such as state, digital and physical – towards women in Paraguay, where so far this year there have been 38 femicides, attributed mainly to couples. or ex-partners of the victims.