"The first State Pact against Gender Violence, C by the plenary session of the Executive Council of the congress of the Deputies last September 28, is an important step forward in the fight for the eradication of abuse against women". This was emphasized today by the professor of the University of Navarra Victoria Sanchez Pos, who offered a lecture on the Courts of Violence against Women.

The session is part of the activities organized on the occasion of Women's Day by the GIHRE, group of research in Recent History, in its line of programs of study on women.

The expert in Procedural Law spoke about the battery of 213 measures of this Pact, C 13 years after the Organic Law on Comprehensive Protection Measures against Gender Violence. Of these, 26 have been considered a priority, and are intended to be implemented throughout this year. Among these, "the development of early detection protocols in the health field, the improvement of coordination between courts and administrations, the expansion of the training of the professionals of Justice and security forces, the development of programs of study on the status of minors, and the establishment of awareness and prevention measures in all educational cycles".

Broadening the concept of victim: the example of Diana Quer

One of the measures that has aroused most interest, according to the professor of the School Law School, has been the broadening of the concept of victim of gender-based violence: "The parliamentary groups have understood that it constitutes a violation of human rights and a form of discrimination that includes all acts of violence based on gender". Thus, he explained, it includes physical, psychological and sexual violence, including rape; female genital mutilation, forced marriage, sexual harassment and gender-based harassment, forced abortion and forced sterilization, even in cases where there is no relationship with the aggressor.

Despite this, added the expert, "the effective extension of the concept of victim of gender violence will not occur in our country until the Organic Law on Comprehensive Protection Measures against Gender Violence is modified". However, since January 1, the Observatory against Domestic and Gender Violence of committee General of the Judiciary computes in the official statistics as male violence all crimes committed by men against women because they are women, regardless of whether they have or had a romantic relationship or not. "In fact, Diana Quer has been the first woman to enter in this way in the statistics," he indicated.