Commitment to fight violence

In the last ten months, six women have died in Catalonia at the hands of their partners or former partners. Around 11,000 women have filed complaints of domestic violence and police have made nearly 4,300 arrests. These figures show that violence against women is structural and is deeply rooted in our society. It is disturbing that well into the twenty-first century, there still exists tolerance towards attacks on women, which shows that there are still stereotypes and sexist attitudes entrenched in many sectors, which is especially alarming among our youth.

For a decade authorities have been aware of the situation, and have worked to eradicate and also to try to prevent this scourge, with a series of reforms that have been proven effective but are still far from satisfactory. The problem lies in the lack of resources to implement these measures with effective means, which instead of being increased are either frozen or cut, hampering the outcome of the initial objectives. The increase in the number of complaints in recent years has not been accompanied by a reduction of fatalities of any great significance, which shows that we are far from ensuring full protection. The acceptance of abuse makes it necessary to work from different areas: institutions must have the resources necessary to not only protect the victims but also to detect hidden cases and in parallel, the educational community must promote awareness campaigns among children and young people. Without this commitment it will not be easy to bring an end to the scourge.