Cultural change: the way to stop feminicides

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According to UN Women, it is necessary to make a cultural change so that feminicide rates decrease

Lara Blanco Rothe, deputy director of UN Women for Latin America and the Caribbean, said in an interview with EFE, that the region has become one of the most dangerous for women, especially those fighting for human rights and the environment, according to La Tribuna.

Leer en español: Cambio cultural: la forma para detener los feminicidios

Similarly, UN Women stressed that despite the fact that in the region there are legislative advances in favor of women's rights, there still has to be a change in cultural patterns, "generate awareness about the different types of violence and work more on prevention as means to end feminicide", according to Proceso Digital.

The concern arises from the fact that, according to figures from Blanco, Latin America and the Caribbean is the region where most cases of feminicide are reported in the world: around 2,600 per year. However, Blanco says that could be submitted to more than 15,000 "not to mention many more that are hidden in the missing women", according to El Espectador.

For Blanco, it is important to make a qualitative leap in terms of women's perception, guarantee their safety and "join efforts to change cultural patterns and raise awareness about the different types of violence that affect them", as indicated by EFE.

"We must do (a) transformation of cultural patterns, and transformation of the way we relate to women and men, and how the State and state institutions assume those responsibilities to achieve more equitable relationships", Blanco said in an interview with EFE.

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As stated by the deputy director of the organization, Latin America and the Caribbean is the region with the most cases of feminicide reports. In the case of Honduras, some 180 women died violently in 2018. What is most worrying is that "more than 90% of the cases are unpunished", according to La Tribuna.

On the other hand, Mexico, a country that in recent weeks has mobilized to demand for women's rights and their safety, in the last three years, cases of femicides have increased by 104%, "with a total of 2,560 cases", According to La Verdad. The Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SNSP), indicated that "in 2015 there were 422 cases, in 2018 they increased to 861. So far in 2019, there have been 7 cases, a figure that could increase, according to NotiAmerica.

In Colombia, the situation is not very encouraging either. According to El Colombiano, every day, 57 women are attacked. According to figures from the Attorney General's Office, between January and June of 2018, there were 10,328 cases of violence against women. Regarding femicides, up to September, at least 1,437 cases were known. In the same way, so far in 2019, according to the Feminicide Colombia Foundation, 22 cases of feminicide have been presented.

Argentina, according to statistics from the Observatory Ahora Que Sí Nos Ven, in 2018 there were 260 femicides and in January 2019 there were 27, almost one per day, according to El Diario. However, to have clearer data, recently the Ministry of Security of Argentina, the Supreme Court of Justice and the Public Prosecutor's Office committed to join forces "in order to improve public policies aimed at combating" feminicide, according to the same media.

According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Brazil is another of the countries in which more femicides occur. "Since the beginning of 2019 there have been 126 cases", according to El Nuevo Siglo. For the entity, "the murdered women had previously denounced their aggressors, faced serious acts of domestic violence or suffered attacks or attempts of homicide".

A cultural change

While achieving the cultural chip changing is not an easy task, something has to start. It is clear that despite the existence of policies and laws that condemn femicides, Latin American states are not sufficiently committed to the women's rights.

At this point, Blanco affirms that "what we have at the moment are fragmented strategies with which we have not been able to generate a comprehensive response to end feminicide in Latin America" according to La Tribuna, "it is essential to work more in prevention as means to eradicate feminicide in Latin America", he concluded.

LatinAmerican Post | Laura Viviana Guevara Muñoz

Translated from "Cambio cultural: la forma para detener los feminicidios"