* It is urgent to adjust the institutional care route
* Domestic violence, early warning
One of the focuses of regulations in Colombia in recent years has undeniably been the tools against gender violence. Legislative acts, laws, decrees, guidelines, protocols, public and private programs… In short, a wide portfolio of regulations of different kinds whose sole purpose is to curb physical and psychological aggressions and any abuse or injury to the rights of women because of their status as such.
However, the fact of having such a dense set of regulations does not necessarily mean that gender violence has decreased substantially. This festive bridge, for example, several news about the murders of women shocked public opinion. In Bogotá, a woman was murdered by her former sentimental partner in front of the victim’s two daughters, who are also minors. Even more serious is what happened in Tulúa (Valle), where a man took the life of his wife, two daughters and a sister-in-law. In the first case, the assailant was arrested by the authorities after attempting to take his own life and in the second he was killed by them.
Unfortunately, femicides continue to occur in Colombia on an increasingly recurrent basis. A recent police report reported that one of these cases occurs every 28 hours in Colombia. Last week, in an interview with this newspaper, the spokesperson for the non-governmental organization Justicia para Todas pointed out that, as of the first week of June, this year there had been 128 femicides. One more aggravating circumstance: the methods used by the murderers have led to an increase in the incidence of this crime. Many of the homicides include sexual abuse, forced disappearance, dismemberment, disposal of bodies in bags and rivers, and even torture.
Within the many analyzes that have been carried out in this regard, it is clear that the problem is not one of penal or prison laxity. In fact, based on laws such as 1761 of 2015, not only was femicide classified as an autonomous crime, but the penalties can reach up to 60 years in prison, the highest possible in our criminal system. The possibility of accessing sentence reductions or prison flexibilities is also highly restricted.
Given the above, the problem does not lie in the legislation. Neither in the effectiveness of the authorities to capture and prosecute the guilty. Statistics from the Prosecutor’s Office show a growing rate of effective convictions for this crime.
However, the same does not occur with the capacity of the State to curb cases of intrafamily violence that end up being the first symptom of the risk of femicide. Unfortunately, despite all the programs, care routes, and inter-institutional structure that have been created in Colombia to try to protect women when they report that they are in danger, the shortcomings of the early warning system and assignment of security measures continue to be very tall. From time to time, the death of women is reported at the hands of their ex-sentimental partners whom they had denounced to the authorities, but they were not diligent enough to provide the victim with the necessary security.
In fact, recently, in a sentence that generates a very important precedent, the Council of State condemned the General Prosecutor’s Office for not providing protection to a victim of domestic and gender violence who was murdered by her partner. The prosecuting body will not only have to financially compensate the woman’s relatives, but will also have to develop a pedagogical strategy that will make it possible to sensitize the officials of that entity about cases of this type that have resulted in convictions against this body.
The same organizations that work to combat gender violence warn that although there are sufficient regulations for their prevention and care scheme, the entities that must be in charge of these processes do not have the necessary personnel, structure, or budget to do so. This means that the restraining orders of the potential aggressor are insufficient to guarantee the life and integrity of the women who report being at risk.
Some sociologists, on the other hand, have raised alarms around the growing number of cases of femicide where the murderer tends to take his own life immediately. It is a very complex circumstance that contains, as is barely obvious, very intimate and personal traumatic aspects in which it is difficult to detect alarm signals in time.
As can be seen, femicide is becoming an increasingly recurrent and serious scourge in our country. It is imperative that the authorities assess what is happening and adjust the institutional structure to prevent it. It’s not easy, of course. However, there are many obvious shortcomings in the primary care scheme for intrafamily violence that, if not corrected, could lead to changing the trend of this tragedy.