Women have called for a national emergency for gender-based violence to be declared

The Congress of the Republic reflects on the need to make a declaration of emergency for the national government to take action against the disproportionate increase in femicide and gender-based violence.

This request was made after analyzing the figures for 2022, the date on which 614 women were killed, according to the Colombian Femicide Observatory. So far in 2023, they have already been reported to the at least 23 other cases before the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation.

Concerning cases of non-fatal violence against women recorded by Forensic Medicine, in January 2023 2,032 acts of interpersonal violence421 more than in the same period of 2022. In addition, domestic violence increased by 569 complaints and violence between partners by 444.

Journalist Ana María Vélez created and led an initiative through the Change.org platform, through #SOSMujeresColombia, which went viral on social media with nearly 1,500,000 interactionsto ask the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, to declare a national emergency in Colombia due to the increase in gender-based violence and femicides in the country.

As Change.org explains, thanks to the citizen pressure that the petition obtained on the internet, which materialized in a “firmathon” in which nearly 14,000 women took partVélez met Senator María José Pizarro at the Congress premises, where he delivered the 14,000 digital signatures.

With the delivery of this “signatón”, Vélez seeks to promote the initiative led by Pizarro to declare a state of emergency throughout the territory, after the increase in cases of gender violence.

For her part, Senator Pizarro said that “from the Women’s Commission we will activate the protocol route, to accompany the victims legally and psychologically; Hope this will help many women to complain, they are not alone, let them know they have political support”.

The initiative, which Senator Pizarro presented to the President of the Republic on November 16, 2022, by means of a letter sent to the President’s e-mail and which was then personally deposited on the 25th of the same month, proposes to Petro seven steps to prevent, address, investigate and prosecute gender-based violencebetween them:

• Create elite police forces to take care of women and prevent this type of violence.
• Create gender-focused justice units to protect victims.
• Install a multidisciplinary table with the participation of all ministries and state entities in order to take immediate and effective measures for the prevention and rapid response to this crime.
• Generate a national educational campaign to sensitize society to this scourge.

In this regard, the senator clarified that even if the initiative has made some progress, it continues to progress slowly.

“We know that the Presidential Council for Women’s Equity has worked hard to collect these proposals. President Petro’s recent invitation to me to conduct an investigation in Congress is proof that this purpose has generated an effect, to which is added the call to public entities to have a protocol of attention to gender-based violence”.

Pizarro added that he will continue to insist on the need for an emergency declaration due to the increase in cases of gender-based violence. The senator added that conducts talks with other national government entities “And hopefully we’ll have a full answer soon.”

The senator said that a proposal was tabled recently for the declaration to be debated within the framework of the discussion of the National Development Plan, which It will be easier for the presidency, governorates and mayors to declare an emergency due to gender-based violence when there are situations of “exacerbation of violence against women, prior recommendation and design of specialized entities”.