“We women always start from the point that the previous ones left us. And if our grandmothers could be among the first to enter formal paid work, if women recovered democracy, if we could have the first laws on domestic violence, femicide and the creation of the Ministry of Women, today we have also taken a new step for the next generations, to be able to have a Comprehensive Law against violence,” said the Minister of Women and Gender Equality, Antonia Orellana Guarello, after approving this initiative that had been in process for nearly seven years and to which The Government placed legislative priority and introduced various updates.
Along with recognizing civil society, “which kept this project alive for seven years,” the minister thanked the transversal vote that the law had in the House and Senate. “This shows us that violence against women is a priority that must be of the State and that it is not limited to just one sector, but that we can confront it through broad agreements.” In this sense, he valued the transversal work of the deputies and senators and made special mention of the parliamentarians from Democrats, National Renewal and the UDI, “who accompanied us in this process and who saw how important this is for the majority of the women and also the country and who were willing to find agreements.”
It is a regulatory framework to address the prevention, punishment and eradication of violence against women based on their gender, which establishes the bases and guidelines for its approach, and the duties of the different State bodies in this matter, according to to the commitments emanating from the Belém do Pará Convention, an international instrument signed and ratified by Chile since 1996.
Among many other aspects, once enacted, the law will allow improve oversight of precautionary measures and establish a judicial oversight mechanism to ensure compliance and relevance. Besides, extends precautionary measures to crimes and attacks that occur outside of filial, emotional or cohabitation relationships. Until now, immediate precautionary measures can only be decreed in cases of domestic violence.
Likewise, the law will strengthen the role of legal representation of SernamEG in cases of femicides or femicidal suicides to arrive sooner and faster; guarantees free judicial assistance and representation to victims of gender violence; will incorporate boys and girls as victims of the violence experienced by their mothers or caregivers and not only as witnesses, and will allow for a comprehensive case management system, so that all organizations that work on the prevention, care and repair of violence against women, have the same information and can intervene and articulate efficiently, also avoiding re-victimization.
This law defines the concept of gender violence and its different expressions, such as, for example, physical, psychological, sexual, economic, gynecological-obstetric, among others. From a preventive approach, the objective is to promote the development and implementation of plans, programs and protocols for its prevention.
Something fundamental is that this initiative – introduced by the first Minister of Women of Chile, Claudia Pascual – establishes the duties of State bodies in matters of prevention, investigation, protection, punishment and reparation of violence against women, and mandates them to act with due diligence standardswhich implies that they investigate or judge acts of gender violence, as appropriate, and adopt timely, suitable, and exhaustive measures to guarantee access to justice, and thus avoid the filing of cases.
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