Ecuador: International Conference on Gender Violence

. . WOMEN’S EQUALITY . .

An article from La Hora

The 2nd International Conference on ‘Gender Violence in Ecuador and Latin America’ will be held at the House of Culture of Esmeraldas, organized by the Mayor’s Office of Esmeraldas, the Inter-Institutional Gender Board of this canton, the Peruvian Bar Association and the Consultative Commission on Gender, Equality and Non-Discrimination.


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The conference of women’s defenders takes place, starting from 9 AM, on the occasion of the International Day of Non-Violence against Women, which is celebrated on November 25, the date established by the General Assembly of the United Nations.

In this meeting, the situation of women’s rights in the region will be exposed and disseminated; the elimination of violence against women will be promoted. The conference will seek to empower women in legal, social and political spaces.

The Congress will make proposals that promote equality of rights and opportunities between men and women and promote the construction of a culture of peace and equality in a society free of violence and without discrimination.
 
Activists in favor of women’s rights take this day as a day of protest and commemoration against violence, date that was taken as a commemoration of the brutal murder in 1960, of the three Mirabal sisters, political activists of the Dominican Republic, by order of the Dominican President Rafael Trujillo.
 
To commemorate women’s rights, the Municipalities of the Regional Technical Unit 1 (UTR1) of the Association of Municipalities of Ecuador (AME), will carry out programs in each of the cantons.

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(click here for the original Spanish version of this article.)

Question related to this article:

Protecting women and girls against violence, Is progress being made?

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The representative of the Bar Association of Lima, Peru, and president of the Consultative Commission on Gender Equality and Non-Discrimination, Mirka Silva Mendoza, will be one of the exponents in the international congress along with other national and international personalities.

The theme of the conference is the ‘Analysis and proposals of solution on sexual violence’. Among the proposals to be considered is that mental health policies should be implemented in schools, with the support of psychologists, considering that problems first arise in the home.
 
Another of the alternatives proposed will be the creation of a draft law that allows extending the term of detention from 24 hours to 48 hours, in case of flagrancy in crimes of sexual violence to prevent impunity.

The mayor of Esmeraldas, Lenin Lara, said that these actions seek to generate awareness as well as statistics, “but the fundamental vision is that of a culture of peace, a culture without violence of gender in general that discards the violence of our interpersonal relationships of our lives daily ”
 
The local representative of the Population Fund of the United Nations and member of the cantonal and provincial gender board, Ruth Quiñónez, said that the congress is timely, because it will allow analyzing a problem that is causing harm to society, whereby violence against women is seen as normal, but it is not.

Shee added that on November 25 there will also be an open house in coordination with the Judicial network involving more than 30 institutions in the province and the canton.
 
In addition, tomorrow there will be a meeting of lullabies and songs, organized by the cantonal, provincial and prefecture, as inter-institutional response activities.
 
Quiñónez explained that of 10 women asked if they have been violated, six say yes. These data indicate that the canton Esmeraldas needs to mobilize forces and take actions to combat violence.