The Observatory of Murdered Women (OMA) has calculated that between January 1 and June 30 this year, 19 women were killed, 15 of them in the context of intimate relationships, according to data released this Thursday in Porto.
Of the 19 homicides that targeted “women and girls,” according to data compiled by the OMA and the Alliance for Women and Responses (UMAR), 16 were femicides: the crime of murder in which women are killed because they are women.
Of this number, 15 occurred in situations of intimacy, that is, between a couple, and one involved a son who killed his mother.
This number means that compared to the same period last year, the number of cases of femicide has doubled, as there were seven in 2021.
The OMA, an 18-year-old observatory, also analyzed the details of 28 assassination attempts, 22 of which were femicides (20 in the context of intimate relationships).
“Portuguese society is aware. There is no action,” said UMAR President Liliana Rodriguez.
At a press conference held at the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Porto, Liliana Rodriguez stressed the importance of the strategies that need to be taken to prevent femicides, recalling that “there are women who can no longer tell stories, women who can no longer age.”
“And these situations affect not only those who die, but also those who remain. And when women survive, how do they stay? And how many children have already witnessed violence and crimes against their mothers, and later, in some cases, without them, without your primary caregiver? “.
With Liliana Rodriguez, Vice President of the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality, Manuel Albano, several researchers from UMAR, and FEM-UnitED project coordinator – United to Prevention femicide in Europe, Maria José Magellan.
“We have to shout: no more. 16 murders of women in Portugal in six months is absolutely unacceptable. We, as a Portuguese society and a Portuguese state, are divided. We need to connect the dots. Some situations can be prevented.” , said Maria José Magalhães.
Also, the OMAR vice president demanded that the state “conduct an investigation that goes beyond the scope of a retrospective investigation” and stated that “it is necessary to analyze all situations, even those in which the killer committed suicide.”
Manuel Albano spoke about the self-determination of the victim, noting that he has the right to protection measures and cannot be subjected to coercive measures.
“Many victims killed at the hands of their comrades had the information to be able to be in support structures, but we cannot forget that victims are not objects of coercive measures, they are objects of protective measures. The victim turns to institutions only if he understands. Sometimes we communicate as if the victims were the perpetrators. It’s not like that,” he said.
Manuel Albano recalled that as of August 1, there will be 55 places in the network to receive victims, and said that there are reception answers in 95% of the country.
Today’s conference also launched the FEM-UnitED Femicide Prevention Awareness Campaign, a project involving eight organizations from five countries: Portugal, Spain, Germany, Cyprus and Malta.
The theme of the campaign is “Femicide Can Be Prevented: It Connects the Dots” and aims to “emphasize the importance of identifying, recognizing, checking and evaluating the various warning signs of an abusive relationship that can put the victim in a dangerous situation.” ”, which can be read in the information distributed today among journalists.
“If the various signs are identified and connected, with articulation and a real support network: the death of these women is avoidable,” said Catia Pontedeira, a UMAR researcher.
This five-video campaign aims to highlight the need to label gender-based killing of women and girls as femicide, to establish the link between the trivialization of violence against women in society and femicide, and to address the signs and risk factors. associated with femicide.
The demystification of femicide biases that obscure or downplay the underlying aspects of violence against women and the collective demand that governments take the necessary and effective measures to prevent femicide are other goals.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
