Tag Archive for: Gender

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Female quotas YES are required

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”

 

The recent resolution officially ruled by the federal judge with electoral competence in Santa Fe, Reinaldo Rubén Rodríguez, who is challenging the list of 15 national deputy candidates, presented by the Ciudad Futura political space, is in debate. The magistrate ordered that Law 24,012 guaranteed equality of opportunity and treatment for women, which also has to be guaranteed for men. This statement generates an immediate question: What is the lack of access opportunities that men have in political spaces, in relation to women?

Unfortunately, in the wake of the interpretation of our Constitution, and in particular Art. 37, the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) continue to be ignored. English), which enjoys a constitutional hierarchy and must be mandatory as a current and complementary norm of our Charter.

Article 4 (1) of the CEDAW states: “The adoption by States Parties of temporary special measures to accelerate de facto equality between men and women shall not be considered discrimination in the manner defined in the Convention. This Convention shall not, however, entail, as a consequence, the maintenance of unequal or separate standards; These measures shall cease when the objectives of equality of opportunity and treatment have been achieved”.

Female quota laws are nothing more than these “special temporary measures” established in this body of legislation, which must cease when the objectives of equality of opportunity and treatment have been achieved. From there comes the question: Have we already achieved such equality between men and women?

Recently, after the ruling in Santa Fe, some newspaper articles have branded Law No. 24,012 as “discriminatory for men.” But, although women are more than half the population, how is it possible that in no space for decision-making in our country we have reached 50% representation?

Gender inequality is manifest in all spaces, and the political is clearly included. Even more so when speeches that de-legitimize quota laws are tirelessly reproduced. Mandatory female representation by quota is the first step to ensure equal opportunities. Political parties must find female representatives, with sufficient qualifications and qualifications to fill these representative positions, so that they truly speak for women who are part of such spaces.

It is not the quota laws that compel the parties to make the candidates the “wives of” or “figures of the spectacle or sport without vocation for politics and fictional candidates or testimonials who “smiles smiling”, as some notes Journalism. It is the machista mechanisms themselves that do not recognize women with sufficient autonomy and merit, as apt to occupy such positions of fundamental democratic importance.
It remains difficult to understand the debate around quota laws, when no alternative proposals have been heard or read that guarantee real spaces for women, who have historically been relegated to the private, far from politics. Let us not forget that it was only 69 years ago that women have acceded to the right to vote, and that Law 24,012 was enacted only in 1991.

Before the validity of the Act on Women, the women representatives of their parties in Congress did not exceed 6% of the total number of seats. After its promulgation, in 2005, the female participation reached 36% in the Chamber of Deputies and 42% in the Senate. At present, women occupy 41.7% in the Senate and 38.5% in Deputies.

The quota laws are necessary, and society and the Argentine political community remain indebted to democracy, because parity is not yet real. Let us not go back, and move forward to make room for equal opportunities and treatment between women and men.

Antes de la vigencia de la Ley de Cupo Femenino, las mujeres representantes de sus partidos en el Congreso no superaban el 6% del total de las bancas. Luego de su promulgación, en el año 2005, la participación femenina alcanzó el 36% en la Cámara de Diputados y el 42% en el Senado. En la actualidad, las mujeres ocupan el 41,7% en la Cámara de Senadores y el 38,5% en Diputados.

The quota laws are necessary, and society and the Argentine political community remain indebted to democracy, because parity is not yet real. Let us not go back, and move forward to make room for equal opportunities and treatment between women and men.

Sources

– Journalists and women politicians, a boom in list building. Editorial. Diario Clarin. Buenos Aires, 25/06/2017.

– Female quotas are not necessary. Editorial. Diario La Nacion. Buenos Aires, 09/07/2017.

– Gabriel Sued. Women unite in Congress for an increase in the female quota. Diario La Nación, Buenos Aires, 16/08/2016.

– Marcela Ríos Tobar. Woman and politics. The impact of gender quotas in Latin America. Catalonia. Santiago, Chile, 2008.

More information

Virginia Pedraza – vir.pedraza@fundeps.org

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Workshop on Gender Violence with Las Omas

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”

 

In the most vulnerable areas of our country, women are traced by the most serious violence. The rights we have conquered and the laws that we must protect often take time to come in their application, and communities are not always properly informed about how to make effective the guarantees offered by the State.

In the area of ​​collaboration and accompaniment that we built together with Las Omas, we also understand that it is important to strengthen the ties and ties between the women who make it up, since the networks of containment between women are the first that help to overcome those who face to the worst situations of violence.

The activities and mechanisms generated through Las Omas, with the women who make it up, are an essential tool for the follow-up actions that can be started and can be reinforced over time. That is why we have proposed to carry out workshops on gender violence, its types and the mechanisms of protection provided by the State. But this would be little if it is not complemented with tools that strengthen the bonds between those who are part of the community.

The first Gender Violence Workshop we conducted focused on promoting the development of ties and links that could serve to reinforce support mechanisms among women, so that confronting situations of violence can be collective, with the support of those who have overcome the obstacles, from those who can understand each other, and that in this way, women continue to take care of us in the fight against gender violence.

Contact

Virginia Pedraza – vir.pedraza@fundeps.org

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Seven months and counting of acephaly for the Public Defender’s Office

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”

The Office of the Public Defender, the agency responsible for receiving complaints from active hearings in cases of rights violations, has previously received international awards. Among them, is the one granted by the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the OAS. On this occasion, he was awarded the “Inter-American Award for Innovation for Effective Public Management”. This award

“…is an initiative of the Department for Effective Public Management of the OAS, whose main objective is to recognize, encourage, systematize and promote the innovations in public management that are being carried out in the region with the purpose of contributing to institutions Increasingly transparent, effective and have mechanisms for citizen participation.”

The institution was one of the main actors in public policy mapping to protect women against symbolic and media violence, in addition to protecting the general public. Through complaints, or acting on their own initiative, they issued opinions against content that exercised media violence and carried out activities, such as meetings and training, or instances of mediation, with the producers of said contents in order to raise awareness and give guidelines for producing content Not sexist.

However, this efficient and participative management of the organization has been interrupted since November last year when the Bicameral Commission, which should appoint the maximum authority of the Ombudsman’s Office, decided not to appoint anyone at the end of the mandate of Ms. Cyntia Ottaviano . As we mentioned in previous notes, the agency is still in an irregular situation and unable to carry out activities that go beyond mere formal and administrative communications. This limits that measures are taken in cases of media violence for reasons of gender or any other, and it does not allow the Ombudsman to make pronouncements on the quality of the contents denounced.

There is still no certainty about what will happen to the Ombudsman. In this context, it is important to remember that CEDAW, in its concluding observations to Argentina, recommended:

“To amend Act No. 26.522 (2009) on audiovisual media services, in order to provide the Public Defender with the power to sanction violations of provisions to regulate gender stereotypes and sexism in the media.”

In this sense, the institutional situation is detrimental to what is recommended according to international standards.

More information

– The OAS will distinguish the Ombudsman’s task for the promotion of gender equity | Defensoría del Público

– Worrying situation of the Public Defender’s Office | FUNDEPS

Contact

Carolina Tamagnini – carotamagnini@fundeps.org

The acquittal of “Belén”

As was the news in the past few months, “Belén”, the Tucuman woman who had been imprisoned for two years accused of the murder of her newborn baby in a hospital, was acquitted by the Supreme Court of Tucumán on March 23 of this year.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”

 

In the first instance, “Belén” had been accused of “homicide aggravated by the bond and treachery.” The Criminal Chamber sentenced her to 8 years in prison considering her state of puerperium as a mitigating factor. That conviction was based on testimony from doctors, nurses and police officers who were in the hospital that day, saying that “Belén” had had a premature birth in the hospital bathroom and had dumped the baby into the toilet.

However, the judicial process suffered from serious breaches of due process guarantees, among which we can mention: it was never found that the body found was indeed a child of “Belén” because no DNA tests were performed; She did not have an adequate legal defense, which remained passive in the recognition of the facts against the defendant’s sayings; Most of the evidence was obtained in a serious violation of professional secrecy, among others.

Since lawyer Soledad Deza, a Catholic law litigation coordinator for the Right to Decide, took her case in 2016, hundreds of social organizations that fight for women’s rights echoed and asked for the young woman’s freedom, Which took place on August 16, 2016, after having spent more than two years in prison.

We celebrate the resolution of the Supreme Court of Tucumán that at the end of March of this year, it dictated the acquittal of “Belén”, while laying the foundations on which human rights guarantees should be supported for every woman attending a medical center To be attended to.

In this sense, in the ruling and the vote of Dr. Daniel Oscar Posse, it is understood that the situation that “Belén” suffered in the hospital was institutional violence,

“Since the rupture of the commitment of professional reservation was added a succession of facts that nothing is consistent with the treatment that should receive a person in clear state of vulnerability, in this case a woman, who went to the Hospital to receive urgent medical care : It was incriminated to be the author of the fact accusing her from the first moment of lying about her alleged ignorance of her state of pregnancy; The body of the dead child was displayed as a kind of moral punishment in a box; She was subjected to medical treatment without being given any explanation about the cause and extent of it; All their rights to confidentiality and privacy were violated, in clear violation of the health team’s obligation to maintain medical secrecy, even allowing the presence of police personnel in the midst of the practice of curettage. That is to say that the incartada was absolutely relegated from its state of patient, dispensing to him from there a direct treatment like rea“.

He also stated that “despite assuming that the accused was in a situation of defenselessness, the Court (appealed) did not act accordingly to ensure that the “Belén” lawyer was deficient in the first instances of the trial, The guarantees of due process and defense at trial, but, on the contrary, used such defenses or defensive defenses to underpin the conviction of the accused “(the bold is ours).

On the other hand, it recognizes that

“All the evidentiary material of charge – apart from illegal as much in its origin and incorporation, as I exposed it when dealing with the question of the violation to the professional medical secret – is confused, ambiguous and contradictory, what nullifies any possibility of that it arrives certainty. There is not a single element of proof of charge that does not present some bankruptcy”.

He then mentions, one after another, the shortcomings of the evidence provided by the Office of the Prosecutor and valued by the Court that unjustly condemned “Belén”. In this regard, we would like once again to congratulate the clarification of the Tucuman Court when it clarifies that “it is useful to state that in the case there is another phase of verification of institutional violence against the accused, now in the judicial sphere, in addition to the one mentioned Previously occurred within the framework of medical care provided to the young woman”

Finally, in the vote indicated, it is determined that

“This institutional violence in the medical and judicial spheres is immediately embedded with the gender issue, because many of the serious shortcomings pointed out would not have been verified in a case with a man as an alleged perpetrator. In order to know if gender stereotypes were present in this process, one only has to ask: had a conviction of aggravated homicide been reached because of the attachment of a man to a cause where the body of the crime was lost and there is no data to allow Know the effective relationship between victim and perpetrator? With an autopsy with incongruities such as the sex of the victim or her gestational age and with a cause of death not clearly and precisely determined? Would it have been supported that the defense did not make any proposal in front of these situations and did not propose proof of defense? Would the defense have been allowed to occur contrary to the position of innocence sustained in the statements and words of the accused at all times?”

We understand as a fundamental pillar for the progress in the guarantee of the human rights of women, the explicit acknowledgments of institutional violence of gender by the legal operators. These kinds of resolutions based on human rights and the recommendations and observations of the committees that supervise them, make visible the seriousness of these facts and contribute to the construction of behaviors deprived of stereotypes that denigrate, violate and violate citizens.

Lastly, it is worth mentioning the vote of Dr. Antonio Gandur, when he points out that

“Considers it pertinent and necessary to carry out a thorough training process through lectures, meetings and workshops by the Human Rights Secretariat of this Court in coordination with the agencies of the Siprosa (Provincial Health System) to inform medical operators Provincial the current legal framework as well as the appropriate way of acting on issues related to the present case.”

We hope that such instances of formation will be carried out with the main objective of guaranteeing the rights of the citizens, preventing and eradicating violence in the life of women, and the full enjoyment of their sexual and reproductive rights.

Contacto

Virginia Pedraza – vir.pedraza@fundeps.org

Mayca Irina Balaguer

The interruption of pregnancy as a health problem: approved the first university chair of the country

The Board of Directors of the Faculty of Medicine of the National University of Rosario (UNR) voted, at the beginning of May, to incorporate an optional subject that addresses the practice of termination of pregnancy in cases permitted by law, such as Public health problem. From FUNDEPS, we celebrate the resolution.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”

The Faculty of Medicine of the UNR will be the first to have a chair on termination of pregnancy. Unanimously, the Board of Directors approved the incorporation of a matter that addresses the legal interruption of pregnancy (ILE), that is to say, in cases permitted by law, from a public health perspective, with the objective of training and / Future health professionals.

The subject will be optional and will seek, among other questions, to problematize medical students about the legal framework in force in Argentina, the regulation of conscientious objection and the process of care and attention of women at different levels of the situation Of the interruption of pregnancy. It will include counseling on contraceptive methods and teaching the use of available medical technologies to ensure an ILE.

Discontinuation of pregnancy is a public health problem as it represents the leading cause of maternal death. According to the Shadow Report presented by ANDES, CELS and FEIM, among other organizations, in Argentina, between 460,000 and 600,000 clandestine abortions are practiced annually before the Committee against Torture. Over the past 30 years, complications from unsafe abortions have been the leading cause of maternal mortality and account for one-third of all deaths. In this sense, it is urgent that the State guarantee a training in accordance with the law in force, which will enable medical professionals to approach the problem from a human rights perspective.

From FUNDEPS we support the initiative. It is the duty of the State to guarantee the conditions for women to enjoy the full enjoyment of their sexual and reproductive rights, and we consider that the training of our and our health professionals in this field is essential.

Author

Antonela Vanini

Contact

Virginia Pedraza, <vir.pedraza@fundeps.org>

The High Court of Justice and its doctrine on femicides

The High Court of Justice of the province of Córdoba (TSJ), established the criteria on how cases of femicide should be treated, confirming Gonzalo Lizarralde’s life sentence for the crime of Paola Acosta, stating that he measured gender violence And it was a femicide.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”

 

The sentence of the 11th Chamber of the Crime, reviewed by the TSJ, had condemned Lizarralde to life imprisonment for homicide classified as treachery against Paola Acosta and for homicide qualified for the bond and for treachery in an attempt against his Daughter, MA Both the defense and the complaint married this sentence and the TSJ was issued last month confirming the conviction, but with the aggravating of femicide.

The Chamber had dismissed the application of this aggravating factor because it understood that there had been no gender violence, stating that “Acosta and Lizarralde had an informal and short-lived relationship of a few months.” The Chamber also pointed out that the personal characteristics of the victim prevented the application of the femicide figure, since it was a woman who “was not docile” and who “decided to empower herself in defense of her rights and those of her daughter” .

The TSJ ruling is the first of this court that addresses the figure of femicide, which is why they established their interpretive criteria.

In principle, it clarifies that in this case it was a case in which a man assaulted against a woman using gender violence, and considered that Lizarralde committed the homicide against Acosta based on gender bias

Consider, it is not essential that there is a stable, formal or cohabiting relationship. Homicide must occur in a context in which women are in conditions of inequality with respect to men. This context must be evaluated by the judge according to each specific case, but no personal characteristic can be demanded in the victim (that is submissive or of weak character, for example).

It is especially important to note that the TSJ took into account that the femicida understood that she would not resign her personal choices to the responsibility that takes care of a girl’s care, which led him to overcome the burden of pregnancy and the assistance of his Daughter, leaving everything in the hands of the victim for three years. This left Paola in a situation of vulnerability and inequality, which she herself sought to reverse through a family judicial process. The death of Paola meant to impose the plans of life of the femicide over those of the victim and his daughter.

We welcome this judicial pronouncement because we believe it is essential to raise awareness and raise awareness of this extreme form of violence, which is only the last step in violence against women. The aggravating factor of femicide acts when the damage is already done, which makes it necessary to accompany this type of actions with policies aimed at prevention.

In times of intense debate about the State’s punitive response to violence against women, which has proven to be insufficient, we insist on a comprehensive and preventive approach that includes violence in all its forms.

More information

Author

Mayca Balaguer

Contact

Virginia Pedraza – vir.pedraza@fundeps.org

Activity Report 2016

The past 2016 was a year of great growth for our foundation, not only for the development of our many agendas of work, but also for the consolidation of our team of volunteers.

We further diversified our work agendas, we were able to increase our social impact, we were able to position ourselves in networks and we increased the collaboration with new partners.

As we did year after year, we continue to conduct research, workshops and events; We participate in national and international meetings with multiple organizations; We carry out activities of monitoring, advocacy and judicial cases to advance in matters of public policies.

We thank all those who participated and trusted in FUNDEPS. We hope that in 2017 we will continue to find and work together in pursuit of our main objective: to continue to grow and influence public policies.

We invite you to read the result of a great year of work, by clicking on our 2016 report at the following link bit.ly/FUNDEPS2016; Or on our website in the “About Fundeps” section.

MAR 8: FUNDEPS accompanies the International Women’s Strike

The International Women’s Strike (PIM) is a grassroots movement formed and organized by women from 35 countries in response to the social, legal, political, moral, media and verbal violence experienced daily by women throughout the world.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”

 

On October 3, 2016 -following the example of the Icelanders, the first women who called for a national strike in 1975– the Polish women called a strike in what was known as “Black Monday”.

In our country, on October 19, 2016, in response to a week in which 7 femicides happened and after a weekend in which the women were repressed in the march of the National Meeting of Women; A call was launched on social networks to join a one-hour strike and mass mobilizations. Thus, in a self-contradictory way, women’s and feminist organizations, including the Ni Una Menos group, joined the measure that was replicated in most countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.

In Poland, on 24 October, the second “Polish strike” against State violence on women’s issues occurred. Polish women established contact with other women in South Korea, Russia, Ireland, Israel, Italy and Argentina. At the end of October 2016, this group – already under the name of the International Women’s Stop – decided the slogan “Solidarity is our weapon” and a call for unemployment translated into several languages. It was decided that on November 25 of this year, International Day against Gender Violence, will be the first global solidarity action and was elected on March 8 for the International Women’s Strike.

In this way, they proposed to approach a new global activism and to interpret the facts of violence from a common conjuncture. They formed a union to fight against the institutionalized oppression that the patriarchal system supposes and that suffer the men, the women and the society in general, from the State, the Justice and the means of communication.

In Argentina, the strike was promoted from the Ni Una Menos Collective and the main workers’ union centrals (CGT, CTA de los Trabajadores and CTA Autónoma) reached a political agreement of unity in articulation with groups, organizations and activists autoconvocadas. The measure of force seeks to denounce the historical inequality of women in society and its multiple consequences: from sexist violence – and its most extreme expression, femicides – to the feminization of poverty, economic violence, domestic work and care Wage gap in relation to male salaries, labor precarization, universal vacancies in maternity gardens, maternity and paternity leave extensions, salaries for victims of gender violence, equal pay for equal work, reopening of the moratorium for women Of home, among other claims. Each union is defining its type of membership: from cessation of activities from noon to assemblies at workplaces.

From FUNDEPS we extend our concern to all the forms of violence that women suffer every day around the world whose maximum exponent is the femicides. We accompany the fight, invite and join the International Women’s Stop on March 8, 2017.

More information

History of PIM (03/10/2016)

How the International Women’s Strike arose (La Tinta, 03/10/2016)

The United Nations CEDAW Committee listened to civil society organizations (FUNDES, 21/12/2016)

Appeal to the International Women’s Strike – March 8, 2017 (23/01/2017)

The gender claim achieved unity (Página 12, 17/02/2017)

Contact

Emiilia Pioletti – emiliapioletti@fundeps.org

Severe lack of transparency in the budget of the National Council of Women

From FUNDEPS we express our concern for the lack of transparency and clarity in the management of the budget for the National Council of Women announced in the last Official Gazette.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”

On January 11 of this year, the budget modification for the National Women’s Council (CNM) and the National Plan of Action against Gender Violence (PNA) was reflected in the Official Gazette, signed by the Chief of Staff , Marcos Peña. Until December 2016, there was a budget approved by the National Congress, which included a CNM and NAP item for 47 million pesos, which was added an increase of 20 million pesos to the original budget planned for the CNM. The Budget Law 2017 was then promulgated with that increase from 96 to 116 million by 2017. In the current Administrative Decision 12/2017 of the Chief of Cabinet, only the amount of 96 million was designated for the CNM which implies a reduction of 67 Million pesos of the assigned budget.

From this confusing situation, an amparo action was filed by the Civil Association for Equality and Justice (ACIJ), the Latin American Justice and Gender Team (ELA), the Foundation for the Study and Research of Women (FEIM), The Argentine Commission for Migrants and Refugees (Caref), the Women in Equality Foundation (MEI) and the 21st Century Foundation. The organizations made a presentation to the Court to declare unconstitutional the reduction of funds allocated to the National Council of Women And the National Plan of Action against Gender Violence, demanding the State for the violation of the division of powers and the discretionary use of “superpowers”.

The authorities of the National Women’s Council tried to deny this information through an official press release and various statements in the media, claiming that it was an “error” and that the budget item, although not properly published in The Official Gazette, was guaranteed by the Ministry of Finance.

We emphasize the importance of carrying out the budgetary allocation according to established procedures, in order not to weaken institutional quality and respect democratic processes. On the other hand, if the elimination of these funds in the Administrative Decision was the product of an error, in order to be valid, the same must be corrected and published in the Official Gazette, according to the formal process. As of today, more than a month has elapsed since the publication of the Administrative Decision, it has not yet become official. This demonstrates the seriousness of the situation and the unclear and transparent management of the budget by the Office of the Chief of Staff.

As the budget line announced in the NAP is one of the points where progress was made in protecting women, we express our concern about this evidence of institutional fragility, lack of clarity and transparency that weakens the achievements against violence of genre. This situation violates the rights of women and girls in a country where every 18 hours a woman dies a victim of violence.

We also add our call for greater transparency in the mechanisms for monitoring public funds for budget execution and for greater clarity in the decisions taken by state agencies that affect the lives of millions of women.

More information

Contact

Emiilia Pioletti – emiliapioletti@fundeps.org

Worrying situation of the Public Defender’s Office

Three months ago the Office of the Public Defender is out of town, a circumstance that leaves the agency unable to fully carry out the functions assigned in the current Audiovisual Communication Services Act. This situation runs counter to the recommendations of the CEDAW Committee and aggravates the situation of vulnerability of the rights of the hearings.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”

The Office of the Public Defender of Audiovisual Communication, which was created together with the Audiovisual Communication Services Law, is an organization that promotes, diffuses and defends the right to democratic communication in the media.

As we have previously reported, this dependency of the State has been in place since November 14 of last year when, upon the expiration of the term of Lic. Cynthia Ottaviano, the Congressional Bicameral Commission decided not to appoint a new defender / Nor to renew the mandate of the outgoing defender. To date, the agency has filed a petition for the attorney María José Guembe, Director of Protection of Rights of the Ombudsman, to be the highest authority in this transitional stage. In the same way and given that the role of Guembe does not enjoy all the faculties, the organism remains acephalous, and therefore, lacking in operability.

The institution of the Public Defender’s Office is fundamental because it acts as an intermediary between the communication and public actors, representing the interests and rights of the audiences. In this way, acephaly violates citizenship and their rights can not be fully enforced without the full action of this body. This situation has already lasted for almost 3 months, but continues to work, receiving and channeling claims.

Complaints made from FUNDEPS

During 2016, from FUNDEPS, we made several complaints to the organization, highlighting those made to the TV channel TYC Sports and the program “Majul 910” by Radio AM 910.

In December of last year, we received a telephone notification about the status of the claim made by an institutional advertisement of the TV channel TyC Sports, in the month of September. In such advertising, a conversation is shown between a heterosexual couple, reproducing stereotypes of the sexual division of labor, as well as of power relations within couples. In response to this claim, the Ombudsman acknowledged and mentioned the stereotypes that reproduce the media and highlighted the positive aspects of the audiences by expressing their agreement with the constructed messages. For this complaint, a communication was made to the television channel, which was not answered. We received a formal written response in which it is mentioned that:

“In its report on the piece, the Directorate of Analysis, Investigation and Monitoring of this Ombudsman said that” it receives the comments expressed in the consultation as an indication of the legitimate disagreement of the hearings with the uncritical reiteration of stereotypical representations that, moreover, do not Correspond to the current social diversity in terms of family compositions and role assignment within families”

Due to the serious situation that the organism is undergoing, it was not possible to take other measures. In addition, in November of last year we made a complaint about the radio program “Majul 910” in Radio La Red AM 910 in which, under the supposedly “humorous” language, reproduce stereotypes and apologies to gender violence.

In this case, the Ombudsman also acknowledged the legitimacy of the complaint and reported that the company RED CELESTE Y BLANCA SA, owner of LR5 Radio La Red AM 910 responded to the complaint:

“… the comments made by comedian Claudio Rico have been made exclusively with animus iocandi and that he never had the objective of offending women or carrying forward a stereotype of beauty that is offensive and oppressive for women. Has been the goal of ‘LA RED’ to spread a message of media violence as stated in the presentation”

Finally, the Radio expresses: “In this sense … we take due note of it and proceed to communicate the terms of the same to the drivers, participants and producers of the”Majul 910″ Program”.

Since they can not take any further measures or issue their opinions on the quality of the contents, the complaints made to the Public Defender’s Office have lost strength and legitimacy and are left to the will of the denounced media.

In this context of great uncertainty, it is important to remember that, in its concluding observations to Argentina, CEDAW recommended “Amend Act No. 26.522 (2009) on audiovisual media services in order to provide the Public Defender with the power to Sanction violations of provisions to regulate gender stereotypes and sexism in the media. ” Faced with this, the institutional situation of the Public Defender’s Office is even more serious. The international recommendations are aimed at giving more powers to the body, which is currently limited to its functioning, a limitation that is constituted as a regressive situation that diminishes the level of protection of women against symbolic and media violence, and of audiences in general.

The reproduction of gender stereotypes in the media is a form of mediatic and symbolic violence, in accordance with the definitions of Law 26.485 of Comprehensive Protection to Prevent, Punish, and Eradicate Violence against Women, which are also contemplated in the Law 26,522 of Individual Communication Services. Agencies such as the Public Defender’s Office are fundamental to ensure the production of content and programming in media that do not foster a culture of discrimination and violence. Given the gravity of the case, we again express our concern about the violation of the rights of the hearings and demand that the situation be rectified shortly.

More information

Contact

Carolina Tamagnini – carotamagnini@fundeps.org

Emiilia Pioletti – emiliapioletti@fundeps.org

The “Majul 910” program and its jokes about sexual abuse

En el programa “Majul 910” que se emite por Radio La Red, en el día martes 18 de octubre, un día antes de la marcha y paro realizados en toda Argentina tras el femicidio de Lucía Pérez, y bajo el lema #MiércolesNegro, un humorista realizó una cadena de chistes atravesados por un estereotipo de belleza que resultan ofensivos y opresivos para las mujeres.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”

After comments like “(…) look Majul, my wife is so ugly that she had to make a representation of Beauty and the Beast and Bella made a guy,” he concluded: “My wife is so ugly that they grabbed her Some rapists and, in the dark, dressed, “he quipped as journalists celebrated the commentary, and the art of radio along with jocular sounds and background reporters.

This treatment of information violates the provisions of Law 26.485 on Comprehensive Protection to Prevent, Punish and Eradicate Violence against Women and Law 26.522 on Audiovisual Communication Services, which stipulates that programming must avoid elements that promote acts Discriminatory and violent towards women. It should be remembered that according to the Argentine Criminal Code, the act of sexually violating a person is typified in article 119 and constitutes a crime proper.

This type of content diffused in the media constitute forms of mistreatment and symbolic violence, in which imaginary and reproducing cultural mandates are forms of oppression and domination towards women.

For this reason, it has filed a complaint with the Public Defender’s Office for Audiovisual Communication Services and ENACOM (eg AFSCA), which are bound by the rights of the audiences.

The joker, allegedly innocent, satirizes a crime against sexual integrity based on non-compliance with a mandate: beauty. It is unacceptable to reproduce these words in any medium of communication, especially in this tragic social context towards women, evidenced by the acts of violence and femicides seen in recent years.

We continue to demand that the media commit themselves to promoting and respecting equality, avoiding content that reproduces forms of media violence against women, while respecting their integrity and their rights. These sayings are extremely dangerous and their mere existence is unacceptable. Violence towards women is, above all, a human rights issue, where the media have a huge task to do.

Lastly, there is concern about the lack of formal pronouncement by the Office of the Public Defender and of ENACOM, after more than two months of the corresponding complaints. From FUNDEPS we continue with the monitoring of the open processes, in order to continue with the monitoring of the functioning of these bodies.

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Contact

Emilia Pioletti – emiliapioletti@fundeps.org

Carolina Tamagnini – carotamagnini@fundeps.org

Discrimination: the failures of virtual “denunciations” before the INADI

On the site Infobae, it was published with a note titled “Reversed roles: did the woman become more masculine in relationships?“, Which repeatedly incurs stereotypical and discriminatory comments and symbolic violence towards women. From this, a consultation was made with INADI, which did not have concrete results.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic.”

 

The news in question is developed from an interview with a psychologist who, while highlighting the advances of women in the professional field, understands that these are spaces reserved for men, usurped by women, placing them in related tasks Home and care. According to the psychologist and writer Beatriz Goldberg, today’s woman is dislocating the man from her place. He has difficulty in finding the right role.’Women can and should have activities in all areas, But from the role of woman.If you ‘masculinize’, you lose your intuitive and intellectual capacity. ”

It is worrying to continue to think that the labor and professional fields, as well as the tasks of providing economic resources in the home, are exclusively male, and to the “masculinized” women, when they are part of these spaces or they appropriate those tasks.

Likewise, repeated references are made to the importance of not losing typically “feminine” characteristics, such as sensitivity or intuition. Likewise, denigrating comments are made, such as the reference to women as household appliances: “It is multiprocessor, it does everything, it is multiple”.

These types of opinions and comments reproduce sociocultural patterns of behavior that stereotype, discriminate and subordinate women, demanding that they be reserved for certain spaces and meet certain characteristics to be considered as such. In addition, being a person placed in a space of authority for their professional qualifications, it is understood that the psychologist is a referent on gender issues and therefore, their sayings have more influence on the reader.

The acts described have their roots in social conditions of inequality suffered by women, rooted in society, with a strong symbolic content that reinforces such conditions.

Phrases enunciated by the interviewee as “the role of women in society is to be a woman” promotes the idea that men and women have roles determined only by being one or the other. In addition, the lack of reflection on the struggles of women’s movements, which after decades of activism achieved progressive equality before the law between men and women, made visible the barriers they have to accessing jobs or participation in professional life.

The complaint process

From the facts, it was decided to make a presentation in front of INADI, since this is a fact of discrimination against women, occurred in a digital medium. We use the process of consultation for discrimination, the most accessible on the body’s website. From telephone communications, we followed up on our claim, which was derived to the Platform by a free Internet of discrimination. Subsequently, it was presented to the medium producing the discriminatory content, as a concern but without any obligation, so the note was not modified or withdrawn from the website. Against this, INADI took no action in the matter and the case remained in mere consultation. The virtual mechanism, then, proves not to be effective, since the claims do not acquire character of denunciation.

In order for INADI to make its effective pronouncement, the complaints must be presented as complaints, which must be made personally in front of a delegation of INADI. It should be recalled that the Argentine State is obliged to carry out measures against discrimination against women, not only by local legislation, but also by the human rights treaties ratified by our country and constitutional hierarchy, such as the Convention On Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention of Belem do Pará.

More information

Contact

Carolina Tamagnini – carotamagnini@fundeps.org