With only two weeks left until the deadline for Spain to launch emergency centers to care for victims of sexual violence, the autonomous communities are pushing to arrive on time. They have had two years to launch a resource required by the ‘yes means yes’ law, but the majority have left their homework for last. As of today, more than half of the 52 centers that – at least – have to be open by December 31 are still pending. The communities are rushing and trusting to launch them between this week and next, although not in all cases they comply with the basic standards set.
The creation of these centers – at least one per province – is contained in the Organic Law of Comprehensive Guarantee of Sexual Freedom with the aim of creating a 24-hour emergency care network for victims of sexual violence. To this end, Irene Montero’s Ministry of Equality distributed 83 million euros to the communities, an item from the European recovery funds that took shape in transfers of 19.8 million in 2021, 46.2 a year later and 17 million in 2023. The objective was for the centers to be operational on January 1, 2024, but a month before there were only four and the European Commission ended up being asked for a extension of one more year.
The ministry points out that “the bulk” of the resources will be available on December 31. If the agreement with Europe is not met, the funds that were distributed to the communities for its implementation would have to be returned.
That moment has arrived and, according to Equality, today there are 20 centers already in operation, including Murcia, Huesca, Teruel, Pamplona, Albacete, Guadalajara, Oviedo, Mallorca, Vitoria, Bilbao, San Sebastián, Melilla , Salamanca, Santander and Madrid, which has two. And although the majority are still missing, the ministry is confident that they will arrive on time: “In these two weeks there will be a trickle of openings.”
Last September, the department led by Ana Redondo sent a letter to the communities to urge them because at that time only six communities were open and others had not “done their homework,” as the socialist noted at the time. “We are worried,” she emphasized. Now, and after the Sectoral Equality Conference held this Monday in which the matter was discussed, the ministry points out that “the bulk” of the resources will be available on December 31. If the agreement with Europe is not met, the funds that were distributed to the communities for its implementation would have to be returned.
Several communities have put the accelerator on in the final stretch. Galicia will open the five planned “in the coming days”, as well as the one in Logroño in La Rioja or the four planned in Extremadura, where “small details of the works are being finalized”, reports the General Secretariat of Equality, which He assures that “on the 31st they will be operational.” The government of Castilla-La Mancha has also warned that the one in Toledo will begin to operate “at the end of this week or next week at the latest”, like the one in Zaragoza or the centers in Andalusia, according to the Ministry of Social Inclusion , who regrets having to create the centers when “there are resources in Andalusia that have been working for years” and charges against the “chaotic management” of Equality.
“They have had two years and there were funds to do it, but from a quantitative point of view the balance is quite disappointing. The measures for victims of sexual violence are going slower than we would like,” says Verónica Barroso, of Amnesty International, which has been monitoring the implementation of the measure from the beginning. Barroso points out that some communities have resisted because “they consider that they already had adequate resources and others have been lost in bureaucratic processes,” but in the end “the result is that we are far below the commitment that was adopted.”
Beyond opening its doors
Other sources that have been present in the process point to “a lack of political will” due to which “there are communities that have not gotten their act together these years” and reach December in the extremes. The same sources also warn that it is not enough to simply open the doors of the centers, but that they must meet the requirements and objectives for which they were designed. Highly developed for decades in European countries and the United States, these resources are designed to provide urgent and permanent care to victims of sexual violence: they must be open in person and by telephone 24 hours a day, 365 days and have multidisciplinary teams that provide psychological and legal care. and social in a coordinated way.
This is where Amnesty will put its magnifying glass in a second phase. “Now we are very focused on opening them, then we have to guarantee the quality and the provision of resources and professionals. Rushing is not good and it is not just about having the buildings, but rather providing quality service and attention. We will have to see if certain parameters are guaranteed, for example, that they are available 24 hours a day,” says Barroso.
In some cases, in fact, deficiencies of this type have already been identified in open centers. For example, in Murcia the in-person service is not provided 24 hours a day. During the night it is only attended through a telephone line and if it is necessary for a professional to go to a home “to transfer the person to the crisis center and be treated, they go”, stated at the time the Department of Policy. Social. For its part, the tender documents for the service in Logroño specify that the in-person service hours will be from 10:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. every day except Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. The rest of the time “24-hour telephone service is guaranteed.”
The communities are striving for the centers to be inaugurated before December 31, but another thing is for them to come into operation by that date. In Castilla y León, for example, they are all expected to open on time, and in fact the one in Valladolid has already been inaugurated, but the association that is going to be in charge of its management has to move and is not yet active. The case of this community is striking: although it put out to tender the purchase of buildings, the call was void in seven of the nine provinces, so the regional government had to start the bidding again. It also happened in the Canary Islands, where the purchase of five properties to house the centers was put out to tender, but when it was deserted, their direct acquisition was announced a month ago.
The outsourcing of the service to companies or organizations is being the dominant trend in many communities. “It doesn’t have to be a bad thing. per se as long as there is adequate supervision and accountability on the part of both the NGOs and the administration, because we are too accustomed to there being no evaluation of the quality of the services,” concludes Barroso.
With information from Alba Camazón, Elisa Reche, Santiago Manchado, Javier Ramajo, Jennifer Jiménez, Olivia García and Beatriz Muñoz.
Source: www.eldiario.es
