Asunción/Paraguay
05.04.2018.
“As a church, we cannot remain silent”
Lutheran World news
In Paraguay, new measures have been introduced to curb violence against women and girls, to which the River Plate Evangelical Church has expressed its support.
The new law provides for comprehensive protection of women against all kinds of violence. The penalty for the killing of a woman or girl, which the law calls femicide, has been increased. The penalty provides for 10–30 years’ imprisonment.
In a United Nations review of the situation of women in Paraguay last October, the Paraguayan minister for women’s affairs stated that the significance of the law lies not only in punishing offenders, but in the protection that the law provides for women who have become victims, and for their dependants.
Ana María Baiardi said at the UN session that, among other things, law 5777/16 stipulates that there must be one women’s shelter in each of Paraguay’s 17 districts, rather than two shelters for the entire country, as is currently the case. This law obliges officials to listen to and support victims of violence, and also provides for administrative penalties for officials who do not respond appropriately to complaints. The law was introduced at the end of 2016 and came into force at the end of last year.
An instrument for reducing gender-based violence
The law fills a significant legal vacuum. The number of femicides recorded last year is 49, which has almost doubled since 2015. Last year, nearly 13,500 cases of domestic violence were registered.
“We urgently need to educate about gender equality, in order to recognise the dignity of women and men,” emphasises Mariela Bohla, pastor of the congregation in the district of Santa Rosa del Mundo.
Pastor Mariela Bohla, who serves in the congregation of Santa Rosa del Mundo, welcomes this legislation: “Our women, girls, and young women are subjected to abuse, and we urgently need to educate them on questions of gender equality, in order to recognise the dignity of women and men.
As a church, we cannot remain silent. We can denounce violence and fight against it by educating. That is why I believe it is important to make this law known, so that it becomes an instrument in the fight against gender-based violence,” she said.
Violence against women seems to be a normal thing
Pastor Christian Stefan, who worked for many years in various communities in the River Plate Evangelical Church in Paraguay, said that violence often begins harmlessly.
“A major problem with violence against women in Paraguay is its perception as a completely normal phenomenon. It begins by manifesting in language, and materialises in its characteristic meanings and modes of behaviour day after day and, unfortunately, is expressed in various types of violence that are not regarded as violence.”
The law also applies to violence directed against pregnant women or women during childbirth, as well as abuse of women and girls online. In addition to access to shelters, it provides for free legal aid and counselling for women who have experienced violence. It calls for a standardised system to collect data on gender-based violence.
Gloria Zapattini, a survivor of violence and a member of the Paraguayan women’s association “I Believe You”, who herself contributed to the provisions that became the law, said that violence manifests in simple everyday attitudes, such as a man dictating what a woman should wear, whom she may communicate with, and whether she may use her telephone.
“We tend to think that a man does this because he loves us, but it is violence. I learned to recognise these signs of psychological and economic violence, and then I myself gained control over my life,” she said to UN Women. Today, many women come to her to seek support and solidarity.
The government is convinced that this law will reduce gender-based violence. Moreover, the law also provides for strategies to be planned in order to eradicate violence in future generations.
Source: Lutheran World Federation news