The Women's Foundation calls for an urgent reform of the law of the "only yes is yes"
The Women's Foundation has revealed that there has been a 30% increase in sexual assaults in Spain, an increase that is possibly due to the fact that many of the victims' complaints are coming to light. By considering abuse and sexual aggression as a single crime under current legislation, the law of "only yes is yes", and eliminating the distinction between the two, the range of penalties is widening. "If there is no reform, those convicted of sexual assault will continue to be released from prison, and the punishments imposed in the sentences will be reduced and the crimes, which will be tried after the approved reform, will be counted with the payment of a fine without further ado", warned Elena Valenciano, former deputy secretary general of the PSOE and current president of the Women's Foundation.
The executive director of the Foundation, Marisa Soleto, stated that there is a worrying political conflict and described the "only yes is yes" law as positive, except for the criminal section, "a bad legal technique", she said. The socialists' main concern at the moment is the issue of consent and violence. The only yes is yes law eliminated the distinction between sexual abuse and sexual aggression, which means that the range of penalties is wider and the application of higher penalties is reduced. The only yes is yes law was put in place to change the paradigm of sexual offences, but not to increase penalties.
For her part, Ángela Alemany, lawyer for the Association of Women Jurists Themis, explained to foreign correspondents that the Foundation (which works for women's rights and real equality between men and women) recently presented a report to the Lower House since the application of the aforementioned law, which warns of the increase of sexual aggressors on the streets with the reduction of higher penalties for minor offences. At a working breakfast with foreign correspondents at the headquarters of the Women's Foundation, to analyse in depth different aspects of social policies, Elena Valenciano did not skimp on explanations to the press, putting the spotlight on key issues, such as the conflict between the Government and its coalition partners, in which the PSOE is losing out to a large extent. According to Valenciano, the Minister for Equality, Irene Montero, has made a banner of feminism, provoking "a swarm of such depth that it is going to wear down the government". In Valenciano's opinion, it is an incalculable mistake for equality policies to be managed by Unidas Podemos, given that the PSOE is a reference point in this regard. "By establishing the identity aspect as a revolutionary element, it generates confusion that permeates citizens' conversations, and this situation will affect the wear and tear of the Spanish government".
Likewise, higher sentences are suspended and the convicted person will spend less time in prison, complicating victim protection operations, without forgetting that a high percentage of sexual aggressors belong to the environment of the assaulted woman, as contemplated in the latest report by Save The Children, which Valenciano mentioned. "It was warned in Parliament of the negative effects of the law and Podemos ignored it. It was in the interest of giving free rein to Irene Montero's law, in order to approve the Budget".
On the other hand, the Women's Foundation has warned against the controversial Trans Law, which cannot have "holes in it and which goes beyond logic", and therefore urges that it be applied with caution, especially with regard to adolescents and their search for their personal identity. Nowadays, girls with eating behaviour problems, due to social pressures, are considering sex change as a solution.
From Save The Children's latest report "Main characteristics, incidence, analysis of the failures of the system and proposals for the specialisation of the Courts and the Public Prosecutor's Office", it can be seen that, during the year prior to the pandemic, between 10 and 20% of the population in Spain had suffered some type of sexual abuse during childhood. As for the profile of the aggressor, around 84% of abusers are known to the children. Among the most common spaces, the family environment stands out with almost half (49.5%) of the cases analysed, where some of the most frequent abuser profiles are: the father (24.9% of the total family environment and 12.3% of the total), another unidentified relative (19.7% of the family environment and 9.7% of the total), the mother's typically male partner (18.8% of the family environment and 9.3% of the total), the grandfather (12.2% of the family environment and 6% of the total) or the uncle (6.6% within the family environment and 3.2% of the total).
Likewise, the Women's Foundation has warned of unusual cases that are occurring, such as that of aggressors who, being men, committed crimes and could change their sex to avoid punishment, or that of a Sudanese emigrant who wants to enter the borders as a white man, because he feels like one.
Elena Valenciano concluded her speech with the incoherent idea of the grammatical question that Irene Montero has introduced with the concept of "amigues" and its third neutral gender. In her own opinion, "we have managed to balance the language with the feminine use (todos/as), of an ancestral patriarchal structure, because "what is not named, does not exist", and "now it turns out that there is the conformation of ideas, todes, thanks to Irene Montero, another absurdity", Elena Valenciano added.
Carmen Chamorro, director of the CIP and ACPE.