Puerto Rico declared a state of emergency this week over violence against women – a move that activists hope will stem the tide of gender-based killings on the island, which averages at least once a week.
According to the statement of the Government of Puerto Rico, Pedro Pierluisi, a mobile app should be created to help victims report attacks and ask for help, in addition to launching a new program to monitor women who pay homage to regarding their abusers, according to the AFP. . It also provides protection to gay and transgender residents.
“Victims have suffered the effects of systematic machismo, inequality, discrimination, lack of training, lack of guidance and above all lack of action,” Pierluisi said in a statement, adding that gender violence was an “evil that caused too much damage too long. ”
Puerto Rico has declared a state of emergency due to violence against women.
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In 2020, Puerto Rico recorded 60 female homicides, the Miami Herald reported, citing the Observatory for Gender Equity, a local watchdog group.
The previous year, two other island-based rights groups released a study finding that at least one woman is killed every seven days in Puerto Rico, the newspaper added.
Puerto Rico’s state of emergency defines gender-based violence as actions that result in physical sexual or psychological harm to others who are motivated by stereotypes, the AFP reports.
“Today is a wonderful day for women, girls and all the people who believed in declaring a state of emergency for gender-based violence, which we have been asking for three years,” said Lisdel Flores, director of a shelter for victims of such violence. attacks, told AFP.
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Vilmarie Rivera, who heads the Puerto Rico Domestic Violence Shelter Network, added that “the government has recognized that there is an issue that we need to address as a priority.”
The news agency says the statement also comes days after a nurse was killed by her husband in an attack he allegedly admitted.