(EFE).- A campaign promoted by activists from the Cuban Women’s Network platform will start this Monday on social networks in order to make visible the “urgency” of having a Comprehensive Gender Law on the island.
“We don’t want more gender-based violence,” they affirmed this Sunday when disclosing the campaign, in which they invite people to upload videos with stories, messages and short promotional texts on social networks and thus join the campaign they promote with the labels “We have a name ” and “Gender Law Now”.
“The idea with our campaign is to involve the entire Cuban society and make visible the urgency of having a gender law in Cuba”
The initiative also calls for signing the campaign petition through the website leydegeneroya.org during the 16 days of activism that they plan to carry out from November 25 to December 10.
“The idea with our campaign is to involve the entire Cuban society and make visible the urgency of having a gender law in Cuba,” the activists explain, clarifying that “it is not a campaign just to involve women.”
The Women’s Network assures that “we cannot wait for (the year) 2028”, in reference to the date scheduled for the next legal provisions to be approved by the National Assembly of People’s Power of the Island.
“We cannot continue to wait or allow more women to die. We need a law that protects them,” says this platform, born in 2019, which, among other objectives, aims to train women, coordinate the visibility of the women’s movement in networks and actions for their defense, for their rights and empowerment to neutralize sexist violence.
The Cuban Women’s Network and other independent platforms such as Yo Sí Te Creo (YSTC) in Cuba and the Cuban feminist magazine Alas Tensas insistently demand the existence of a norm on the matter when observing an increase in acts of gender violence in the country.
These groups have reported 32 cases of femicide in Cuba so far this year.
Femicide is not classified as a crime in the current Penal Code and there are no shelters for victims of abuse, nor a Comprehensive Law against sexist violence
In the first half of the year, 24 women died violently, there were four attempted attacks and one vicarious murder was verified, according to YSTC, which, together with other organizations, collects this data in the absence of an official count.
In comparison, this group verified 36 femicides in the whole of 2021 and 32 in 2020, including four vicarious murders.
Femicide is not classified as a crime in the current Criminal Code and there are no shelters for victims of abuse, nor a Comprehensive Law against sexist violence.
The new Penal Code, approved on May 15 and coming into force next December, contemplates gender-based violence, but does not classify the crime of femicide.
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