Raul Garcia Hemonnet
Today, November 25, is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. On the occasion of this anniversary, the Rey Juan Carlos University, through its Equality Unit, has scheduled a series of activities that aim to analyze and sensitize the university community about this reality. In Spain, so far in 2021, sexist murders have taken the lives of 37 women.
Days '25N21', open to students, PDI and APS, aim to offer attendees a picture as complete as possible on this type of violence, from the legal perspective, to the cultural, through prevention or the situation in the university environment.
Different points of view
The highlight of the program is the face-to-face conference, which will take place on Tuesday, November 30 and is entitled 'The other sexual and gender violence, the invisible ones. Economic violence and institutional violence', which will feature the URJC professor and expert on gender issues, Mercedes Ruíz Garijo. This teacher will be accompanied by teachers Nuria Alonso Gallo, Diana Fernández Romero and Sonia Núñez Puente.
The treatment of violence and sexual harassment in the university environment will be the subject of two of the cycle's activities, among which the paper 'protocol for prevention and action against harassment at the Rey Juan Carlos University: elaboration process, characteristics and hopes' (December 2, online), which will be given by Professor Raúl Ramírez Ruíz, the main architect of the document and academic director of Transparency and Good Governance at the URJC. On the other hand, and with a similar theme, the session 'policies and actions against sexual and gender-based harassment in the university environment: comparing experiences on Madrid campuses' will take place, organized, in this case, by the Equality Unit from UAM.
The cycle is completed with two other papers, on the one hand, 'a jurisprudential analysis on gender violence in Spain: differences between recognized and real violence' (November 29, online, which will be given by the teacher Sandra López de Zubiría Díaz, vice-coordinator of the Criminology degree.
On the other hand, a talk that does not deal directly with the subject of violence but does have to do with reproductive and sexual health, which is also related to the phenomenon of violence due to the consequences that it entails in this field: 'Literature and Science for the promotion of reproductive and sexual health' (November 25, online), in which the speakers will be Myriam Catalá Rodríguez, professor in the area of Cellular Biology at the URJC; Sandra Fares Medina, expert nurse in emerging diseases of women; Helena García Cortés, EASP predoctoral researcher and Ascensión Gómez López, professor at the European Institute for Perinatal Mental Health.
From the Equality Unit they indicate “that among the fundamental tools to prevent all forms of violence must be training, dissemination and awareness actions. This year in the framework of 25N we want to highlight with these sessions what is not normally perceived, those other forms of violence against women, statistics that do not reflect the real seriousness of the problem or harassment in the university environment”.
In addition to carrying out this cycle of activities, the unit has signed this manifest of the Network of Gender Equality Units for University Excellence.
Why the 25N?
It was decided to dedicate this day specifically to the fight for the eradication of violence against women because that is how the murder of the Mirabal sisters, three young Dominican women who died by order of the dictator Rafael Trujillo, who ruled the country with an iron hand, is remembered. Caribbean from 1930 to 1961.