Twenty-eight women were victims of gender violence in Argentina from January 1 to 31 of this year, equivalent to one femicide every 26 hours, according to a new report.
Argentina’s Femicide Observatory “Adriana Marisel Zambrano” — named after a victim of domestic violence and run by the Casa del Encuentro NGO — found that 27 children were left motherless last month as a result of femicides.
Of the victims, 49 percent are minors and 60 percent of the aggressors were partners or ex-partners, reported the NGO.
As femicide reporting across nearly all civil associations and NGO shows, the most dangerous place for a woman in a situation of violence continues to be her home or a home shared with the perpetrator. During January, 70 percent of victims were killed in their own homes.
Buenos Aires Province remains the region with the most cases (14 in January), followed by the provinces of Santa Fe (5), Mendoza (2) and Buenos Aires City (1).
Following the pro-LGBTQ+ protest in Buenos Aires earlier this month denouncing President Javier Milei’s homophobic comments at Davos, the Casa Rosada has since doubled down on their controversial “anti-feminist” position.
The government claimed the march — which united tens of thousands of protesters — garnered weak support, and officials announced their intention to remove femicide as an aggravating factor of punishable violence in Argentina’s Penal Code.
Milei slammed laws centred on supporting particular diverse communities as “positive discrimination” and advocates for the criminalisation of murder without a gender specification.
Argentina's Justice Ministry is working to ensure that the elimination of illegal femicide does not grant freedom to currently incarcerated perpetrators, a high-ranking source told the Noticias Argentinas news agency last week.
Casa del Encuentro has been monitoring cases of femicide since 2008 and for many years was “the only observatory that provided statistics on the murders of women, girls and diverse identities throughout the country, which were used to develop public policies and laws for the prevention and protection of women and minorities,” reports the NGO.
There is currently no active government ministry designed to tackle gender-based violence. The Women, Gender & Diversity Ministry, established during former president Alberto Fernández's 2019-2023 was shuttered by Milei upon taking office.
Gender violence by the numbers
According to the Casa del Encuentro report for January:
– Five victims had filed previous complaints
– Two perpetrators had precautionary and preventive measures issued against them
– Four perpetrators are current or former members of security forces
– One victim showed signs of sexual abuse
– Four perpetrators subsequently committed suicide
– Two victims were killed in a context of "narco-criminality."
— TIMES/NA
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