There are already 106 specialised courts spread throughout the peninsula. Today, according to Le Monde, the Spanish General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) intends to specialise 33 criminal courts in gender violence and also to create 7 new ones, always with the aim of improving the institutional response to gender violence. Since their creation some fifteen years ago, these specialised courts have dealt with 2 million complaints and convicted 700,000 people, 72% of whom were men.
What are the advantages of these courts?
- They are specialised in domestic violence and only deal with cases relating to it.
- The judge can issue a protection order for people who are suffering from violence.
- An on-call service is available to deal with emergencies.
- Judges who work in these courts must undergo mandatory training.
In the daily newspaper’s columns, Marta Martinez Matute, an economist and co-author of a study on these courts, confided that she had shown that the creation of these specialised gender violence courts had resulted in a 17% increase in the number of complaints of psychological violence and in a faster resolution of cases. However, although the study did not show a difference when it comes to serious violence, it does show that the effectiveness of the special courts is mainly in the area of prevention and “minor offences”. Marta Martinez Matute also showed that people who suffer gender violence feel better protected in these types of courts.
About a quarter of Spanish judges have received training on gender and violence issues. With this aim of raising awareness, the Mooc_Entreprise has made a free MOOC available to employees of all companies, women and men, employees and managers, in order to fight against gender-based violence at work.
