Cuban Feminists Promote a Campaign for a Comprehensive Gender Law on the Island

 

At least 29 femicides have occurred in Cuba so far in 2022, according to reports released on social networks and in newspapers. (Alas Tensas)

14ymedio biggerEFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 14 November 2022 — A campaign promoted by activists of the Cuban Feminists’ Network platform will start this Monday on social networks in order to raise awareness of the “urgency” of having a Comprehensive Gender Law on the Island.

“We do not want more gender violence,” they said this Sunday when disclosing the campaign, in which they invite you to upload videos with stories, messages and short promotional texts on social networks and thus join the campaign they promote with the hashtags “We have a name” and “Gender law now.”

The initiative also calls for the signing of the campaign petition through the leydegeneroya.org website during the 16 days of activism they plan to develop from November 25 to December 10.

“The idea with our campaign is to involve the entire Cuban society and raise awareness of the urgency of having a gender law in Cuba,” the activists explain and clarify that “it’s not a campaign only to involve women.”

The Women’s Network says that “we cannot wait for 2028,” referring to the date scheduled for the next legal provisions to be approved by the National Assembly of Peoples’ Power on the Island.

“We can’t keep waiting 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, and defend their rights and empowerment to end sexist violence.

The Cuban Women’s Network and other independent platforms such as Yo Sí Te Creo (YSTC) [Yes I Believe You] in Cuba and the Cuban feminist magazine Alas Tensas insistently demand the existence of a law in the matter by observing an increase in acts of gender violence in the country.

These groups have reported 32 cases of femicides in Cuba so far this year.

In the first half of the year, 24 women died violently; there were four attempts at aggression and a vicarious murder [committed during another crime] was verified, according to YSTC, which, together with other organizations, collects these data in the absence of an official count.

In comparison, this group verified 36 femicides in the year 2021, and 32 in 2020, including four vicarious murders.

Femicide is not criminalized in the current Code, and there are no shelters for victims of abuse, nor a comprehensive law against sexist violence.

The new Criminal Code, approved on May 15, which enters into force next December, contemplates gender-based violence but does not criminalize femicide.

Translated by Regina Anavy

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