1 Women’s rights threatened in Spain March 2020 2 INDEX Women’s rights threatened in Spain March 2020 1. Introduction 2. Far-right against women 3. Trivialization of Nazism 4. Violence against women 5. Inequality of rights 6. Recommendations 3 1. Introduction The 28/2018 Decree, June 7, restructuring the Department of the Vice- Presidency and Economy and Finance created the Civil and Political Rights Office. October 1 of 2018 Government appointed director of the Civil and Political Rights Office to Adam Majó Garriga. The Parliament of Catalonia shows the concern by the far-right’s rise everywhere in Europe and, in particular, at the Spanish state. In accordance with BOPC 4711, November 20, 2019, and point 2 of the motion subsequent appealing to the Government on the rise of far-right in Europe, and the impact of the repressive drift of the Spanish state in European construction as a democratic shared rights community. Accordingly: a) Calls to the main institutions, political and social actors of the State to normalize not fascism or to launder its policies. b) Orders to the political forces presents in this Parliament that they don’t collaborate with the far-right, neither actively nor passively, neither counting their votes nor sharing mobilisations at the street. c) Denounces the impunity that so often have the far-right’s actions at the street and that too often they appear to be collusion with judicial institutions, and the State security bodies and forces. In this way finds alarming specially the position of the State Attorney General's Office of considering far-right collectives who are likely to be victims of hate crimes. d) Considers specially urgent that the State Government bet on a policy of dialogue and democratic solutions for Catalonia, leaving the court way, where he shares accusations with the far-right. e) Requests that the State Government abandon the path of authoritarian and repressive policies that are marked by far-right, being the unique offer provided to solve the political conflict in Catalonia by the State Government so far until now. And at the point 6 of the motion, urges the Government to continue manifesting its concern by the rise of far-right in Europe and, in particular, at the Spanish State, and to continue condemning everywhere of the world the violation of fundamentals rights per part of the Spanish state and its affectation at the European institutions. 1 See Parliament 4 The Parliament of Catalonia has urged the Government to Civil and Political Rights Office elaborate a specific report of women’s rights threatened in the Spanish state and raise solutions to be able to protect them. Article 104, section g), 43/2019 Decree, February 25, establishes that the Office must ensure compliance and drive the measures adopted in the Resolution of the European Parliament 2018/2869 (RSP), October 25, on the rise of neo-fascist violence in Europe, reason why it becomes necessary inform on the actual situation, x-ray under the name Women’s rights threatened in Spain. March 202o. The working methodology of this Civil and Political Rights Office’s report is born in the study of media, sources of expertise and data extracted from sector’s, in order to value terms, news and concepts that allow us to grasp, explain and transmit the analysis’s state of women's rights and the threats and violations committed in Spain, in recent times. We appreciate the collaboration of Catalan Women’s Institute, and the Directorate General of Equality, which through their readings, observations and contributions have helped to improve, build and outline the spirit of this Report. Sources for X-ray Reality have taken into account that there is never a single way to tell the facts, but the facts are as they are. We wanted to be careful with the words that collect them, and with the objectivity needed to understand the severity and significance of the detected violations. 5 2. Far-right against women On 27 November 2019, Vox prevented that Congress make two institutional statements against gender violence and for the rights of children2. At the same day, the Parliament of Catalonia condemned the far-right’s rise, as threaten of all human rights, but in a special form as threaten to the women’s rights3. Equality of rights between men and women is in danger. Involvement in the fight could occur against sexist violence if the mental framework of certain political parties prevails, soaked in prejudice and fake news, that they want to blame women of gender dissatisfactions, as if there was an ancestral, primitive, immutable order that ordered social relations, and sexist violence was not a reflection of hatred, fear and imbalance. The major part of victims of gender violence are women. To put them on the same level as the aggressors is as shameful and inhuman, because it is tantamount to leaving them, leaving them unprotected, and returning them to the dark reality, almost hidden, of unreported crimes, of the complexes and the blows. However, in Spain this wicked vision have, unfortunately, political speakers using a populist, mudguard and sexist speech that finds to dehumanize, blame and cosify women. In order to reduce and even to suppress, women rights ablation obeys the misconception of men’s superiority over women, which permeates social reality with misogyny and it aims to return to previous situations. Where women could not report or defend themselves, where the exercise of physical violence remained unpunished, where the victims’ harassment considered apologetic, and where the commodification of the women’s body was habitual and consented. They want, in short, silent and submissive women, with trimmed rights and without being able to decide over their bodies. Far-right attack women’s rights and the approaches that denounce gender bias and oppression. The goal is to repeal laws on sexual and reproductive rights, even if women human’s rights are violated or eliminated such as abortion, divorce, or contraception. The commodification of women’s sexuality turns them into objects, meat, for sex (prostitution) o for reproduction (gestational surrogacy). To support the investiture of a PP president, in Andalusia, Vox put the condition of deleting gender policies. Vox wants to erase equality and fight against sexist violence policies, criminalizing feminism. 2 See Vox against gender violence 3 See Actually Parliament 6 URBÁN4 points out that “the cause of Vox’s belligerence and other European parties counterparts express against feminism it’s in that, with the control of the reproductive rights for the woman and her sexual freedom, it questions the cornerstone of conception of far-right society: patriarchy. Not only is the female role of mother and wife questioned, but the system itself, its inequalities and violence, and also the role of men in itself”. URBÁN5 points out that “any threat to the male patriarchal role and to the traditional family is a direct attack on basic principles of far-right. This is how we see platforms as Hazte Oír, Not only do they face the right to abortion or egalitarian marriages, they also allude to transgender people to intensify the anxiety and panic they cause as threats to the traditional male roles”. URBÁN6 indicates that Vox uses the strategy of parallelism, the creation of highly contaminated mirror terms and expressions in a negative sense. They use “the concept of supremacist feminism, to link it with white supremacist movements and present it as racist, radical and violent, conceptualizing it as a kind of movement that pursues men. The spokeswoman for Vox, Rocío Monasterio, denounces feminism as a totalitarian or supremacist doctrine”, and with this logic of stigmatizing is born the concept of gender ideology, just as they use “femaleness” to denigrate feminism, and to assimilate it into the scourge that precisely seeks to combat it. The feminist activist Brigitte VASSALLO named “purple-washing” to the phenomenon by which the struggles of women are used to camouflage sexist messages and give them a falsely egalitarian appearance. As the novelist and playwright Sasha Marianna SALZMANN7 indicates, our rights are in danger and we will have a lot to recover them. SALZMANN points out that: “In Western Europe, we have difficulty understanding what it means to lose 4 See La emergència de Vox; Urban, Miguel. Sylone & Viento Sur Books. Barcelona. October 2019. Page 134. 5 See La emergència de Vox; Urban, Miguel. Sylone & Viento Sur Books. Barcelona. October 2019. Page 136. 6 See La emergència de Vox; Urban, Miguel. Sylone & Viento Sur Books. Barcelona. October 2019. Pages 138-139. 7 See Our rights are in danger 7 rights, but they are in danger and can happen at any moment - it will be very difficult for them to recover them. The raise of far right in many countries should be a point of great concern. In Nazi Germany, when the Jews began to carry away, the non-Jewish people did not care. It happened the same with the Gypsies, and then the homosexuals, and the Communists, until one day they came for you. They search for you and no one defended you”. The far-right’s speech threatens women’s rights, among other dangers, with denialism, fake news or el revival of uncomplexed sexism. Denialism The first campaign of the government of the Junta de Andalucía, about gender violence8, of the PP, C’s and Vox tripartite, Agust 2019, used publicity of happy abused women. They were trying to justify the aberration with the motto “she has been ill-treated, but life is always stronger”, as a theoretical example of overcoming and of resilience. Understandably, photographs of women used stating they had been "abused", but models they were taken from pages that offered images and audio-visual resources.