Meridenian Institute for Women and the Family är en del av ett nationellt nätverk av sådana institutioner som inrättades genom 1998 års lag om våld mot kvinnor och familjen. De har till uppgift att hjälpa till att skydda kvinnor och barn från övergrepp, utmana sexistiska könsstereotyper och i praktiken bryta "machista"-elementen i den venezuelanska kulturen. De har utökats till att omfatta ett antal innovativa initiativ som t.ex Madres del Barrio (Slummens mödrar), Mision Amas de Casa [I](Mission House Wife), och BANMUJER (the Women’s bank). The interviews were conducted with two of its members. Part one ran yesterday…
Yoari Garbrido – Chief of social unity in the Meridenian Institute for Woman and the Family
Kan du berätta lite om ditt projekt som fungerar genom gemenskapsråden?
“The institute is starting through the Community Councils the creation of committees for the Defence of Women’s Rights. The Community Councils are the organisations currently located in the communities, and its them who are in charge of creating whatever type of committee is needed by the community. This is so that there can be an organ of the institute inside each community because who after all is best placed to know the problems of communities if not the communities themselves? So, we as an institution are trying to direct and verify the creation of the committee, but the committees are the ones primarily responsible for their development and operations within the community. The committees are created in accordance with the law on the Community Councils, it explains who can constitute a committee, in this case that of the Defence of Women’s rights.”
“We are also pursuing an integal education to empower women. An integrally educated woman who knows her rights is less likely to be abused.”
Det jag försöker förstå är vilka möjligheter som finns specifikt på grund av samhällsbaserade åtgärder, varför är det ett bra initiativ?
“Because as I told you the community is best situated to know its own problems. For us, as an institution responsible for the whole state its very difficult to be present in each community. What’s more is that the committees are also organs of denunciation, they are able to denounce abuse. In this way, if the victim doesn’t want to denounce it (missbruk) the committee can do it. Of course as well they can give a primary care to the victim, protecting her from imminent threats, and this is a really important function of the committees.”
Varför tror du att kommittéerna är mer effektiva än den här institutionen som ett medel för uppsägning?
“Its not that they’re better. It’s that we are one institution in charge of the entire state. The Community Councils have a permanent presence in the communities.”
It’s said that the invisibility of domestic abuse makes it particularly hard to deal with.
Do you think the Community Councils offer special advantages in relation to the nature of the problem?
“Yes, as I told you the committees are capable of denunciation so it’s no longer necessary that the victim, personally, is the person to denounce the problem. As you said it’s a problem that has been made invisible, firstly because the woman herself is afraid of denouncing the crime, for fear of her spouse, for economic dependence or whatever other problem. If there is consensus in a community that domestic abuse is occurring in a home its more than a right, its an obligation as a citizen and member of the committee for the Defence of the Rights of the Woman to denounce it”
Så tror du att kommittéerna skulle gå vidare och fördöma övergreppen utan samtycke från den misshandlade parten?
“It’s that they don’t need the consent.”
Men tror du att de verkligen skulle göra det?
“Well, its part of the work they have accepted in the creation of the committee”
So each person, upon joining the committee has to ask himself or herself this, “am I prepared to denounce abuse in place of the victim”?
“Exactly, we don’t want the creation of the committees for its own sake, as an institutional aim. The people must be conscious, the members of the committees must be aware of what that membership means.”
Hur länge har Meridenian-kommittéerna funnits? Det är 15 nu tror jag?
“Yes. The committees here in Merida were created late last year. We are the supervising organ, but it is the communities themselves that have to establish the committees. They have to call a citizens assembly because as written in the law, to create a committee the motion must be approved by the majority of that same community.”
Så hur började dessa 15? Gick ni till 15 kommunfullmäktige med förslaget?
“Yes, but we’ve been to much more than 15. We are distributing information across the entire state, but, up to now we have succeeded in 15 in that they have called assemblies and set up their committees.”
Så hur har det gått? Om du har varit i ett stort antal gemenskaper och ändå bara 15 har skapat sina egna gemenskaper?
“The people have always been interested, but the process of setting up a committee is a bit bureaucratic.”
Så alla samhällen har varit intresserade?
“Yes, up to now yes. We’ve seen a lot of interest in founding committees.”
Så hur många samhällen har du pratat med?
“This new year we’ve been in contact with 10 Community Councils. We’ve only met with one so far, which invited us because it had a meeting. Unfortunately they didn’t meet the quorum to set up the committee, but they accepted the idea and should create one in the future.”
What I’m trying to understand is what is the percentage of successes that you have had in forming the committees i.e. if you go to ten Community Councils?
“The success rate has been low. The interest in formation exists, yet still, the level of consciousness among the people of their obligations under the law is really low. The Community Councils convoke the assemblies, but achieving quorum has been a real problem.”
Hur många uppsägningar har kommit genom kommittéerna?
“Well the committees formed right at the end of last year and up to now we haven’t received any denunciations. We don’t know whether no gender violence exists in those communities, if they haven’t reported it; we don’t know kind of time frame we should expect, it is a new project.”
Is there any kind of material connection between this institution and the committees?
“No. Though sometimes we go to them and educate by spreading information”.
Är dessa institutioner feministiska?
“No, not at all. In some places they think the institution is trying to split the woman from the man. This is completely false, our primary work is to strengthen the family connections, those within the family, in relation to the rights possessed by women just as by men. We work so that men realise their partners, sisters and daughters are valuable, and have rights independently that shouldn’t be violated. Convincing the violent that what they are doing is wrong is part of our function in protection of the nuclear family.”
Intervju genomförd och översatt av George Gabriel
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