Members of the Commission of Gender Equality of the Chamber of Deputies They approved defining as sexual harassment in public spaces the form of violence that entails an abuse of power with respect to the victim without any relationship with the aggressor.
Approved unanimously with 29 votes, the deputies endorsed the draft with a draft decree that amends and adds various provisions of the General Law on Women’s Access to a Life Free of Violenceon sexual harassment in public spaces.
The opinion adds that sexual harassment in public spaces is an aggression that can not only manifest itself physically, but also through non-consensual verbal conduct with a sexual connotation and exerted on one or more people in public spaces and means of transport, whose action represents a violation of human rights.
It also establishes that both federal and local authorities must design and promote public policies aimed at generating spaces and public transportation free of violence for women.
In this sense, the deputy Julieta Kristal Vences Valencia (Morena) said that including this definition in the law will help when the rape is reported, since many women suffer this harassment on public transport, which ranges from a word, groping and obscene looks, to intimate touching.
On the other hand, this commission endorsed a second opinion, to amend and add article 50 of the same order to establish that municipalities and territorial demarcations must promote training courses, at least once a year, for people who care for victims of violence.
Likewise, that equality and equity programs may be taught in secondary and high schools with the support of the educational authorities; likewise, that city councils and mayors’ offices must create special commissions to supervise and evaluate compliance with public policies aimed at preventing, sanctioning, and eradicating all kinds of violence against women, girls, and adolescents.
It also establishes the need for police forces and administrative justice personnel to receive training on human rights with a gender perspective at least every year.
Vences Valencia highlighted the importance of this reform to establish special commissions to monitor and evaluate public policies “because the programs are carried out, but no one evaluates whether or not violence decreases.”
Deputy Erika de los Ángeles Díaz Villalón (PAN), promoter of the reform, said that with it an important step will be taken in the protection of victims and women. She indicated that there is still a lot of work to be done, but the willingness to work in this Commission will yield good results.
