Authorities will inform women of partners' histories of gender-based violence
Measure could affect over 350 people in Catalonia
Spain's interior ministry approved a new gender-based violence protocol on Thursday allowing national police and Guardia Civil officers to inform women of their partners' histories of abuse.
The warning will not be automatic, ministry sources said. Police carry out a personalized assessment to determine whether to do so when a new complaint is filed or a warning requiring the police to intervene is issued.
Women will only be informed if the risk of their partner committing gender-based violence is considered relevant, high, or extreme and if their criminal record dates back to the previous five years.
The police will also inform women who are registered in the VioGen victims of gender-based violence database.
The prosecutor's office endorsed the measure now greenlighted by the Spanish interior ministry in mid-January following a particularly grim December with 11 femicides across Spain. 2023 has also started in bleak fashion with eight more, prompting vigils and demonstrations against gender-based violence and authorities to come together to act.
355 women in Catalonia
The Catalan Mossos d'Esquadra police agreed to adopt this measure into their existing gender-based violence protocols on Friday, meaning an estimated 355 women in Catalonia could potentially be informed of the partners' abuse records.
Mossos spokesperson Montserrat Escudé said they would "assess each on a case-by-case basis" to determine whether this information should be provided and how.
Femicides in Catalonia
In Catalonia, there were seven intimate partner violence murders last year, as well as the murder of the daughter of one of the women. The victims were aged between 21 and 88 years old, and all were killed in their homes.
Two of them had denounced their murderer, but none had judicial protection measures in force.
In 2021, there were ten femicides in Catalonia, while a year before, there were nine.
As for the murderers, six of the men were arrested and died by suicide after committing the murder. They were between 33 and 69 years old.