By EFE
Dec 28, 2023, 2:13 PM EST
San Juan – The governor of Puerto Rico, Pedro Pierluisi, signed an executive order this Thursday to extend the Emergency Declaration for Gender Violence until December 31, 2024, given the alarming numbers of femicides.
A total of 19 intimate femicides were recorded in Puerto Rico until November of this year, four more than in 2022, according to data from the Gender Equality Observatory of the island, which has a population of just over 3 million inhabitants.
“The work we began on January 25, 2021 with the Emergency Declaration is not over, much less our unwavering commitment to eradicating violence,” the governor said in a statement.
Therefore, this measure provides continuity to the initiatives and projects started and implemented by the Gender Violence Prevention, Support, Rescue and Education Committee (Pare Committee).
“We are facing various manifestations of physical, psychological, sexual and economic violence that represent a complex social evil. Given this, it is necessary to work on both prevention and care for victims with the objective of eradicating any expression of gender violence,” said the governor.
The extension of the Emergency Declaration aims to safeguard the allocation of fiscal resources in the budgets of the agencies to fight against this scourge.
The data collection system will also continue to be developed and alliances established with municipal governments to expand the network of services and support for people in situations of gender violence.
Likewise, collaboration agreements will continue to be finalized between the municipalities and the Center for Operations and Processing of Protection Orders (Copop), attached to the Gender Violence and Juvenile Affairs Unit of the Police Bureau.
The executive order establishes that the tools for the management, processing and attention of protection orders will be expanded and that continuous training and development of public personnel on protocols on gender violence will be implemented.
Prevention and education campaigns against violence will continue, as will the development of necessary plans and programs among agencies and non-governmental organizations for the care and support of secondary victims of gender violence, especially minors.
Likewise, effective programs for rehabilitation aimed at breaking the cycle of gender violence will be reviewed and established and the equity curriculum will continue to be implemented in schools in the public education system.
Since the declaration of the first state of emergency in 2021, specific legislation has been adopted, protocols developed and measures implemented such as the creation of COPOP and the establishment of a system for collecting and managing statistical data on cases of feminicide.
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