Andean women ask for a “new rurality” without gender violence

Leaders of rural communities Bolivia, Ecuador and Colombia demand their respective States to take concrete actions to combat gender violence in rural environments, and adopt a “new rurality”, It was reported this Tuesday.

The request was made after a meeting of women leaders held in Quito between April 24 and 26, within the framework of the regional dialogue ‘Woman: Strength and Leadership from the local, inspiring the world’organized by the Association of Women for Gender Equality and Autonomy MEGA, and with the support of the Women’s Network for Democracy.

The community leaders assure in a manifesto distributed in Quito that the violence they suffer based on gender is amplified by other realities such as “being indigenous, black, speaking another language, having a vulnerable economic condition” either “living in territorial diversity”.

Likewise, they point out that organized crime and drug trafficking increase the levels of violence and insecurity, which – they explain – favors women being “taken as an instrument, a territory of conquest in the middle of a war.”

They also denounce that they face political violence and reject that parity laws have been reduced to “meet quotas” in popularly elected positions, not including community administrations.

They thus demand from their governments a “new rurality” that guarantees their presence in decision-making and that recognizes the right to the territory, as well as to native languages.

Actions to eradicate gender violence

With the aim of combating gender violence, the leaders request concrete measures that include updated data disaggregated by sex and ethnicity, among other indicators, to know the real dimension of this violence.

They also demand the creation of comprehensive care centers and shelters for victims of abuse in rural areas.

Along these lines, they request the implementation of effective technological mechanisms so that the protection measures established by law, such as the panic button or the attention and maximum alert lines, function without incidents.

For all this, they consider it essential to ensure differentiated budgets with a gender focus aimed at the rural environment.

Another demand is the creation of the Ministry of Women in the countries of the region that do not yet exist and to strengthen the budget if this body is available.

In Bolivia, the 55% of rural women work unpaid, in Colombia, the 92.9% and in Ecuador, the Four. Five%according to data from the Alternativa Foundation, based in Madrid.

For this reason, they advocate implementing a differentiated retirement between men and women that equates the unpaid work carried out by the latter throughout their lives.

Other requests include protecting access to health and education, from an intercultural perspective, for children of rural families, as well as guaranteeing access to sexual and reproductive education based on consent.

For their part, the signatory organizations of the manifesto commit to following up on these approaches through the construction of an Andean regional network.

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