Lima.- Various human rights and feminist organizations from Peru, as well as relatives of victims of gender-based violence, rejected this Thursday the bill by congresswoman and evangelical pastor Milagros Jáuregui, which seeks to eliminate the crime of femicide from the penal code.
Progressive congresswoman Ruth Luque called a press conference in Parliament with organizations and relatives of women victims of femicide, who stated that deleting the term will generate impunity for the aggressors, since their sentences could be reduced.
Jáuregui proposes replacing feminicide with “murder of the partner” considering this term “as an ideological concept that differentiates the value of life between men and women”.
Luque maintained that Jáuregui, who belongs to the ultra-conservative Renovación Popular party, promotes this measure that “disregards women’s rights” since, by eliminating femicide, when a woman is murdered by a friend, neighbor, or coworker, the sentence will be for simple or aggravated homicide.
They warn of a setback in women’s rights
This change in the sentence allows the aggressor to request a sentence reduction, something that is prohibited if convicted of femicide; furthermore, the victim’s children of this crime are entitled to a subsidy, something that is not assured if it is a case of homicide.
“Eliminating the crime of femicide is not a technical change, it is a serious setback that makes invisible the specific violence that women suffer, weakens the fight and puts at risk the advances we have achieved with years of effort,” said the sister of Estephany Flores, murdered by her ex-partner in 2019.
Similarly, the mother of Érika Oblitas, also
victim of femicide, expressed her fear that the sentence of her daughter’s partner would be reduced and maintained that erasing this crime makes Justice weaker and leaves the victims more unprotected.
For its part, the National Coordinator of Human Rights (Cnddhh) issued a statement in which it highlighted that the Women and Family Commission of Congress maintains on its agenda the repeal of the crime of femicide.
“This proposal continues to represent a serious risk, by invisibilizing gender violence and weakening the State’s response to these crimes. Far from guaranteeing rights, they weaken them and expose victims to greater risks. The State has the obligation to protect, not to retreat,” he indicated.
Both the Cnddhh and feminist movements such as Manuela Ramos and Flora Tristán have called for a collective vigil this Tuesday in front of the Palace of Justice in Lima to demand that the State not favor impunity and retreat on rights.
