WUNRN
NICARAGUA - CONCERN ON POSSIBLE VAW
LAW AMENDMENT REQUIRING WOMEN VICTIMS' MEDIATION WITH THEIR ABUSERS
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- Conservative sectors in
The
Supreme Court (CSJ) decided on May 23 to ask the single chamber legislature
reform Law 779, which has been in force since June 2012.
The vice president of the CSJ,
Rafael Solís, said the Supreme Court believes it is essential to modify Article
46, which prohibits mediation between women and their assailants for the crimes
defined in the law. By changing this it is partially admitting a series of appeals
lodged against the law, which included calling for it to be ruled
unconstitutional.
The CSJ’s request is a victory
for religious groups and other powerful conservative sectors that have waged a
steady campaign against the law during the 11 months it has been in force,
arguing, for example, that it discriminates against men.
The law stipulates that the
state and its institutions have a duty to guarantee the physical, psychic,
moral, sexual, patrimonial and economic integrity of women. It also punishes any
kind of gender-based discrimination, including femicide (gender-based murders
of women).
Solís said the CSJ judges
decided by consensus that the law should establish mechanisms for mediation
between victims and assailants as an alternative form of conflict resolution,
in cases where the alleged crimes carry sentences of less than five years in
prison.
Mediation is a legal mechanism
in the Nicaraguan justice system for conflict resolution in private law, but
not in crimes of public law such as those covered by Law 779. In fact, in
family law, mediation is only used in cases of property rights, divorce or
separation.
The law was approved by a large
majority in parliament and has overwhelming social support, according to
opinion polls. It put
Since March, when the CSJ began
scrutinising the appeals, the debate on the law has reopened, confronting the
branches of government, political groups, churches and civil society
organisations, especially those defending women’s rights. Protest
demonstrations in favour of and against the law have been held in front of the
Supreme Court.
Appeals were lodged against the
law by legal experts, on the grounds that it violates the principles of
equality and presumption of innocence, and enshrines “radical feminist”
positions by eliminating mediation in cases of domestic violence.
Bismarck Dávila, one of the five lawyers lodging the appeals, told IPS that the law violates the constitutional principle of equality “because it designates special judges to judge men, while women who commit the same crimes are tried by ordinary judges.”
Law 779 establishes special
courts and prosecutors for crimes of gender violence, as well as special police
units for women.
According to Dávila, the law
also violates the presumption of innocence because from the moment he is
accused, “the man is presumed guilty.” He further argued that it violates the
right to a defence because “the efforts of public or private defenders are
useless in the face of a law that treats men unequally.”
The Asociación Democrática de
Abogados de
The debate has taken on
religious overtones after representatives of evangelical churches and the
Catholic Church preached from the pulpit against a law that “destroys families
by punishing men.”
On May 7, Abelardo Mata, a
Catholic bishop, went so far as to say: “The new number of the beast is not
666, but 779.” No clarification or apology has been issued by the Catholic
hierarchy.
In parliament, the majority is
against amending the law. The first secretary of the legislature, Alba
Palacios, recalled that the law was approved by 82 votes out of 92 in February
2012.
In her view, the law should be
enforced without amendments, “because before it was approved it was widely
debated; all sectors were consulted; and it is the result of those broad
consultations.”
Irma Dávila, the chair of the
parliamentary Justice Commission, said: “80 percent of the Nicaraguan
population supports Law 779, so we cannot say that there is a large majority
against the law.”
A survey by the
Sistema de Monitoreo de Opinión Pública (SISMO – Public Opinion Monitoring
System) carried out Apr. 2-18 found that 82.3 percent of respondents backed the
law.
The governing Sandinista
National Liberation Front, which holds 63 of the 92 seats in parliament, holds
the key to accepting or rejecting the CSJ’s request to modify the law.
If parliament turns down the
CSJ’s request, the Supreme Court can alter the way the law is enforced by
issuing instructions to judges. In fact, it has already sent out a circular
with guidelines for courts to reduce sentences in cases of crimes punishable by
less than five years’ imprisonment under Law 779.
Women’s rights groups repudiate
the reform, saying that to require mediation between victim and assailant
“revictimises women.”
Juana Jiménez of the Movimiento
Autónomo de Mujeres (MAM – Autonomous Women’s Movement) said femicide
statistics for 2012 show why mediation should not be required: 13 out of the 85
women murdered because they were female had entered into mediation with their
assailants, after reporting them to the authorities.
“Experience shows that far from
solving the problem, mediation only gives men an opportunity to organise their
revenge, kill the woman and then flee,” she told IPS.
Amnesty International (AI)
issued a press release in
support of the law. “The violence perpetrated against women and children is
what breaks up families, not legislation designed to help victims escape from
violence and hold abusers to account,” said Esther Major, AI’s researcher on
Nicaragua.
According to figures from the
special police units for women, an average of 97 men per day were reported to
the authorities for abusing women in
Between Jun. 21, 2012, when the
law came into force, and Apr. 28, 2013, 6,482 cases were prosecuted under the
law, including 17 femicides. A total of 5,726 alleged assailants were arrested,
1,050 of whom were freed because they were deemed to have only committed
misdemeanours.
So far, 692 cases have resulted
in conviction and sentencing, and 297 in acquittal, while the remainder remain
open.