At the top of the news, we told you about a woman that was murdered in Spanish Lookout. And earlier this month, another woman and her disabled son were gunned down. Today we asked the Minister of Gender Affairs about this uptick in femicide.
Thea Garcia Ramirez, Minister of Human Dev, Families, Gender Affairs:
"Well, I think when it comes to violence against women, it's always been there. It's escalated to where it's not only violence, but we see homicide. One of the things that we have noticed is that femicide is not described within our laws, doesn't carry harsher penalties. So it's something perhaps that we would need to revisit. I think that the prevalence of crime, and as it is, against women is certainly being reported more even. We have two kinds of reports, those that are for immediate police action and those that are for referred to as for reference or people would then have a chance to come back and say, we want to to take it to court and have police action. So you could take it both ways. You could say that we are just reporting more or you could also say that it is more prevalent. What I do know is that, it's become a lot more sensational now. People are picking up on it, and it's because people are no longer just jaded. It's just not another crime. But when we see crimes committed against those most vulnerable, I would see that the work of of agencies like the Commission, the NCFC, the ministry, we're doing our job, because when you commit a crime, gender based violence and against those that are most vulnerable, it's even worse because, you know, they're the most disadvantaged in our communities, in our society. So definitely it lends a different perspective on it."
Earlier this week, the ComPol also stated that reports of rape have seen an increase as well.
