In August, the National Women's Commission launched its countrywide Victim's Complaint Mechanism yesterday. This a feedback process where victims of gender-based violence or their advocates can register their dissatisfaction, whenever they feel that their concerns are not being properly addressed the government agencies that should be seeking out justice on their behalf.
The Women's Commission says that the complaint mechanism allows for the departments to be scrutinized, whenever there are situations where the minimum standards of response and care are not being met by the relevant authorities.
We spoke via video conference with the program officer about how it will work:
Eleanor Murrillo - Program Officer, National Women's Commission
"The victim's complaint mechanism is put in place for victims of gender-based violence. It really aligns with our national gender-based violence action plan, whose goal is really to establish a harmonized coordinating mechanism, which means that all the government organizations that are responsible for services provided to victims of gender-based violence, such as Health, the police, Human Development, Women's Department, and even the court system, that we work together to ensure that victims receive adequate services. Also, we want to decrease gender-based violence."
"Victims of gender-based violence, who went to receive services from one of these organizations, and felt that they did not receive professional or adequate service, then they fill out this form, and submit it to us so that an investigation can be done because if we're talking about adequate services, it means that all victims of gender-based violence after they leave one of these government institutions, they are supposed to feel like, you know, I got somewhere today."
"Victims or an advocate on their behalf, which means anybody can fill out the form on behalf of a victim, with permission, of course, because we do ask for your personal information. So, you can fill out the form. The forms are located in some of these same institutions, along with other NGO's throughout the country, because it's a countrywide rollout. And so, you can fill out the form. We have boxes at strategic places within the districts. Or, the post office has also agreed that victims can fill out the form and send it through the post office, free of cost."
"When it reaches us, we will give you a call to let you know, Miss or Sir, we have received your complaint. Give us 2 weeks for the investigation to be conducted, and then we'll get back to you on what has happened. We want victims to understand that this is not just for show, or to say that we have something in place, but we want it to work."
"We have a national gender and gender-based violence committee, and so, these have high-level officers [who] sit on this committee. And so, basically, the complaint will go through them, to go through the relevant authority, within their organizations, to ensure that the investigation takes place. And so, we hold our members accountable, to ensure that it gets done and that we get follow-up and feedback on what has happened."
