Women’s groups call for measures to reduce violence

Santo Domingo.- In 2012 198 womenwere killed by their partners or former partners. Women’s groups say that thesefigures should push the authorities to adopt harsher measures for tacklinggender violence, including increasing the assigned budget, provide bettercoverage and quality of services, reduce the levels of impunity and strengthenaccess to the justice system.

The Observatory for ExercisingWomen’s Rights as Citizens led by the Women and Health Collective and theWomen’s Research Center (CIPAF) says there was a slight reduction in theincidence of femicides in 2012 compared to 2011, however, they suggest thatefforts should be redoubled.

“The levels of violence against womenand girls are still unacceptable and the Ministry of Public Health cannot keepignoring this problem,” they state in their Femicides 2012 Bulletin.