“Dear HHH: My name is Isabel… You do not have to see or talk to the Lord who hurt your mother (your biological father)…”, “… I have decided that you continue living with your mother…”, “… Of course What I am convinced is that feeling afraid when you are with your father is not good for you…” or “… I am the judge who has decided that you can hug your mother again.” The phrases are part of the four letters, addressed to boys and girls, that a substitute judge from Barcelona, ??Isabel Giménez (1967), has included in her judicial resolutions. The last of them, in which she denies visits to a father accused of gender violence who had not taken care of his daughter for five years, has represented a “revolution” due to its application of the law with a gender perspective. and childhood. She has also placed this magistrate who works in commercial and civil courts as a reference for specifically addressing minors in her rulings to explain the decision made. Jurists and also associations that fight against vicarious violence celebrate her actions.
Isabel Giménez has been working as a substitute civil and commercial judge for more than 20 years and a recent resolution, with which she aims to prevent vicarious violence, has brought her a shower of praise. “I have been concerned for years about the abuse and mistreatment of children… these are situations that remain covered up,” Giménez tells this newspaper from her office at the Ciutat de la Justicia in Barcelona. She has been resolving everything for more than two decades: from claims for amounts to “any controversy.” And when it’s her civil turn, she handles family cases.
On April 15, he signed a resolution in which he rejected the request for visits to a father. In 2018 he had been reported for gender violence, and although the reports confirmed the injuries of the woman who was his partner at the time, she decided not to testify in the criminal trial and there was no conviction. The couple has a daughter, who reportedly witnessed attacks and has also been a victim of them. Visits were arranged at a meeting point where the father never showed up. Until five years later she requested shared custody and later to be able to see the minor on weekends. Upon knowing this, the girl was terrified with the idea of ??seeing “the man who almost killed my mother,” the sentence details. And Giménez, based on a multitude of reports, decided to dismiss the petition and impose protective measures so that the father cannot approach the minor, explicitly mentioning the risk of vicarious violence. He did it months after the hearing because he was waiting for reports proving the minor’s condition. In the resolution, which can be appealed, he also included a letter addressed to the girl to explain her decision and reassure her.
For many, this way of addressing the causes that involve children is innovative, adopting a gender perspective and also protecting children. But it is not the first time that this judge acts like this. “It is the fourth letter I have written,” explains Giménez.
The first was to a young man who was bullied at school and who missed a lot of class and whose admission to a juvenile center had been ordered when the administration considered that his mother was not taking care of her son. He left the next day by court order from Giménez for considering that he was actually a victim of bullying. “I removed it because I saw that the risk was not in the mother and I issued the resolution without listening to the DGAIA,” he points out. He has also addressed letters via resolution to a minor victim of an abduction, for whom he has established a visitation regime that allows the mother-daughter relationship to be resumed, and to a child with Asperger’s syndrome who was afraid of his father and whom he has withdrawn custody.
In the last and famous resolution it adopted protection measures “understanding that there was vicarious violence.” The magistrate assures that she can “look up” and investigate situations from the past that, although they have not led to a conviction, can help her make a decision that is as protective for the minor as possible.
This judge likes to talk a lot with children and whenever she can, she does. But she preferred not to proceed like this in the now famous resolution because she was a “revictimized” girl with post-traumatic stress, hooked on her mother and with fears. The minor, the judge says, had verbalized to an expert her fear that “the man who almost killed my mother would come,” she stopped eating and did not want to go out when she learned of the father’s intention to want to see her. . And with that version and the reports she had enough to pass sentence.
“The LOPIVI says to listen to children, not explore them,” this judge emphasizes. It is precisely the application of this law (Organic Law 8/2021 on comprehensive protection of children and adolescents against violence) one of the most repeated praises for the sources consulted. The jurist and expert on vicarious violence Eliana Camps celebrates Giménez’s actions, and values ??the letter as “innovative” and of “sublime delicacy.” For the expert, there are judicial mechanisms to stop vicarious violence that consist of applying the law, but she warns that this is not done. “It does not apply because the paterfamilias prevails over the benefit of the minor,” she laments. Camps assures that this sentence “has generated a revolution.” With a tragic start to the year, the jurist warns that the increase in vicarious violence is worrying and that the most extreme cases – which end in death – are the tip of the iceberg because the majority of cases do not result in death, but rather attacks or instrumentalization. of the minor to “turn him against the mother.”
Marta Ariste, lawyer for Leo’s mother (the first victim of vicarious violence in Catalonia), is enthusiastic about the judge and the sentence and celebrates that “for the first time” the minor is put at the center. The lawyer appreciates that the judge considers that if the father has acted violently with the mother, she can act in the same way with the girl or use her to harm her mother and exercise vicarious violence. For Ariste, with the “wave” of vicarious violence, the courts must think that this is a “reality.” She regrets that this judge is an “exception” but she also considers that her actions represent “a little light” that may help to change the chip in the courts. “Statistics say that the murders have occurred during visits,” says Ariste, who also asks “Why is there an obsession with maintaining the father-son bond if there are indications?”
This resolution has also been received with great hope by the associations, says Eliana Camps, because “there are creatures who cannot hug their mother in Spain in 2024.” For Rosalia González, president of the Association Against Violence Vicaria M.A.M.I, the actions of the Catalan judge give “immense hope”, she claims that “a father is not a sperm donor” and that there is not the same consideration with mothers alluding to the snatches.
The idea of ??the letters is something new and commendable for the sources consulted. “I try to explain to them what I have decided because it affects their life… and I also try to tell them that they have been very brave,” he explains. Giménez clarifies, therefore, that the idea is not his “invention” but rather that it has been inspired by the Constitutional Court of Colombia. Because this magistrate, who does not stop training, is also part of the Association of Women Judges (AMJE), an entity that gives her the opportunity to meet many professionals and legal realities in the world. For the judge, the letter is like a “small reparation from the court.” In her sentences she usually also refers to the rights of minors based on the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU.
“The law is now very clear and we have to make a leap and not only think about whether there is an open process,” claims the judge. But Giménez demands specific training in childhood issues and also regrets that the workload makes it difficult to “think.” For this judge, “the gender and childhood perspective must be everywhere” and should be for everyone and especially for family lawyers and judges, “In a story of abuse or mistreatment, minors must be believed and protected.” claims. The magistrate also regrets that sometimes children are heard “but they are not heard.” She is determined to change it.
