The PP has agreed with Vox to hand over the management of the Department of Justice of the Generalitat Valenciana; an area that in recent years has been at the forefront in Spain in comprehensive care for victims of gender violence. With a model structured through a network of exclusive courts for gender violence and offices for attention to victims of crime. And that it also has comprehensive forensic assessment units, which are used to prepare, by a multidisciplinary team, the reports that help judges to assess the real state of the aggressors and their victims.
Unlike other autonomies, Justice in the Valencian Community assumes the burden of comprehensive care and protection for victims of gender violence. That is why it is important to know the scope of the decision to hand over this portfolio to Vox, a formation that denies the existence of gender violence and on which it will depend to provide the necessary resources to these courts and to approve the budget for the next ones that are scheduled to be activated in 2023 and 2024. The statements last Friday of the number 2 of this match in Valencia, José María Llanos, have generated deep concern in this area.
The Valencian Community is the autonomous community that has created the most gender violence courts this year (they began operating on January 2). Specifically, it creates 5: Alzira, Sueca, Alicante, Elche and Valencia. Of the 7 gender violence courts created in Spain, 5 are in the Valencian Community. By 2023, the creation of another 7 has been requested. The objective is to go from having 16 exclusive courts for gender violence to 33 in 2024 when the plan provided by the Ministry is fulfilled.
Each court has the support of comprehensive care units. These units have the objective of facilitating decision-making in gender violence procedures for legal operators, through the preparation of reports by a multidisciplinary team. These reports are the most effective tool to protect victims because they contain a comprehensive assessment of the aggressor, the vulnerability of the victim, the aggravating factors, and the circumstances of the history of violence. There are 14 units in the Valencian Community that make up 45 professionals.
The commitment of the Ministry of Justice, which is now managed by Gabriela Bravo, is to have a specialized jurisdiction, with specialized personnel and support resources for professionals and victims. In addition to the gender violence courts, Justice has two office services that serve women victims of gender violence. The first of these are the complaints offices specialized in these crimes. The Valencian Community is the only autonomous region that has this network.
This is a unique and pioneering project in Spain whose objective is to care for victims in a safe space, made up of a specialized multidisciplinary team that accompanies them throughout the process. They can file a complaint and also receive psychological and social care. There are three offices: Valencia (opened in April 2019), Castellón (opened in June 2022) and Alicante (opened in November 2022). Open 365 days a year, located in the courthouses. They have served more than 4,000 women. Of these, 58% have filed a complaint.
The second of the services that also attends to female victims is the network of assistance offices for crime victims. They serve victims of any type of crime, but the majority are women and half of them due to gender violence. From 2018 to 2022 they have served some 90,000 people, 85% women. It is the largest network in Spain (with 37 offices) and almost 200 professionals. It is a public network.
