About thirty magistrates will be in charge of helping and assisting other colleagues on technical issues related, among other points, to prosecution with a gender perspective. This concept, in a brief way, means judging, leaving stereotypes and prejudices aside, as well as analyzing the context in which the events occur, in order to interpret the legislation correctly.
This was decided last week by the plenary session of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), which agreed to create a Network of Equality Specialists (REI) whose members will be available to members of the judicial career who request it “to provide them with assistance.” technical advice that they deem appropriate in matters directly related to equality in access to justice and prosecution with a gender perspective.”
Also for everything that has to do with equal opportunities and issues related to conciliation in their jobs, according to CGPJ sources. And it will also be the responsibility of the members of this network to help “promote the use of inclusive language in judicial resolutions and in governmental or administrative communications of the CGPJ or the different governing bodies of the Judiciary,” they point out.
The proposal for the creation of this network of experts was presented by the Equality Commission, chaired by Clara Martínez de Careaga, and also made up of members Nuria Díaz Abad and Juan Manuel Fernández Martínez.
In the opinion of the Judiciary, “the extensive legal heritage of modern anti-discrimination law, both nationally and internationally, requires a high level of specialization and training and its correct application is an important challenge for Justice,” he points out.
The Network of Equality Specialists will be made up of thirty magistrates from the different jurisdictional orders who accredit specialization in matters of equality, law against discrimination and prosecution with a gender perspective.
The selection of these magistrates will be the responsibility of the Plenary Session of the CGPJ, which will appoint them through a selective procedure based on the principles of publicity, equality, merit and capacity.
According to the calendar drawn up by the Equality Commission, the members of the REI could be appointed at the end of next June and the first meeting could be held in September at the headquarters of the Judicial Documentation Center (Cendoj) in San Sebastián.
Among other functions, the members of this network will collect, mark and send to said center the resolutions that are considered of interest in matters of equality, conciliation and prosecution with perspective and will propose training activities in equal treatment and non-discrimination, gender perspective and co-responsibility for its inclusion in the training plan of the Judicial School.
The first ruling in Spain in which the gender perspective was applied was handed down by the Social Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC), whose head is Gloria Poyatos, in 2017. A year later, the Supreme Court He did the same, in a case of attempted murder and abuse of a man against his partner. The speaker was Judge Vicente Magro, an expert in gender violence.
