Across Latin America and the Caribbean, at least 4,091 women were victims of suicides in 2020.
Mexico City:
Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Europe and Latin America on Thursday to demand an end to violence against women, while police in Turkey fired tear gas to disperse protesters.
The marches took place to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, with thousands marching through Mexico City, Madrid and Barcelona, while others gathered in Paris and London.
There were also protests in countries including Chile, Venezuela, Bolivia, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Guatemala.
“They don’t die. They killed them,” read one of the banners at the march in Mexico, a country where about 10 women are murdered every day.
Across Latin America and the Caribbean, at least 4,091 women are victims of women’s suicides in 2020, according to the United Nations regional commission.
Tensions flared in Mexico City as a handful of hammer-wielding protesters tried to take shields from police officers, who repelled them with smoke bombs.
Things also took a turn for the worse in Istanbul when riot police fired tear gas to break up a rally by hundreds of protesters urging the government to rejoin an international treaty designed to protect women. .
The Turkish government abandoned the landmark Istanbul Convention earlier this year on the grounds that its gender equality principles erode traditional family values, in a move that prompted campaigners to running angry women.
Human rights groups say that so far this year, 345 women have been killed in Turkey.
‘A global calamity’
In Spain, where the government makes the fight against domestic violence a national priority, thousands poured into the streets of Madrid and Barcelona in a sea of purple flags, while others rallied in Valencia, Seville and other cities around the country.
In the Spanish capital, marchers wearing masks, hats and purple scarves walked behind a giant banner that read, “Enough of male violence against women. Solution now! “
“Not all of us are here, the murdered are missing,” they chanted as they paraded past the Cibeles fountain and other historic buildings that have been illuminated in purple, holding plaques. The sign reads “Not even a single death”.
Leslie Hoguin, a 30-year-old student and actress, told AFP: “On a global level, it’s still a disaster and a big problem.
“It’s time for patriarchal violence against our bodies, our lives, and our decisions to come to an end.”
Many people are fed up with the constant abuse of women.
Maria Moran, a 50-year-old civil servant, said: “We are fed up with the ongoing violence against us in its various forms.
“We want to see prostitution abolished and an end to murder, abuse and rape.”
Back in 2004, the Spanish Parliament completely passed Europe’s first law on the prevention of gender-based violence.
“Eliminating sexist violence is a national priority,” tweeted Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, a self-described feminist activist whose cabinet is dominated by women.
“We will only be a just society when we are done with all kinds of violence against women.”
‘Living in danger’
According to UN Women, the United Nations’ organization for gender equality, nearly a third of women worldwide have experienced physical or sexual violence, mostly by someone they know.
“Violence against women is a global crisis. In all of our neighborhoods, women and girls are living in peril,” said chief executive Sima Bahous. in a video message.
Pope Francis also weighed in.
“Women who are victims of violence must be protected by society,” he wrote on Twitter.
“The various forms of abuse suffered by many women are cowardly and represent degradation to men and to humanity as a whole. We cannot avert our eyes.”
