- Driven by the Associació Hèlia, together with Almena Cooperativa FeministaThis collective civil society platform ensures that institutions act in accordance with their responsibilities, guaranteeing women's right to a life free from gender-based violence.
- The OVIM collects stories of institutional sexist violence anonymously through its collective reporting channel. It has registered up to 120 cases so far.
- In the first half of 2025, the OVIM will present the first report on institutional gender-based violence in the Spanish State.
On December 4th, the first project was publicly presented at the Ecooo Space in the city of Madrid. Observatory of Institutional Violence Against Women (OVIM) in Spain. A meeting that has had Aspacia Foundation as the main organizer along with the Asociación de Investigación y Especialización sobre Temas Iberoamericanos (AIETI), the Colectiva 1600s, the Associació Hèlia y Almena Cooperativa FeministaThese last two are the driving forces behind OVIM, while the other three have formed and continue to form part of its collective construction.
The objective of the day was, on the one hand, to discuss the fight against institutional sexist violenceAs well as difficulties in accessing justice. It has been done with a round table that has had Marta Cabezas Fernández, research professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM); Tania Sordo Ruz, a jurist and researcher specializing in gender and human rights; Virginia Gil Portolés, director of the Aspacia Foundation; and Tatiana Retamozo Quintana, a lawyer and activist for the rights of migrant women at AIETI.
«We have observed how the court "It is a hostile place for women. The separation between victim and aggressor is not guaranteed," said Virginia Gil, referring to the latest research on institutional gender-based violence carried out by the Aspacia Foundation: 'Towards gender justice: access to justice for women survivors of sexual violence in Spain from a gender, human rights and intersectional approach'. Along these lines, Marta Cabezas has proposed "cultivating an ambivalent attitude towards a State that has the symbolic power to decide who is or is not a victim of sexual violence."
The speakers have put forward some actions to be developed through the OVIM: "From the strategy of fighting against silencing to the strategy of mobilization in the streets to generate the political capital necessary to demand changes to the institutions," said Cabezas. And Tania Sordo followed: "We have to move towards a state law that includes institutional sexist violence as another form of sexist violence." Finally, Tatiana Retamozo has named the Immigration Law as one of the great institutional forms of sexist violence: "Recognition of victims of gender violence never reaches all of them equally."
For their part, Hèlia and Almena Feminista have presented the OVIM as the entities that promote it. This Observatory has a clear objective: to demand from the Status to assume its responsibility to ensure a life free of gender-based violence for all women. "We are addressing all women who suffer institutional sexist violence, as well as feminist entities, which are essential for identify y denounce "these forms of violence," said Marina Oliva, from Hèlia, one of the members of the OVIM management team.
The Observatory has been built collectively thanks to the OVIM Council, made up of more than 20 feminist organizations from different autonomous communities (Andalucía, Canarias, Catalunya, Comunidad de Madrid, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, Comunidad de Valencia, Extremadura) and five individual experts. "It is essential to have the years of knowledge of so many feminist entities in our country that work in the care of women, victims and survivors of gender-based violence and institutional gender-based violence," Marina pointed out.
Amanda Alexanian, from Almena Feminista, has spoken about the collective complaint channel. A space that documents stories of institutional sexist violence anonymously through different forms: the first, aimed at women or adolescents who have experienced institutional sexist violence; the second, aimed at the environment of a woman, girl, boy or adolescent who has experienced this violence; the third, aimed at organizations, professionals, activists or workers in a public service who have witnessed this violence. "At OVIM we do not offer personalized support or an individual response to each case. The purpose of the channel is to obtain data on institutional sexist violence in Spain to demand that public authorities take action," Amanda Alexanian clarified.
Since March 15 of this year, the date on which the OVIM officially began to roll, they have been achieved 120 complaints in the channel. Of these, a large part have been recorded from the province of Barcelona. «One of the reasons why we are moving around Madrid, Tenerife, Pamplona, Valencia, etc. is to reach more women or organizations that want to join the OVIM, either by registering cases or by spreading the word,» Marina Oliva emphasized. In addition, of the 120 complaints registered, many point to the judicial sector (judges, lawyers, prosecutors, expert personnel...). «This is why the first report The OVIM project, which will be launched in the first half of 2025, will focus on this sector," concluded both speakers.
