This Week in Human Rights News

Gender-based and ‘vicarious’ violence in Spain

Sources: Reuters, ABC News, The Local, El Pais, The Guardian

Please note that this story contains discussion of domestic violence, murder, and child abuse. 

This week, the body of missing six-year-old Olivia was found in a sports bag that had been tied to an anchor at a depth of approximately 1,000 meters off the coast of Tenerife, in Spain’s Canary Islands. 

Olivia (6) and her sister Anna (1) went missing a couple of weeks prior when their father did not return them to their mother at the end of April. The night of the disappearance, Olivia and Anna’s father told their mother that she would never see them again. 

Search and rescue are currently looking for Anna. An empty bag was found next to the anchor. 

The father’s boat was also found drifting nearby, and he is currently missing.

The news shocked the country and exposed one of the worst types of gender-based violence in Spain; what the press has named ‘violencia vicaria’ or ‘vicarious violence’. This is a kind of gender-based violence by proxy where abusers hurt their children in order to hurt their partners or ex-partners. Since 2013, 39 children have been murdered by their biological fathers in Spain. 

This week, a 23-year-old man confessed to the murder of 17-year-old Rocío Caíz who was found a few days prior. She is believed to be the 18th woman to be murdered by a partner or ex-partner in 2021 in Spain.

Experts have noted an increase in violence against women since Spain’s state of emergency was lifted on May 9, and have suggested that this could be attributed to women trying to escape abusive relationships. In these five weeks, 10 women have been murdered by former or current partners.

Again the same week, on Friday, Juana Riveras, a mother of two children voluntarily entered custody after being convicted for not returning her two children to her partner in 2017. 

Juana’s dispute with her partner date back to 2009, she had a restraining order against him of 200 meters for 15 months after he was convicted to three months in prison for gender-based violence crimes. 

After getting back together with him in Italy, she returned to Granada with the children without his permission and was charged with two counts of child abduction, later reduced to one count.

After several appeals, she now faces two and half years in prison, loses custody of her children for 6 years and faces a €12,000 fine - which she has paid through public support and donations.

The children now live with their father in Sardinia (Italy), however the father’s lawyer in Spain has confirmed that there are currently open criminal complaints against Mr Arcuri in Italy for mistreatment of their children.

On June 24, a new child protection law will come into effect allowing judges to suspend visitation rights when a 'protection order for gender violence' is issued, or when the children may have witnessed or experienced abuse.

Even though Spain’s government has enacted stricter laws regarding gender-based violence in recent years, the stories of Olivia, Anna, Rocío and Juana demonstrate the prevalent and systemic nature of gender-based violence in Spain.