Page 198 - Invited Paper Session (IPS) - Volume 1

IPS131 Rivera-Galicia, L. F. et al.
1 in 3 (35%) women worldwide have experienced physical and/or sexual
violence by an intimate partner (WHO, 2019).
The Spanish Government is aware of the social problems that are caused
by VAW since the 1990s (Cepeda, 2018). The 28th of December 2004, the
Government approved the Organic Law 1/2004 on Integrated Protection
Measures against Gender Violence, which considers this type of violence
(directed against women for the fact of being women, this law is known as the
Integrated Law against Gender Violence) as the most brutal symbol of
inequality and one of the most flagrant attacks on fundamental rights such as
freedom, equality, life, safety and non-discrimination (GREVIO, 2019, pp. 85-
89).

2. The definition of Gender-Based Violence in Spain
The purpose of the Spanish Integrated Law against Gender Violence to
combat the violence exercised against women by their present or former
spouses or by men with whom they maintain or have maintained analogous
affective relations, with or without cohabitation, as an expression of
discrimination, the situation of inequality and the power relations prevailing
between the sexes.
This Law establishes integrated protection measures whose goal is to
prevent, punish and eradicate this violence and help its victims: women, their
minor children and minors under their guardianship, care or custody. The
gender violence to which this Law refers encompasses all acts of physical and
psychological violence, including offences against sexual liberty, threats,
coercion and the arbitrary deprivation of liberty.

Figure 1: Definitions of VAW, Domestic Violence and GBV according to Spanish
Integrated Law (2004).

Source: Adapted from Mañas-Alcón et al. (2019).
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