gisw13_chapters

ecuadorViolence against women: The production of information to promotesocial transformationCIESPALAlexander Amézquita Ochoawww.ciespal.netIntroductionThis report describes the process of conducting theFirst National Survey of Family Relations and GenderViolence against Women in Ecuador, carried outbetween 2011 and 2012. The report’s focus is on theproduction of information using technology in a waythat supports social transformation.Policy and political backgroundSince 1995 Ecuador has had a law prohibiting violenceagainst women and the family. Adopted during theSixto Durán Ballén administration (1992-1996), and inthe political context of accelerated structural adjustmentthat shaped neoliberalism in Ecuador, the lawwas not however effective enough to prevent everydayviolence against women. This was particularlythe case during the economic crisis that Ecuador experiencedin the following decade, which affected thepoorest segment of the population, and therefore itsmost vulnerable groups – women, children, teenagers,the elderly, Afro-Ecuadorians and indigenous people.These groups experienced other kinds of violence relatedto a lack of access to the protection of the state.With its “modernisation plan” – a recurringtheme in most economic policies during the decadesof the 1980s and 1990s in Latin America, the Balléngovernment pursued economic liberalisation andthe dismantling of the welfare state. This shift wasimportant, if we consider that the previous administration,under Rodrigo Borja Cevallos (1988-1992),emphasised a process of popular participation. Thisat least partially allowed the voices and demands ofa wide range of movements to be heard, includinggender rights organisations. However, most of thesedemands were systematically diluted during theBallén period, and replaced by development policiescentred on dealing with the social dissatisfactionthat was the result of increasing economic crisis 1 – a1 Lind, A. (2001) Organizaciones de mujeres, reforma neoliberal ypolíticas de consumo en Ecuador, in Herrera, G. (ed.) AntologíaGénero, FLACSO, Quito, p. 295-324.crisis that undermined the livelihoods of the vulnerablesocial classes and increased social inequality inways not seen before. 2Two reports were completed in Ecuador in linewith the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms ofDiscrimination against Women (CEDAW), the first publishedin 2003 and the second in 2006. Both show theineffectiveness of institutions to enforce the law passedin 1995, from the National Congress and other public institutions,to police stations, courts and health centres.Violence against women, particularly domesticviolence, was seen as a problem to be solved throughreconciliation, with the intervention of social workers,and ultimately, through the vote. The failure to treat it asa crime pointed to perverse judicial and legal practice,in which the lack of protection and defence of womenincreased women’s feeling of being defenceless.The lack of clear procedures for reporting, aswell as a lack of protection offered by health professionals,created a significant disparity betweenthe number of cases of women treated for attacks,possibly related to their gender, and the numberof complaints received by authorities. On the otherhand, it created a sort of parallel justice system, forexample, in universities, where solutions to sexualassault and abuse were dealt with by the universitiesthemselves – despite surveys and research showingthat sex crimes were widespread on many campuses.These reports corroborated the existence of aculture in which shame, fear or belief in the possibilityof resolving violent situations without resortingto the state were stronger than the precarious officialstructures built to eradicate violence againstwomen.In the period between these two reports, theNational Council of Women (CONAMU) 3 includeda section in the 2004 Demographic, Maternal andChild Health National Survey (ENDEMAIN) 4 whichincluded a series of questions about domestic2 Salgado, J. (ed.) (2006) Informe Alternativo ante el Comité para laEliminación de Todas las Formas de Discriminación contra la Mujer,PADH-UASB, CLADEM, CPJ and UNIFEM, Quito.3 A technical agency working under the Presidency of the Republicof Ecuador, created in 1997 and operating as such until May2009, when a constitutional provision changed it to the TransitionCommission Towards the National Council of Women and GenderEquality (from hereon called Transition Commission).4 www.cepar.org.ec/endemain_04/nuevo05/pdf/texto/01_introduccion.pdf118 / Global Information Society Watch