F. Protection against domestic violence

F. Protection against domestic violence

69. 
    At the request of the Network for Action Against Gender Violence in El Salvador, the Office of the Public Prosecutor of the Republic, along with a number of government organizations and NGOs, set up a standing committee for the protection of children against domestic violence. In 2004, the committee drafted a manual for the application of the Domestic Violence Act, which was circulated to various institutions nationwide, with a view to providing fast and effective care for victims of domestic violence.
    
70. 
    Since 2004 the Office has been a member of a technical working party set up to draft legislation for the Legislative Assembly Committee on Women and the Family. That Committee prepared a bill on the protection of victims of sexual abuse, domestic violence and trafficking in persons for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation, which is being considered for adoption by the legislative plenary. Proposals have also been prepared for reforms of the Family Code to protect women and children, which are also being considered in the hope that they will be approved by the Legislative Assembly.
    
71. 
    In the field of awareness-raising and training, the Inter-institutional Committee for the Prevention of and Care for Domestic Violence has been in existence since the year 2000, carrying out activities such as nationwide awareness-raising and fairs to prevent violence, in which it informs the pubic about the rights of women, children and adolescents, and gender violence, its causes, and which institutions are competent in this area. This project is run by the Salvadoran Institute for Women’s Development.
    
72. 
    Regarding publicizing violence specifically against children and adolescents, in 2003 the Working Party for the Eradication and Prevention of and Protection of Children from Commercial Sexual Exploitation was set up by the signature of a memorandum of understanding by fifteen institutions: the Legislative Assembly Committee on the Family, Women and Children, the Office of the Public Prosecutor of the Republic, the National Council of the Judiviciary, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare, the Ministry of Employment and Social Security, the Ministry of External Relations, the National Civil Police, the Salvadoran Institute for the Full Development of Children and Adolescents, the Salvadoran Institute for the Development of Women, the National Coordination Association for Salvadoran Women, the Employers’ Association for the Development of the Communities of Morazán and San Miguel, the Huellas Foundation and the Network against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents, in which they undertook to work together in this area. The working party has also drawn up a number of information documents on the protection of children against sexual exploitation, which were distributed nationwide. It also drafted an inter-institutional action plan, which is in progress.
    
73. 
    By means of forums designed for judicial operators and citizens in general, work has also been done on awareness-raising in order to foster a rejection of violence against children and adolescents in various State sectors and society. The Office of the Public Prosecutor of the Republic has carried out an awareness-raising project on the issue of commercial sexual exploitation, which is designed to provide information to the population on the role of men in the prevention and eradicate sexual exploitation of children and adolescents. The Physical Training School is carrying out awareness-raising activities on the commercial sexual exploitation of children and adolescents, aimed at all public prosecution staff nationwide.
    
74. 
    The following tables give details of the treatment of cases of domestic violence against children in the Salvadoran judicial system.
    

Figure 27

Statistical data on minors who are victims of domestic violence in the country’s 22 family courts, during 2006

Family courts	Total	Total
		Total by type of violence			Total by age range				Total by gender
		Physical	Sexual	Psychological	Age 0 to 5	Age 6-11	Age 12-14	Age 15-17	Female	Male
Total	283	169	4	110	95	19	44	125	204	79

Figure 28

Statistical data on minors who are victims of domestic violence in the country’s 22 family courts, during 2006

Family courts

Type of violence involving minors

Physical

Sexual

Psychological

Age 0 to 5

Age 6-11

Age 12-14

Age 15-17

Age 0 to 5

Age 6-11

Age 12-14

Age 15-17

Age 0 to 5

Age 6-11

Age 12-14

Age 15-17

F

M

F

M

F

M

F

M

F

M

F

M

F

M

F

M

F

M

F

M

F

M

F

M

Total

44

20

3

3

12

10

65

12

-

-

1

-

1

-

2

-

22

9

6

6

13

8

35

11

Figure 29

Statistical data of all cases involving minor victims of domestic violence in the 24 Magistrates Courts
equipped with the Case Monitoring System.

	2004		2005		2006
	Total	Average per court	Total	Average per court	Total	Average per court
Magistrates Courts
Mediation authorized	1	0	6	0	12	1
Order for investigation with injunctive relief			3	0	4	0
Discharge	1	0			13	1
Order for investigation with petition hearing					2	0
Non-applicability of the anti-gang law	1	0
Order for investigation with interim detention	1	0
Order for investigation without interim detention	1	0	10	0	15	1
Definitive discharge	20	1	9	0	17	1
Provisional discharge	11	0	15	1	96	4
Conditional suspension of proceedings	3	0	1	0	2	0
Total	39	2	44	7
Total 2004-2006	345
Average per court	14

Figure 30

Statistical data of all cases involving minor victims of domestic violence
in the 30 Preliminary investigation courts equipped with the Case Monitoring System.

	2004		2005		2006
	Total	Average per court	Total	Average per court	Total	Average per court
Magistrates Courts
Total	8	0	9	0	14	0
Proceedings in progress	3	0	2	0	5	0
Trial proceedings			2	0
Mediation authorized	2	0	1	0	3	0
Incompetent			1	0
Contempt of court					3	0
Absolute invalidity					1	0
Conviction in fast-track procedure	1	0
Definitive discharge	1	0	1	0	1	0
Provisional discharge	1	0	1	0
Conditional suspension of proceedings			1	0	1	0
Total 2004-2006	31
Average per court	1

75. 
    The Salvadoran Government’s National Policy on Women, implemented through the Salvadoran Institute for the Development of Women (ISDEMU), recognizes that violence against women, in public and private spaces, manifests itself in the unequal exercise of power through the social establishment of gender differences that place women at a disadvantage in relation to men, and over other vulnerable groups such as children, adolescents and older and disabled persons. The State of El Salvador has taken up the challenge of eliminating these generic socio-structural inequalities, which goes beyond mere legislative action and consolidation of a safe infrastructure. There is therefore a need for action to change cultural models that place women at a disadvantage and leave them exposed to gender violence.
    
76. 
    This policy includes the Family Relations Restoration Programme (PSRF), the objectives of which include implementing ongoing educational gender awareness and prevention programmes on the issue of domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse, aimed at the population at risk, in coordination with government bodies, local governments, civil society and private enterprise. In this context, a national domestic violence prevention and care plan has been devised, under which a number of publicity and awareness measures against violence have been carried out, including: publicity for the Domestic Violence Act, the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women (Convention of Belem Do Para), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in activities aimed at staff of government institutions and the judiciary, schools, the armed forces, the National Civil Police, and the general population. A total of 631 Prevention Fairs have also been carried out since 2004 in the country’s 14 departments, directly benefiting 160,744 people, and 803,720 indirectly.
    

Figure 31

Fairs against domestic violence

People taking part in fairs against domestic violence

Year	Number of fairs	Women participants	Men participants	Total
2004	102	38,882	32,966	71,848
2005	463	30,699	23,019	53,718
2006	66	20,502	14,676	35,178
Total	631	90,083	70,661	160,744

Source: ISDEMU

77. 
    Since 2004, ISDEMU has been implementing group action agendas for child and adolescent victims of domestic violence, child abuse and commercial sexual exploitation of children.
    
78. 
    The PSRF has been carrying out sessions for students of national and private schools, covering topics such as: child abuse, sexual abuse, teenage pregnancies, commercial sexual exploitation of children, human values and trafficking in persons. Individual and group psychology sessions are also being conducted for children and adolescents with the aim of improving their mental health and self-esteem. Individual psychological care has been given to 4,900 children; and to a further 5,794 in group sessions; 8,294 underwent psychological monitoring.
    
79. 
    The Salvadoran State, through the Office of the Public Prosecutor of the Republic and the courts of justice, has continued to prosecute sexual offences against children and adolescents. See information on this in annex IV.
    
80. 
    Regarding the protection of children involved in offences against family rights and duties, the Minors’ and Women’s Unit of the Office of the Public Prosecutor of the Republic is responsible for taking criminal proceedings. In caring for victims, the Office provides legal, psychological and social assistance, in some cases applying the protection measures provided for in the Domestic Violence Act. In performing this function, the Office acts on this issue in constant coordination with government institutions such as ISDEMU, ISNA, the National Secretariat for the Family, the Institute of Forensic Medicine, the Supreme Court of Justice and the National Civil Police.
    
81. 
    Criminal law recognizes several types of crimes in which paternal irresponsibility is punished by imprisonment. See annex V for the relevant legislation.
    
82. 
    The Office of the Public Prosecutor of the Republic reports statistics on crimes relating to family relations for the reporting period. See annex VI for this information.
    
83. 
    Regarding child-abuse victims, in all cases handled by ISNA protection measures were adopted in accordance with the ISNA Act, and measures were also ordered for those responsible for the children.
    
84. 
    ISDEMU also cares for child victims of sexual assault and abuse. The following table sets out the number and percentage of children handled by ISDEMU in 2006.
    

Figure 32

Child victims of sexual assault and abuse treated by ISDEMU (2006)

Age	Sexual assault				Child abuse
	Female	Percentage	Male	Percentage	Female	Percentage	Male	Percentage	Total
0-1	1	0.16%			37	2.37%	18	1.31%	56
2-5	40	6.33%	23	24.21%	164	10.50%	147	10.74%	374
6-9	95	15.03%	39	41.05%	379	24.26%	423	30.90%	936
10-13	188	29.75%	23	24.21%	478	30.60%	490	35.79%	1179
14-17	308	48.73%	10	10.53%	504	32.27%	291	21.26%	1113
Total	632		95		1,562		1,369		3,658

Source: ISDEMU

85. 
    See annex VII for the cases occurring in 2004-2005.
    
86. 
    ISDEMU offers temporary shelter for women and their children who have suffered domestic violence, sexual abuse and commercial sexual exploitation. The temporary protection goes hand in hand with psychological and social care, legal advice and individual and group support for women victims of domestic violence, including the children.
    

Figure 33

Domestic violence victims sheltered by ISDEMU (2004-2007)

Year	Women	Boys	Girls	Total
2004	88	53	58	199
2005	54	30	95	179
2006	60	42	122	225
Total	244	151	348	744

Source: ISDEMU

87. 
    See annex VIII for the number of domestic violence victims handled by ISDEMU, including children.
    
88. 
    ISDEMU also has a line of action on training and awareness for key officials for care and immediate action for victims of domestic violence, including children. National Civil Police officers have been given priority for taking part in these activities.
    

Figure 34

National Civil Police officers taking part in domestic violence training and awareness activities.

Year	Number of activities	Female	Male	Total
2004	111	3,654	3,064	6,718
2005	125	2,481	1,674	4,155
2006	130	2,346	1,660	4,006
Total	366	8,481	6,398	14,879

Source: ISDEMU

89. 
    Regarding internment of children and adolescents, the ISNA Act states that placing them in an institution or internment is an exceptional protection measure of last resort, enabling children to be placed in a shelter appropriate to their age, personality and gender, with the aim of carrying out studies, learning a craft or trade, receiving specialist care for their rehabilitation, always ensuring that they are fully protected. The fundamental criterion for deciding on the internment of a child for their care, protection or treatment, is a direct and immediate threat to their life and personal integrity.
    
90. 
    ISNA is the main institution responsible for sheltering children at risk, and for supervising private agencies authorized to carry out that function. To that end, it has internal procedures for periodic examination and supervision of internment conditions.
    
91. 
    Having regard to the higher interests of interned children, ISNA has also established coordination mechanisms with the Office of the Public Prosecutor of the Republic, the Office of the Attorney-General of the Republic, the National Civil Police, family courts and Magistrates courts, to supervise internment conditions and facilitate the protection of children at risk. The Office of the National Counsel for the Defence of Human Rights, as a part of the Attorney General's Office, and as an independent State agency, also has constitutional and legal powers to supervise the human rights of children interned in public institutions.
    

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