Spain acts to stop domestic violence

The Spanish government took a long-awaited step in combating domestic violence yesterday, opening 17 new courthouses in big cities to deal exclusively with the problem.

An additional 433 courts will now specialise in domestic abuse cases, dealing in everything from restraining orders and child custody battles to the treatment of victims, officials said.

A spokeswoman for the ruling Socialist party, Maribel Montaño, said the government was bringing the full force of the state to bear on eradicating what she called "criminal machismo".

She said: "Women are going to feel more protected from a legal standpoint and they will have more safeguards if they go to the police."

The courts are part of a sweeping new law on gender violence, which stiffens sentences for aggressors and calls for public education in gender equality. It comes into effect after years of public outrage about the failure of the law to prevent more than 300 deaths in the past five years.

In 2004, 72 women were beaten, strangled and bludgeoned to death by their husbands, boyfriends or former partners, according to the ministry of justice's observatory on domestic and gender violence. More than 57,000 women filed complaints of abuse or of threats. So far this year, 30 women have been murdered at the hands of their companions or former lovers.

Domestic violence is no more prevalent in Spain than in many European countries, according to the Fundación Mujeres, a women's rights watchdog. But until recently the problem was ignored by the state.

"There was a prevailing belief that domestic violence was a private matter that had to be resolved at home", said Angeles Alvarez, coordinator of Red Feminista, a network of women's rights groups in Spain. "Those who were supposedly in a position to help - police, judges - didn't believe what the women said."

Attitudes began to change in 1997, when 99 women were murdered by their present or former partners, according to Ms Alvarez. Women's groups led protests after each killing, and the media embarked on a campaign against domestic violence, publishing the crude details of abuse.

Last year, the government stiffened the penal code to make spousal abuse punishable on the first offence. A divorce law, expected to win approval this week, makes separation proceedings quicker. The government also plans to assign 380 extra officers to the protection of women threatened by domestic violence.

But activists fear the new courts will not work properly without adequate training and experience.

"Awareness and sensitivity are not enough, you need professional criteria," Ms Alvarez said.