Colombia Senators No Show for Violence Against Women Debate

In spite of increased violence against women in Colombia, the country’s senators failed to show up to a debate on measures to curb the growing tragedy.

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According to the Colombia Reports, only 35 of 102 senators showed up at the debate called by Senator Claudia Lopez to address the excessive level of violence.

“What this here demonstrates is that our (male) colleagues do not have any solidarity with their [female] colleagues in the Senate when it comes to issues as important as the violence against women,” Senator Daira Galvis said.

Last year, some 1,000 women were murdered in Colombia. Every 12 minutes a Colombian woman falls victim to domestic violence and every 29 minutes a woman is sexually abused in the South American country, Lopez said citing government statistics.

Lopez stressed that violence against women had become “pandemic” in the South American country and urged both society and the government to commit to curb the excessive and increasing levels of femicide.