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News > Latin America

Peru: Thousands March to Demand Justice for Female Victims of Abuse

  • A demonstrator holds a sign saying

    A demonstrator holds a sign saying "the abuse is not just physical" during a protest against violence on women in Lima, Peru. | Photo: Reuters

Published 12 August 2018
Opinion

The protest also aimed at raising awareness of the high levels of violence against women and impunity towards the aggressors.

Hundreds of people took to the streets of Peru's capital Lima Saturday to demand reform in the justice system for women who are victims of violence and murders in the country.

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The mobilization, known as "#WomenForJustice," ("#MujeresxJusticia"), also demands sexual and reproductive rights for Peruvian women and for debate to be opened up in Congress.

It also aims to raise awareness of the high levels of violence against women and impunity towards the aggressors.

Arlette Contreras, a victim of brutal aggression by a former partner, said they were marching because there was no justice for women in the country.

"All the people who are present in this demonstration demand justice for women because we are not only violated by men who are aggressors who kill women, who are rapists but also we are violated by justice operators and that is why we - all women - are now demanding justice because in this country there is no justice for women," she said.

Another participant, Julio Cesar Neira, said men should remain silent in the fight against these acts of violence and criminality.

"Us men, sons, true husbands should not remain silent, we should go out with them, because the judiciary which is entirely corrupt and will not do anything if we don't march if we do not raise the voice of protest," said Neira, who works as a make-up artist. 

The Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations has noted in 2016 that seven out of ten women have suffered physical or psychological mistreatment of some form or another. What's more, 78 percent of all Peruvians say their society is sexist, according to a Datum poll released last year.

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