President Piñera promotes two bills against violence and designed to protect women: “We must embrace the cultural shift that demands full equity.”
At the commemoration of International Women’s Day and accompanied by the First Lady, the President signed two initiatives that seek to provide more protection for women: telematic monitoring and a bill that includes individuals who owe child support being placed in the commercial information bulletin.
On Sunday, President Sebastián Piñera and First Lady Cecilia Morel led the commemoration of International Women’s Day at La Moneda Palace and promoted two initiatives designed to end violence against women and to provide them with more protection.
The ceremony began with a request for a moment of silence by President Sebastián Piñera in memory of Gladys Gallegos, Alejandra Castro, Karen Ramírez, Yasna Bustos, Ana Viveros and Beatriz González, six women who were victims of femicide in 2020, as well as all of the women who have lost their lives due to intrafamily violence.
The President then signed the paperwork to issue two bills before Congress in the coming days.
The Telematic Monitoring Application Law will allow all citizens to be better protected, particularly women at risk of intrafamily violence. Once the bill is approved, their safety will no longer depend on a protective measure that is merely written on paper. They will have a system with telematic monitoring that will prevent or make it more difficult for the potential aggressor to approach their intended victim. The goal is to more effectively protect the victim’s life and safety in “high risk” cases.
Moreover, the bill that creates a registry of child support debtors will allow such individuals to be included in the commercial information bulletin. This measure will prevent thousands of women from being solely responsible for supporting their children due to the father’s irresponsibility or indifference. The President noted that 84% of those who have been sued and required to pay for child support fail to do so, which causes serious harm to over 70,000 children in our country.
The President also announced that the bill that ends discrimination between men and women in the management of marital assets and one that eliminates the unjustified 270 day wait for women who wish to remarry, will be handled with maximum urgency.
“The government is committed to moving forward with our full determination and a sense of urgency towards a Chile in which men and women have full and complete equality of rights and duties and of opportunities and dignity. We are committed to moving towards a society with zero tolerance for all manner of violence and abuse against women,” President Piñera said at a ceremony that was also attended by Women and Gender Equity Minister Isabel Plá, government officials and representatives of civil society and institutions.
The President highlighted the progress made by the government on the Women’s Agenda, which includes the implementation of measures such as ending price differences for health insurance plans, strengthening the program to support at-risk pregnant women and preventing teen pregnancy, promoting the inclusion of more women in leadership roles and the labor market, and the introduction of regulations and protocols against abuse, harassment, discrimination and mistreatment.
“This cause is not only the cause of women. It must be the cause of all men and women who want to end injustice, listen to women’s voices and end the deaths, disparities and discrimination,” the President said. He closed his remarks by noting that, “Sexism is an illness that has caused a great deal of damage over a long period of time to many women and to our society.”
Currently, 58% of the Women’s Agenda initiatives are fully in place, 23% are in the pipeline and 19% are being processed.