Femicide Regional Project: Promoting Gender Justice in El Salvador and Central America
Partner:
The Organization of Salvadoran Women for Peace (ORMUSA).
Location:
El Salvador
Themes:
Violence against Women, Women’s Rights
Project Duration:
Apr, 2016 - Dec, 2017
Project Summary
El Salvador has the world's highest rate of gender-related killing of women, most commonly referred to as femicide. Annually, according to the United Nation's Global Homicide Reports, the country experiences 12 murdered women for every population of a 100,000. General violence levels and domestic abuse are the main contributors to the country's high femicide rates, as is gang violence. Despite progress with the adoption of Salvadoran laws in favour of women's rights - including the Law on Equality (LIE) and the Law for a Free Life (LEIV) - El Salvador continues to experience distressingly high levels of violence towards women and femicide.
For this project, Horizons has partnered with the Organization of Salvadoran Women for Peace (ORMUSA) to promote women’s rights and a life free of gender-based violence for Salvadoran women. The aim is to bring attention to the prevalence and forms in which gender violence present themselves. In particular, the project will raise awareness amongst institutional authorities about the lack of protection towards women in El Salvador's justice system. ORMUSA seeks to improve female victims’ access to justice by providing sensitized legal services, and strengthen the capacity of feminist organizations in El Salvador and across Central America to raise awareness on gender violence.
Key Achievements
- 750 female victims of violence will access ORMUSA's legal services through its attention centre and telephone hotline.
- Developing and launching an awareness campaign documenting the impact of violence on women’s lives in order to reach an estimated 5,000+ Salvadoran women.
- The project is expected to directly benefit 5,650 Salvadoran women, and indirectly, an additional 3,000 Salvadoran women and girls.