Spain's lesson on fighting spousal abuse

Margarita's partner – a university ethics professor – had abused her from the beginning of their 14-year relationship. But after she got pregnant with their first daughter, the violence became intolerable. Still, she didn't file her first police complaint for six years.

"Domestic violence kills your self-esteem, and I needed help," says Margarita (not her real name). "But there's not much of a tradition in Spain of protecting women or of punishing offenders."

In 2005, the country seemed ready to chart a different path when its newly elected Socialist government introduced sweeping domestic-violence legislation. Yet almost two years after the law went into effect, Spanish courts are flooded with spousal-abuse cases and the number of women killed by their partners has risen.

Indeed, as officials from around Europe convene at a Madrid conference Monday to kick off a continentwide campaign against domestic violence, many in Spain have realized that legislation alone can't solve the problem.

"The law was a big step forward," says Eva Suarez, head of Amnesty International's domestic-violence project in Spain. "But a lot remains to be done before the rights that women have on paper become a reality."

Last Thursday, the number of women killed by their partners this year reached 61, surpassing 2005's total of 60. That number is lower than the 95 women killed so far this year in France, or the roughly two women killed each week in Britain. It also falls proportionately below rates in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden. But the problem is severe enough that Spain approved unusually comprehensive legislation to combat it.

The Law for Comprehensive Protection Against Domestic Violence, which went into effect in January 2005, stiffened penalties against abusers, provided greater social assistance to abused women, and created special courts and a government delegation dedicated to combating "gender violence." Unlike legislation in other European countries that treats prevention, punishment, and aid to victims as separate concerns, Spain's law does everything from appointing special prosecutors to providing victims with financial support to calling for less sexism in advertising.

That holistic approach was singled out in a report this year to the Council of Europe, the body organizing Monday's conference. In the latest of its efforts to secure the rights of women across the continent, the council is using the conference as a springboard for its "Campaign to Combat Violence against Women, including Domestic Violence." Through the campaign, which will run through March 2008, the council hopes to raise awareness, urge member states to deliver concrete results, and promote the implementation of effective measures for preventing and combating violence against women. Is the Spanish law one such measure? To be sure, it has had its successes.

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