Uruguay starts the election year with a long list of pending issues to move towards gender equality and guarantee women a life free of violence.
In the South American country, with 3.4 million inhabitants, one of the highest femicide rates on the continent is recorded, women elected in 2019 represented only 19% of Parliament and comprehensive sexual education is far from being fully applied.
These are some of the critical aspects addressed in a recent report by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which calls on the Uruguayan State to overcome the barriers that prevent it from putting into practice the laws in favor of equality approved since 2016, when CEDAW issued its previous evaluation on Uruguay.
Among the legislative reforms made since then, the report highlights the approval in 2017 of law 19,850 on gender-based violence against women.
Uruguay, according to ECLAC, is the third country in Latin America—along with El Salvador—with the highest rate of femicides (1.6 per 100,000 women), only behind the Dominican Republic (2.9) and Honduras (6 ).
According to the study
El feminicide in Uruguay
, between 2001 and 2022, 615 cases were identified in Uruguayan territory;
In 2022 there were 37 femicides and 38,251 complaints of gender violence.
This scourge motivated the Government of the day to declare a “state of national emergency” in 2019, which in reality did not have a major impact, according to social and feminist organizations.
Faced with this panorama, the UN committee of experts urges the Uruguayan State to increase human, technical and financial resources for the “strict application” of the 2017 law. The report, issued at the end of last October, highlights the installation of two courts specialized in gender violence in the northwest and southeast of the country, but observes “long delays” in establishing similar bodies in the rest of the territory.
It also highlights the creation of a 24-hour helpline against gender violence and the increase by 50% of the budget assigned to the response system of the National Women's Institute.
On the other hand, it denounces the multiple inadequacies that persist in the prevention of this crime, care for victims and access to justice.
“The report is aligned with what feminist organizations and social movements have been demanding from the State for a long time, such as budget allocation and the adoption of concrete measures, so that the laws we have, which are very good, are not left alone. on paper,” Helena Suárez Val, Uruguayan activist and researcher, author of the Femicidio Uruguay website, tells EL PAÍS.
Suárez positively values that the UN is speaking out in this regard, but she doubts that the situation will change in the short term, because equality between men and women "is outside the center of political discussions in Uruguay."
“The electoral campaign begins and the issue is not hierarchical,” she says, referring to the general elections of October 2024.
The researcher considers that Uruguayan society is lagging behind what is stated in the comprehensive law on gender violence, when generally it is the laws that reflect social change.
“To eliminate gender-based violence, structural cultural changes are required, in which education is key,” she maintains.
And she asks: “How much are we doing to prepare people for an egalitarian social life?”
Likewise, she insists on the need for local laws to be translated into real measures supported by budgets that are commensurate with the seriousness of the issue.
“To achieve this,” she says, “it is necessary that there are feminist women and men with that perspective in decision-making places.”
The low political participation of women in key positions in the Uruguayan State, despite having a quota law since 2009, is another aspect that CEDAW emphasizes.
As a result of the 2019 general elections, elected women senators and deputies represented only 19.2% of Parliament;
two women were appointed ministers in a total of 14 ministries and two women became mayors (mayors) in a country with 19 departments.
These indicators “are very bad,” political scientist Verónica Pérez tells EL PAÍS, while legislative progress to improve them “is very slow or non-existent.”
“The majority of Latin American countries voted for parity laws.
Uruguay has not done it and it is difficult for it to do so,” she maintains.
For the political scientist, this level of women's political participation “is not consistent with other advances that Uruguay has made in other areas,” and she cites as an example the law that decriminalized abortion in 2012 and placed it at the forefront in Latin America.
Countries such as Argentina, Mexico, and Costa Rica have parity or quasi-parity Parliaments, as recommended by CEDAW.
Why is it so difficult to vote on a parity law in Uruguay?
“It is not easy because these laws have to be voted for by those who are going to be 'harmed' by them.
There will be men who will have to give way to women,” she says.
Furthermore, she explains that to approve a norm of this type in Uruguay, special majorities are required in both legislative chambers.
“That makes it even more difficult,” she notes.
Uruguay does not get a good grade in educational matters either, according to the CEDAW report.
In this section, the UN experts criticize the lack of application of the 2006 Sexual Education Program and the fact that this discipline is not mandatory in the curricula.
“Uruguay has been very reluctant to incorporate Comprehensive Sexual Education in formal education,” psychologist Alejandra López Gómez tells this newspaper.
During the 15 years of the progressive governments (2005-2020), the specialist details, sustained progress was made in the implementation of this training, but with low intensity doses, a labile structure and a meager budget.
“With the change of Government [a center-right coalition took office in 2020], sexual education became an optional activity in secondary education.
A dispensable area,” she states.
In line with the CEDAW experts, López follows this process with concern, given that Comprehensive Sexual Education is considered a human right that contributes—among other issues—to the reduction of adverse situations, such as violence in the couple, according to a UN report of which López is co-author.
“The rights agenda requires being alert because the risks of setbacks are always there.
Sustained public policies, active citizenship and production of evidence-based knowledge are needed,” she summarizes.
Like her colleagues, López hopes that the CEDAW report will contribute to Uruguay ensuring the necessary mechanisms so that the policies enshrined in the regulatory framework are accessible to the entire population.
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