Over 3,000 demonstrate in Barcelona to end gender-based violence

Over 3,000 people according to Barcelona's city council and around 40,000 according to organizers took to the streets in Barcelona's Passeig de Gràcia on Friday to demand an end to gender-based violence. The vast majority of those protesting wore purple coinciding with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

The demonstration started at Passeig de Gràcia and Diagonal avenue before making its way to Gran Via avenue.

The demonstration organizers, grouped together as Feminist November, have called for "commitment and co-responsibility" from the public – individually and collectively – to help put an end to gender-based violence, one of the major problems affecting society today.

The protest took place amid the outrage over Spain's new rape law. Known as "only yes means yes" for the importance it places on consent, it came into effect in early October. 

Because it does away with the distinction between sexual abuse and sexual assault and criminalizing street harassment, to many it appeared to be a promising step forward in the fight for women's rights. 

But after a month, some convicts have used a loophole to reduce jail sentences or even delay trials to request more lenient sentences, as was the case with an alleged rape in the Costa Brava town of Blanes that was expected to go to court in September.

Earlier on Friday, Catalan authorities and local councils across Catalonia held events to mark the date. 

"We are fed up with the sexist violence everywhere and it is not our destiny as women to suffer it nor to be taught to be fearful," Catalan equality minister Tània Verge declared. 

Gender-based violence increases

Figures from the Catalan police obtained and analyzed by Catalan News show how police reports of gender-based violence between January and October compared to the same period in 2021.

The Mossos d'Esquadra police received 12,953 reports in the ten first months of 2022, 13.4% more than in the same period of 2021 and the highest figure since at least 2013.

Reports had been oscillating between 10,500 and 11,100 cases for the whole decade but spiked in 2022.

The area in Catalonia with the highest ratio of gender-based violence reports is the capital's Old Town, where police registered 342 cases per every 100,000 inhabitants.