BarcelonaStarting this Friday, the courts for domestic violence will be responsible for all sexual assault crimes. Until now, their jurisdiction focused on violence within a couple or ex-couple, and rapes in which there was no emotional bond between the victim and the aggressor were excluded from these specialized courts. The change will mean that they will deal with all types of gender-based violence, something already provided for in the law of domestic violence. only yes is yes 2022, which had not yet been implemented. Furthermore, these courts also have new jurisdiction over cases involving forced marriage, human trafficking for sexual exploitation, and sexual harassment. This will therefore mean taking on more work, which has raised concerns about whether the change could overwhelm these courts and significantly lengthen waiting times. This week, more than 100 judges warned in a statement that they were headed for "collapse," while other voices in the judiciary urge us to wait and see the effects of the change and the impact of the reinforcements and new judicial positions announced by the Spanish government.
The president of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC), Mercè Caso, referred to this change during the opening ceremony of the judicial year: "The governing chamber is committed to receiving and communicating the situation that will occur from today onwards, especially with regard to the care of victims, as it affects the victim." Caso pledged to forward to the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) "all necessary reinforcement measures" in addition to those already requested. "Our system cannot add pain to the pain of the victims," she said.
The CGPJ estimates that in Catalonia, domestic violence courts will have to take on an average of 20% more cases, well above the national average, which it estimates at 13%. How this will ultimately materialize will depend on how many cases come before the courts, the crimes involved, and also which court must handle them. "The violence courts were already having difficulties, especially due to a lack of resources. These are crimes that require differentiated treatment. And if it was already difficult to provide them before, if we add more that also require this treatment, logically the situation does not look good," warns Judge Zita Hernández, head of the 30th Investigation Court of Spain and member of the 30th Investigation Court of Barcelona.
Hernández also warns that the situation can be very different in each court. "A population of 100,000 is not the same as one of 15,000," she maintains. In fact, in most Catalan courts, judges specializing in gender-based violence must also handle other cases. Depending on the size of the judicial district and the number of judges there are, they also handle cases of theft or divorce, for example. In this regard, a gender-based violence judge who prefers not to publish her name believes that she is already assuming "extra responsibility" since she began specializing in this specialty. Therefore, while waiting to assess the impact of the change in the coming months, she predicts that the bulk of the workload that the new responsibilities of the specialty may entail will probably not exceed what has already been assumed. In her case, she works in a small judicial district, where sexual assaults can be "ten in a month, but fortunately other months they are zero."
Reinforcements
In contrast, in the Catalan capital, there are judges dedicated exclusively to dealing with gender-based violence. So far, there are five, and a sixth position will be created by the end of the year. Until then, there will be a backup judge to handle the anticipated increase in workload. This backup judge will not be operational this Friday, but sources from the Ministry of Justice indicate that the expenditure to create the position has already been authorized. During these three months, there will also be a backup judge in Lleida, who will also have a permanent position by the end of the year. On December 31, coinciding with the third phase of the deployment of the efficiency law, one more judge will also be added in Hospitalet de Llobregat and another in Vilanova i la Geltrú.
In total, to cover the increase in work that the new powers will entail, the ministry has approved the creation of 50 new positions for gender-based violence judges across the country (42% more than there were until now) and more than 42 positions for prosecutors. However, the new positions will not reach all judicial districts, so Judge Zita Hernández anticipates that the difficulties may go "beyond" the three-month impasse between the assumption of new powers and the creation of new positions at the end of the year.
The magistrate of the Court for Violence against Women No. 1 in Barcelona, Carlos Pascual Alfaro, is confident that the reinforcement in the Catalan capital will allow them to manage the increase in work that awaits them. "It's logical that we're the ones handling these crimes. They're very similar to those of gender-based violence in terms of approach, treatment, and circumstances," she says. However, she believes that handling human trafficking for sexual exploitation is what could represent the biggest change compared to how they've worked until now, since the investigation may involve wiretaps, searches, or requests for cooperation with other countries within an international network: "We don't have such complex instructions. They're complex, given the situation of violence the victim suffers, but not because there are organized networks or money laundering. It's something out of what we're used to."
What about minor victims?
On December 31, the courts for violence against children and adolescents will also begin operating. This new specialty will handle cases in which the victim of a crime is a minor. This has raised a question about who would have jurisdiction in cases of sexual assault. For example, in the case of a student being abused by a teacher or a teenager being assaulted by someone other than her partner. For now, not all judges respond equally to whether these cases should be handled by the new children's courts (or, until they are created, by the investigating courts) or by the courts for violence against women.
"Some argue that a girl is a woman and that, therefore, if the aggressor is a man and the victim is a girl, it should be handled by a case of violence against women," explains Zita Hernández. However, both she and Pascual Alfaro believe that these cases should be handled by the new courts specializing in dealing with minors. Be that as it may, various voices in the judiciary assume that this controversy will lead judges to eventually refer jurisdictional issues to provincial courts for a ruling, which will ultimately fall to the Supreme Court.
The Prosecutor's Office warns that a trial awaiting him in Catalonia exceeds "all reasonable limits."
The judicial system's response to crime is not only "far from satisfactory," but the waiting lists for trial in Catalonia "are increasing to such an extent that they are beyond any reasonable limit." This was the warning issued this Friday by Catalonia's Chief Prosecutor, Francisco Bañeres, to the highest levels of the judiciary, the Public Prosecutor's Office, the police forces, and the Department of Justice at the opening ceremony of the judicial year. Given this, he added, "there is nothing left but to insist and insist that the administration provide the necessary resources to the public justice service in Catalonia, so that it is at least equal to the average" for the entire country.
Bañeres cited sexual assaults as an example, where the investigation is usually "relatively simple" because the suspect is often identified from the outset. However, they are often prosecuted four years later or even later.
