Sexual Violence in Colombia: The Silence Must be Broken

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Issue Nov 09-15 2022: In recent weeks, there has been a rise in cases of violence and sexual abuse against women in Colombia, and advocates are saying the government must transform its way of dealing with it.

Jineth Bedoya, who suffered torture and sexual violence while on assignment as a journalist, had to go before the Inter-American System for Human Rights instead of judicial power to punish those responsible for the crime. Ana Patricia Pabón reported in Razónpublica of Bogotá that Bedoya’s publicized case is a window into what survivors of sexual violence in Colombia endure to find justice, protection, and a re-establishment of their rights.

“Although there are disagreements with statistics, especially due to underreporting and hidden crime, women and girls are the main victims of sexual violence in the world,” Pabón wrote. “This situation has forced many countries to intensify actions through control mechanisms, but practices remain insufficient.”

The objectification of women creates an imbalance of power in the sex-gender system, and if they are not recognized, it will be difficult to understand why sexual violence occurs. Pabón described how sexual violence is used as a weapon of war in territories living through conflict, is present in domestic life, in educational institutions and health care providers, in places of worship, in sports venues, in city streets, and on country roads.

Pabón wrote that the Colombian state should understand that there are already legal instruments that require it to initiate transformative actions, like the National School Coexistence System that trains young girls, boys, and adolescents, in the exercise of human, sexual, and reproductive rights from gender equity.

“The social illiteracy in the matter of sexual violence permits its reproduction,” Pabón claimed. “The same way that social illiteracy in the matter of gender equity is a barrier to eradicating distinct forms of violence experienced by women and girls, men with non-hegemonic masculinities, people with identities and non-hegemonic gender expression, and diverse sexual orientations.”