It is violence that is a manifestation of the discrimination, inequality and male dominance to which women are subjected merely because they are women. Gender-based violence includes any act of sexist violence that has resulted in, or could result in, harm or suffering in regard to physical, sexual or psychological health. It includes threats, coercion and arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether these occur in public or in private, independent of the relationship between the aggressor and the victim. (Law 11/2016, passed on 28 July, regarding the equality of men and women in the Balearic Islands Autonomous Region, Art. 65)

According to Law 11/2016, gender-based violence encompasses: physical, psychological, economic, symbolic and sexual violence, including harassment, aggression, human trafficking, feminicide, and female genital mutilation.

Article 1.1 of Organic Law 1/2004, passed on 28 December, in regard to Comprehensive Protective Measures against Gender-Based Violence, defines gender-based violence as that which, “being a manifestation of the discrimination, inequality, and male dominance to which women are subjected, is inflicted on them by those who are, or have been, their spouses, or by those who are, or have been, linked to them by similar bonds of affection, whether or not the parties have lived together”, and “encompasses any act of physical or psychological violence, including aggressions on sexual freedom, threats, coercions or the arbitrary deprivation of liberty.”

According to Organic Law 10/2022, passed on 6 September, regarding the comprehensive guarantee of sexual freedom, sexual violence is considered to be a non-consensual act of a sexual nature, or an act that infringes upon the free development of the sex life in any sphere, be it public or private, and which includes sexual aggression, sexual harassment and exploitation of the prostitution of others, whether of a partner or ex-partner, including in the digital domain. 

According to Law 11/2016, passed on 28 July, regarding the equality of women and men in the Balearic Islands Autonomous Region, you are a victim of gender-based violence if you suffer from any of the following types of violence:

a) Physical violence, which includes any forceful act against the body of women, resulting in, or with the risk of resulting in, physical injury or harm, inflicted by any person who is, or has been, the spouse or by anyone with whom an analogous emotional bond has been established, regardless of whether the individuals lived together. Equally considered to be acts of physical violence against women are those inflicted by men within their family, social or work environment.

b) Psychological violence, which includes any behaviour, verbal or non-verbal, that produces loss of self-esteem or suffering in women by means of threats, humiliation or molestation, demands for obedience or submission, coercion, insults, control, isolation, blame or limitations on the range of freedom, inflicted by any person who is, or has been, the spouse, or by anyone who with whom an analogous emotional bond has been established, regardless of whether the individuals lived together. These acts are also deemed psychological violence if they take place within the family, social or work environment.

c) Economic violence, which includes the intentional and unlawful withholding of the resources necessary for the physical and psychological wellbeing of women and their children, or unfair discrimination in the disposal of shared resources in the life of the couple.

d) Sexual violence, sexual abuses and sexual aggressions, which include any sexual act forced upon or not consented to by the woman: human trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation, the imposition, by means of force or intimidation, of non-consensual sexual relations, as well as sexual abuse or any act which stops women from freely exercising their sexuality, regardless of whether the aggressor has a conjugal, affective or family relationship with the victim.

e) Symbolic violence, which includes icons, representations, narratives, images, etc. that depict or transmit the domination of men over women, the inequality of power between the sexes, or segregation.

f) Feminicide, the murder of women just because they are women, irrespective of whether there exists, or has existed, a relationship between the parties.

g) Female genital mutilation: any procedure that involves, or could involve, the total or partial elimination of the female genitalia or causes injury to the same, even with the express or tacit consent of the woman or child.

Organic Law 1/2004, passed on 28 December, regarding Measures of Comprehensive Protection against Gender-Based Violence, defines gender-based violence (Article 1.1) as a type of violence which, “exhibits the discrimination, condition of inequality, and male dominance to which women are subjected, and is inflicted on them by those who are, or have been, their spouses, or by those who are, or have been, linked to them by analogous bonds of affection, whether or not the individuals have lived together”, and “encompasses any act of physical or psychological violence, including aggressions on sexual freedom, threats, coercions or the arbitrary deprivation of liberty.”

In accordance with this law, listed below are some of the circumstances that indicate you might be suffering from gender-based violence on the part of your partner or ex-partner:

• He makes fun of you, makes you feel inferior or useless, or mocks your beliefs.
• He isolates you, stops you seeing family or friends, gets jealous, or starts a fight.
• He threatens, humiliates, insults, or yells at you in private or in public.
• He makes you feel guilty, as if everything were your fault.
• He threatens to hurt you or your family.
• He ignores you, is indifferent to you, or punishes you with silence.
• The way he looks at you, or gesticulates, makes you feel afraid.
• He controls your money and/or the way you dress; he checks your cell phone and social media.
• He has, at some time, physically assaulted you.
• He has forced you to have sexual relations against your wishes.
• He threatens to take away your children if you leave him.
• He says he’s sorry for his actions and promises to change but doesn’t manage to do so.

If you are a victim of gender-based violence and have children who are minors, they, too, are direct victims of this type of violence; this also applies to any minors under your care, guardianship or custody.

When these minors are utilized by the abuser to hurt the mother, it is called vicarious violence.

Listed below are some of the signs of vicarious violence towards children:

• He utilizes your children to hurt you.
• He threatens to take them away from you.
• He threatens to kill them, says he’ll get you where it hurts the most.
• He interrupts your children’s medical treatments when they’re with him.
• He utilizes pick-up and drop-off times in shared-custody regimes to threaten, insult, or humiliate you.
• He speaks badly of you and your family in their presence.

Sexual violence is considered to be a non-consensual act of a sexual nature, or one which compromises the free development of the sex life in any sphere, be it public or private, and which includes sexual aggression, sexual harassment or the exploitation of the prostitution of others, as well as all other crimes set forth in Title VIII, Book II of Organic Law 10/1995, passed on 23 November and included in the Penal Code, and specifically oriented toward protecting minors.

The current organic law specifically targets sexual violence committed in the digital domain, and as such encompasses the diffusion of sexually violent acts via technological media, non-consensual pornography, and sexual extortion. Other acts also considered to be sexual violence, inasmuch as they negatively impact the sex life, include female genital mutilation, forced marriage, sexual harassment and trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation. Finally, in accordance with the recommendation of the United Nation’s Special Rapporteur on gender-based violence, its causes, and its consequences, the homicide of women by means of sexual violence, i.e. sexual feminicide, is considered to be the most serious human rights violation in the realm of sexual violence, and should be exposed and dealt with unambiguously.   

Sexual violence infringes on the fundamental right to liberty, to physical and moral integrity, to equality, and to personal dignity, and, in the case of sexual feminicide, on the right to life. This violence impacts the right to self-determination, limited only by others’ right to freedom, as well as the safe development of one’s own sexuality, without interference or impediments from third parties and exempt from coercion, discrimination and violence. Organic law 10/2022, passed on 6 September, regarding the comprehensive guarantee of sexual freedom.

In accordance with Organic Law 10/2022, passed on 6 September, regarding the comprehensive guarantee of sexual freedom, you may be suffering from sexual violence if you are subject to…

SEXUAL AGRESSION: Any act that infringes on the sexual freedom of another person without their consent. Consent will only be considered to have been given if it has been expressed freely through acts which, in view of the circumstances, clearly manifest the willingness of the person in question. Sexual aggression is considered to have taken place when any act of sexual content is carried out through the use of violence, intimidation, or the misuse of a superior position and/or the vulnerability of the victim, as well as those committed towards persons deprived of their senses or whose mental state is taken advantage of as well as those committed when the victim has been divested of her free will for whatever reason. Art. 178 of the Penal Code.

Rape is considered to have occurred when the sexual aggression consists of “carnal access via the vagina, the anus, or the mouth, or the insertion of bodily members or objects in either of the first two orifices. Art. 179 of the Penal Code.

Art. 180 of the Penal Code recognizes the following subtypes of sexual aggression: 

1. When the acts are committed by the joint action of two or more people (multiple aggressions).
2. When the sexual aggression is preceded by or accompanied by extreme violence or by especially degrading and humiliating acts.
3. When the acts are committed against a person who is in a situation of special vulnerability by virtue of age, illness, incapacity or any other circumstance.
4. When the victim is, or has been, the wife, or is, or has been, involved in an analogous affective relationship, whether or not the parties have lived together (sexual violence in the relationship).
5. When the crime is committed by a person who avails himself of a situation of cohabitation or kinship, or by a relationship of superiority in regard to the victim.
6. When the aggressor makes use of weapons or other equally dangerous implements capable of causing death or injury.
7. When, for the purpose of committing these acts, the aggressor has eradicated the free will of the victim by administering drugs, pharmaceuticals or any other substance, whether natural or chemical, conducive to these ends (chemical submission).

INDICATORS TO DETECT IF YOU HAVE SUFFERED CHEMICAL SUBMISSION

• If you have the sensation that something was put in your drink.
• If you suffer from total or partial amnesia, or have flashbacks.
• If you woke up in an unknown place and/or you were undressed with your clothes untidily put back on; and/or you sustained injuries on your body that you cannot explain.
• If you have the memory or sensation of having had sexual relations and/or of having been the victim of a sexual aggression
• If there are unknown fluids on or in your body (semen), or you have injuries or alterations in the genitalia.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT: When a person requests favours of a sexual nature, for himself or for a third party, in the sphere of work, study or any similar sector, and being continual or habitual, these behaviours causes a situation that is patently and seriously intimidating, hostile or humiliating for the victim. Art. 184 of the Penal Code.

EXPLOITATION OF THE PROSTITUTION OF OTHERS (HUMAN TRAFFICKING): This refers to the trafficking of human beings for the purpose of exploitation. It implicates those who capture, those who transfer, and those who lodge or take in another person for the purposes of sexual exploitation. Female trafficking is a violation against several fundamental rights, such as the right to life, liberty, physical and moral integrity, sexual freedom, health, privacy and human dignity.