Nicaraguan women could be forced into mediation with their attackers

In June 2012, a Nicaraguan law aimed at protecting women from gender-based violence took effect. Called Law 779, it “stipulates that the state and its institutions have a duty to guarantee the physical, psychic, moral, sexual, patrimonial, and economic integrity of women,” Inter Press Service reports. It also punishes “any kind of gender-based discrimination, including femicide (gender-based murders of women).” But since last year, the law has been jeopardized by opponents, including the vice president of the country’s Supreme Court, who believe it is “anti-man” and who want to reverse a particular aspect of the policy.

Article 46 currently prohibits mediation between women and those who have attacked them—and although human rights groups believe that mediation would further endanger female survivors, opponents argue that in certain cases negotiations should be forced. A change to Article 46 would not only make them enter into mediation with their alleged attackers, according to IPS, but could also help the overall law be ruled unconstitutional.

The Nicaraguan justice system uses mediation in private law but not in crimes of public law. And a May 3 press release from Amnesty International states why.

“There are sound reasons why the law prohibits mediation in cases of violence against women,” Amnesty writes. “Where women are subjected to violence, there is an imbalance of power in the relationship, and conciliation can make victims more vulnerable to abuse and violence in the future.”

Juana Jiménez of the Movimiento Autónomo de Mujeres (Autonomous Women’s Movement) told IPS that 13 of the 85 women murdered in 2012 femicide cases “had entered into mediation with their assailants, after reporting them to the authorities.”

“Experience shows that, far from solving the problem, mediation only gives men an opportunity to organize their revenge, kill the woman, and then flee,” Jiménez said.