Government Delegation for Gender Violence


The Government Delegation for Gender Violence is a unit of the Secretariat of State for Equality of the Spanish Department of the Presidency responsible for proposing the central government policy against the different forms of violence against women and promoting, coordinating and advising on all the measures carried out in this matter.
The DGVG is headed by a Delegate of the Government, a civil servant with the rank of director-general appointed by the Monarch with the advice of the Minister of the Presidency, Relations with the Cortes and Equality. The Government Delegation is structured through a central organization integrated by two deputy directorates-general and a decentralized network of gender violence units.
The Delegation of the Government manages the national registers of gender violence victims; the women register was created in 2003 and the childs register in 2013. Since its creation, it has recorded more than 1,030 women and 34 minors murdered in this kind of violence.

History

The Government Delegation for Gender Violence was first devised in 2004 during the first term of prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. During this term, Zapatero's government proposed and the parliament approved the Organic Act 1/2004, of 28 December, on Integral Protection Measures Against Gender Violence, a law that in its section 29 foresaw a Special Government Delegation against Violence against Women integrated in the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. The Delegation was officially created on March 4, 2005. The organ was granted the rank of directorate-general and its first holder was Encarnación Orozco, a Labour Law expert and Socialist Parliamentary Group's Legal Cabinet advisor. As such, she took part in the drafting of the Act against Gender Violence.
In the second term of Zapatero's premiership, in 2008, the unit was renamed Government Delegation for Gender Violence and it was transferred to the Ministry of Equality. It was endowed with two deputy directorates-general, one for Planning and Inter-institutional Coordination and other for Preventing and Managing of Gender Violence Knowledge.
However, in 2010, due to the economic crisis, the Equality Ministry was dismantled and its responsibilities were assumed by the newly created Secretariat of State for Equality, a component of the Ministry of Health, Social Policy and Equality. In 2018, the Secretariat of State and its units were transferred to the Ministry of the Presidency, Relations with the Cortes and Equality due to the great importance that the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Presidency, Carmen Calvo, gives to equality policies since she, within the Socialist Party, was the maximum person in charge of these responsibilities.

Government Delegates

In accordance with the Organic Act on Integral Protection Measures Against Gender Violence which creates this organ, its holder is entitled before the courts of justice to intervene in defense of the rights and interests protected in said law in collaboration and coordination with the Administrations with competence in the field.
Since 2005, this has been the holders of the office:
The following units depend on the Government Delegation:
The Government Delegation manages the National Network of Coordination and Gender Violence Units, a set of units integrated in the Government Delegations, Government Sub-delegations and Insular Directorates for the territorial execution of the central government's policy regarding gender violence.

Units of Violence against Women

These units are integrated in the Sub-delegations and Insular Directorates and, within the province or island in which they are located, are responsible for:
These units are integrated into the Government Delegations of the regions with more-than-one provinces, and are responsible for:
There are currently two official records, one for women, created in 2003 and other for minors, created in 2013. Since January 1, 2003, 1,033 women have been murdered in Spain by their romantic partners or ex-partners. Since 2013, 34 minors have been murdered in Spain as a consecuence of gender violence against their mother.