As part of the preamble to the executive order issued today by the governor Pedro Pierluisi To cope with the crisis of gender violence facing the country, it has been stipulated that the current government is committed to implementing an education curriculum with a gender perspective, although the document does not describe the process that will be followed to develop it . or the dates on which you are deemed to be part of public education.
Because “we are committed to establishing a process to develop a gender perspective curriculum that helps combat the causes that contribute to inequality, discrimination and violence,” one of the points in the preamble to Pierluisi’s executive order reads, which includes 22 operational sections.
The curriculum with a gender perspective was implemented in it Education department per circular under the management of Alejandro Garcia Padilla, but was eliminated by the former Minister of Education Julia Keleher.
The governor’s decree, pledging in the campaign to declare an emergency for gender violence, as organizations defending women’s rights have demanded for years, kept the Protocol of Action to Combat Violence Against Women in Puerto Rico, which was instituted as a result of a “national warning” from the former governor Wanda Vazquez Garced in September 2019.
However, Pierluisi’s executive order was withdrawn Multisectoral Commission against Violence against Women (Comuvi), which Vázquez Garced established by decree in October 2020 to implement the action protocol. Pierluisi in turn replaced the Comuvi Committee for the Prevention, Support, Rescue and Education of Gender Violence (PARE), which will be responsible, among other things, for “evaluating the Protocol of Action to Combat Violence against Women in Puerto Rico, established by Executive Order 2020-078, and making recommendations to improve it and accelerate its implementation.”
The document states that in 2019, of the 7,021 registered domestic violence cases, 5,896 or 84%, occurred against women.
The PARE committee, meanwhile, would have a representative from 11 government agencies, a representative from the “academy”, a member of the media, three representatives from non-profit organizations and a “compliance officer” appointed by the governor. The compliance officer, it is determined, will be responsible for the administrative tasks of the committee, for which he will work full-time.
The order stipulates that members representing the media, academia and non-governmental organizations are selected by Pierluisi and the secretary of the family, Carmen González Magaz, which will chair the PARE committee. The Governor reserves the right to add members to the Committee as deemed appropriate.
To identify funds
The decree, on the other hand, does not specify the items needed to ensure their effective implementation, but leaves it to the individual agencies to determine the required budget. For the remainder of this fiscal year, the undetermined amount of funds would come from the certified budget, central government emergency reserve, federal posts, or “any other available fund,” which requires agencies to work closely with the government. Office of Administration and Budget and the Financial advisory authority and tax agency.
From fiscal year 2022, each agency will be mandated to “designate as part of its budget a post to allocate resources to achieve the objectives of this implementing decree and / or programs for the prevention and treatment of gender violence”.
The state of emergency is in effect until June 30, 2022, although the door will be left open to extend it at the request of the PARE committee.
Among the agencies that must identify funds to respond to the emergency are the Departments of Family, Justice, Education, Housing, Health, Economic Development, Correction and Rehabilitation, the Institute of Forensic Science, the Institute of Statistics, the Bureau of the Police and the attorney’s office for women. The 11 dependencies will have a representative on the PARE committee.