On the occasion of 25N, International day for the elimination of violence against women, from Sostre Cívic we want to show our rejection of sexist and LGBTIQ-phobic violence, and reaffirm our commitment to eradicating them.

In accordance with this objective, in theOrdinary General Assembly of last June 30, 2023 we approved the Plan and first Protocol for preventing and addressing sexist and LGBTIQ-phobic violence de Sostre Cívic. We understand the approval of this plan and protocol as another step towards new dynamics of coexistence and a new, more respectful way of relating, based on cooperative values ​​such as mutual respect, the inclusion of diversity and above all the rejection of sexist and LGBTI-phobic violence.

Why is a protocol necessary?

Our organization is sustained by power relations and privileges that place white, cis, and straight men above all others. This situation manifests itself in several ways and one is in the fact that sexist violence is structural and that we have normalized it. So much so that 79,3% of women resident in Catalonia have suffered some form of sexist violence throughout their lives and neither the home nor the work environment escapes it. On the contrary: 52,2% of women state that they have suffered psychological violence within the scope of their partner and, on the other hand, neither is the work environment, per se, a safe space, since 15,2% of women have suffered sexual violence at work.¹

A Sostre Cívic we are not strangers to this reality. We are a cooperative with a broad social base: more than 1.400 members, of which 123 are users in projects that are already in coexistence, and a work team of 24 people and, consequently, we have different spaces for participation and involvement. We want all spaces, be they work, community or relational, to be safe for everyone.

The protocol of the cooperative it starts from a previous diagnosis, where situations were identified where masculinism and everyday LGBTIQ-phobia are present in our day-to-day life. We talk about the fact that women's tasks are made invisible and that they are heard more if they adopt masculinized roles, about situations where male voices predominate or cut off words, about verbal aggression or sexist jokes in messaging groups, about a uneven distribution of tasks in cooperative housing projects. At the same time, we are also aware that often gender violence or sexual violence is mostly committed by men who have previous ties to the victims, and homes are the spaces where most of them are committed. 

The deployment of the Protocol to prevent and address sexist and LGBTIQ-phobic violence must allow us to guarantee visibility and awareness, detection, attention, recovery and reparation. 

How can we communicate a situation of violence?

If you want to report a situation of violence in writing to the Protocol Commission, you can send an email to espaisegur@sostrecivic.cat, or fill in the next form. You can also communicate this to any of the people who are part of the protocol commission.

What is the protocol commission? Who is part of it?

In order to ensure that the actions and actions contained in the Protocol are carried out and that they are monitored and evaluated, a permanent commission has been created made up of a team of people sensitized and trained in the field of violence , which consists of:

• Alicia Conejero (partner user)
• Ester Alegre (member user)
• Guillem Subirachs (expectant partner)
• Mercedes Estébanez (expectant partner)
• Eva Ortigosa (working partner)
• Mireia Masó (working partner)

1. Data taken from the Survey on gender-based violence of the Department of the Interior of the Generalitat of Catalonia, carried out in 2021 ↩︎