What is the Office of Domestic Violence?

If you experience or see violence, call 911 or 137.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 1 in 3 women worldwide experience physical or sexual violence. The aggressor is, almost always, his partner.

In Argentina, INDEC's Single Register of Cases of Violence Against Women (RUCVM), which collects official information from various sources (health, justice, security institutions, etc.), recorded 576,360 cumulative cases of gender-based violence between 2013 and 2018, even though it is a phenomenon that has a huge black figure due to at the non-reporting rate. In 2 out of 3 cases, the victim is between 18 and 39 years old. 82% of the perpetrators are partners or ex-partners of the victim.

The latest data from the Women's Office of the Supreme Court on femicide (2020) collect 287 lethal victims of gender-based violence (251 direct victims of femicide and 36 victims of linked femicide, which are deaths perpetrated by femicides to punish or psychically destroy a woman).

For 2021, the Observatory Now That They See Us indicates that there were 256 femicides (1 every 34 hours), 8 transfemicides or transvesticides, and 182 femicide attempts. 67% were committed by partners or ex-partners of the victims. Sixty percent occurred in the victim's home. Not a few (42) had made any complaint. So far in 2022, there were 51 femicides (1 every 28 hours). For its part, the Femicide Observatory in Argentina “Adriana Marisel Zambrano”, which runs La Casa del Encuentro, recorded in 2021 a victim of femicide (linked or not) every 29 hours.

The last two weeks we talked about gender-based violence, international obligations of the State and stereotypes. We also saw that since 2009 Argentina has its own norm: Law 26,485: the Comprehensive Protection Act to Prevent, Punish and Eradicate Violence Against Women in the Area in which They Develop Interpersonal Relationships. We analyze the behaviors that the law considers violence and reviewed different types and modalities.

Today we are going to talk about the OVD, the office of domestic violence.

Domestic violence is the main form of violence we saw and can include any of the types (physical violence, psychological, sexual, economic or property, symbolic and political violence).

Domestic violence is violence in which the aggressor is a member of the family group, regardless of the physical space in which it occurs. What does “member of the family group” mean? It can be a relationship of kinship, either of consanguinity or affinity, or of blood or politics. But it also includes marriage, courtship and any type of couple. In addition, the relationship may have been past or be current and it does not matter whether or not there is coexistence.

The OVD was created by the Supreme Court in 2006 to facilitate access to justice for particularly vulnerable people who experience domestic violence. In 2016, 10 years later, this was extended to cases of trafficking in persons for the purpose of sexual exploitation and to the sexual exploitation of the prostitution of others.

The OVD operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. He attends personally at Lavalle 1250 PB in the City of Buenos Aires or by phone, from the City, at 108.

What does the OVD do? It receives complaints, provides information and then, in less than 2 hours, produces a risk report with an interdisciplinary team. With this report, the corresponding derivation is made. This usually ends in a judicial process that can be civil and/or criminal. Finally, the Office monitors each complaint and also compiles statistics.

In its 13 years of existence, the OVD received more than 125,000 complaints, of which 58% were from adult women and 29% from girls, boys and adolescents. Almost half of the total number of complaints were for acts of violence that were repeated on a daily or weekly basis. 49% of cases received a high or very high risk assessment. In 2021 alone, the OVD received 11 thousand complaints. Eighty percent were adult women, girls or adolescent women.

Beyond the OVD and other resources that exist in all the provinces, in an emergency you have to call 911 or 137 from anywhere in the country.

Who can make the report? The victim or a third party. It is not necessary to be over 18 years old and it is not necessary to carry an ID. If the victim or perpetrator lives, works or studies in the City of Buenos Aires, it can be reported to the OVD even if the incident occurred elsewhere. Reservation of identity can also be requested.

Next week we are going to talk about urgent preventive measures that judges can order for cases of gender-based violence.