Newsletter, March 2022

Together We Are Stronger!

In the context of the commemoration of International and National Women's Day, in El Salvador around 3,000 women from different feminist and civil society organizations took to the streets to march and raise their voices to demand respect for women's rights and demand the non-reform or repeal of the LEIV.
The Salvadoran Women's Movement (MSM) communicated with its slogans and posters the essence of feminist thought and purpose in the struggle for equality and a model of society that puts life, and not profit, at the center. It is an alternative society with a commitment to quality public services, in education, health, independence and equality, sexual and reproductive rights, co-responsibility in care, decent work, housing and a minimum living income, and a life free of violence for all. Women CONTRIBUTE to economic, political, social, cultural and environmental development; we also demand our rights to ensure equality, equity and a life free of violence.

The compañeras from the MSM in El Salvador indicate that there have been alarming setbacks in women's human rights, in terms of specialized care in situations of violence and the shrinkage of budgets assigned for reducing gender inequality, in a country that is extremely violent for women. According to data from the police and the prosecutor's office, 7 out of 10 women in El Salvador have been assaulted during their lives and every 46 hours a woman is murdered. By the end of 2021, 19,069 acts of violence had been reported against Salvadoran women.

The MSM is concerned about continuing decreases in the nation’s general budget for programs aimed at women, regarding sexual and reproductive health and rights, education, livelihood, as well as the non-enforcement of the Special Comprehensive Law for a Life Free of Violence against Women (LEIV) and the Equality, Equity and Eradication of Discrimination Against Women Law (LIE).