Femicide in Ecuador: A study of legislation, prevention and judicial response

Abstract

Currently, statistics show the intensity of the gender conflict in the country, reflected in various forms of violence against women. Therefore, the crime of femicide has been typified in the legislations of fourteen Latin American States; this is explained in the implementation of a political-conceptual strategy, which has been configured from feminist perspectives seeking to make society aware of the problem of violent deaths due to gender; seeking to reaffirm the commitments of the States. Ecuador incorporated femicide as a crime in the legislation, with the approval of the Organic Integral Penal Code; recognizing the violent death of women caused by the fact of being women or by their gender condition, as a social and public problem, associated to the asymmetrical power relations between men and women. The objective of the research is to analyze femicide in Ecuador, from a study of legislation, prevention and judicial response. It will address the appropriate measures to be taken by the State, the effective judicial protection, maintaining the international human rights framework as an imperative. Within this article there is a theoretical foundation on the legal and social background that motivated the emergence of the autonomous classification of femicide in Ecuador, distinguishing the impact that the classification of femicide has had on the levels of violent deaths of women in Ecuador.

Keywords: Femicide, Legislation, Prevention, Judiciary.