The Government to Strengthen Courts Handling Violence Against Women with 50 Judges and 42 Prosecutors

Today, the Council of Ministers approved a royal decree to create 50 new judge positions and 42 specialised prosecutor positions to strengthen the sections dealing with violence against women from autumn onwards.

This measure, driven by the Ministry of Justice and designed in collaboration with the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), aims to reinforce the courts handling violence against women so they can take on all cases against the sexual freedom of Spanish women from October. Until now, these courts, in addition to handling all gender violence complaints, only prosecuted sexual offences against women caused by their partners or ex-partners.

The new judicial structure is mandated by the Law on Efficiency of the Public Justice Service, approved this year, and the 'only yes means yes' law, in effect since 2022, which expands the jurisdiction of these specialised courts to all sexual offences under the Penal Code and to crimes of female genital mutilation, forced marriage, and sexual harassment with female victims. Additionally, they will also handle crimes of violence against children and adolescents when linked to a case of gender-based violence.

The Royal Decree increases the number of judges in this specialty by 50, of which 42 are newly created and the other eight result from transforming courts of instruction into courts for violence against women in the same judicial district. Each new judge position is accompanied by the creation of another specialised prosecutor position, thus adding 42 new specialists to the Public Prosecutor's Office staff.

Most of the positions created today will begin functioning on December 31, coinciding with the implementation of the new judicial structure in courts of instance and specialised sections, and will result in an increase of nearly 45% in courts handling violence against women, given that there are currently 116 across the country.

The expansion of courts in this specialty is based on a study conducted by the CGPJ, which anticipated that the increase in the jurisdiction of courts handling violence against women would result in an average 13% increase in workload across the country, with very different percentages depending on the territory, the size of the locality, or the current lack of resources. In fact, this body calculated that the average overload of cases with the new offences varies between 2.79% in the Basque Country and 20% in Catalonia. Indeed, 135 judges specialised in gender violence from all over Spain signed a letter last March stating that with the legal change, the workload would increase by 20% and that if a sufficient number of new specialised courts were not created, they were heading towards a "total collapse."

In line with the analysis of the new workloads per territory identified by the CGPJ, today's royal decree plans to allocate ten new positions to Andalusia, followed by Madrid with six, and the Valencian Community with five. Catalonia, Galicia, and the Canary Islands will each have four new positions, while Castilla-La Mancha, the Balearic Islands, and Extremadura will have three positions. Murcia and Castilla y León will each have two more positions, and finally, Aragon, Asturias, Cantabria, and the Basque Country will receive one position each.

The Government believes that this significant expansion of positions "will allow the judicial system to significantly improve its response and sensitivity to these cases" and also that the measure demonstrates "the Executive's firm commitment to protecting victims of gender and sexual violence, ensuring that the judicial system has the appropriate resources to provide specialised and effective attention."

The same royal decree includes the creation of three specialised sections on violence against children and adolescents in those judicial districts where, after analysing the workload related to crimes affecting minors, their establishment has been deemed necessary. These new sections will be implemented in the judicial districts of Madrid, Barcelona, and Malaga.