On the 7th of November last, an historic demonstration in the struggle for women's rights took place in Madrid. Ángela González Carreño whose child was murdered by her ex-partner, the father, in a visit sanctioned by a judge, spoke to the enormous crowds in the protest against gender violence. Close by members of the extreme right wing party “Vox” tried without success to besmirch the face of the march. What the demonstrators reinforced were calls to respect existing laws and they emphasised in speeches and banners that structural alterations needed to be made to change societal values and to attend to the demands of the women who have experienced gender violence.
Since 2008, according to the UN, 31 children have been killed in Spain by their estranged fathers, 20 on visits sanctioned by the judiciary. Changes made in 2015 to the law on gender violence underline the need for protection of children, especially vulnerable in cases of imposed shared custody.
