what does the Boca protocol say

The decision of the Correctional Court No. 2 of Lomas de Zamora to sentence this Friday to sebastian villa to two years and one month of conditional prison for coercive threats and for minor injuries qualified by the bond and for mediating gender violence against his ex-partner, Daniela Cortesput the Boca facing the obligation to make a decision regarding the forward’s future at the club.

Since September 2021, the Ribera club has a Prevention and Institutional Action Protocol in Cases of Discrimination, Harassment and Violence for Reasons of Gender and/or Sexual Orientation, which was approved 10 months after the creation of the Department of Inclusion and Equality.

The protocol “contemplates all acts of gender-based violence that occur within the club’s facilities or that affect it, as well as all people, without the need to distinguish the type of modality that links them to the institution ”. In its 3rd article, it makes explicit reference to the athletes of the different disciplines as people reached by the norm.

Situations covered include those associated with physical, psychological, sexual, economic and patrimonial, and symbolic violence. And among the modalities are mentioned domestic, institutional, labor violence, against reproductive, obstetric, media and political freedom.

The act for which Villa was sentenced would fall within a situation of domestic violence against womenwhich article 6 of the protocol describes as “that exercised against women by a member of the family group, regardless of the physical space where it occurs, that damages the dignity, well-being, physical, psychological, sexual, economic or patrimonial integrity , freedom, including reproductive freedom and the right to full development of women”.

The protocol establishes that the Department of Inclusion and Equality may only intervene after the presentation of a complaint in its area by the affected person or a third party. And that by virtue of this, a summary may be initiated against the person denounced. If there is a summary, the resolution will be in charge of the Disciplinary Court of the club, which may apply penalties ranging from a reprimand to dismissal or expulsion.

Until now, the Department of Inclusion and Equality did not act on either of the two complaints that fell on Villa: the one that gave rise to the trial that had his sentence this Friday and the one that Rocío Doldán carried out against the player in 2021 for sexual abuse with carnal access.

The situation was different Jorge Martinez, coach of the Boca women’s soccer team, who was denounced for simple sexual abuse in April of this year by the journalist Florencia Marco, who had worked for 11 years in the club’s Press Department. In that case, Boca removed Martínez from his position (replaced him) until the Judiciary issued its decision.

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