Michelle Bachelet, the former president of Chile and the United Nations’ high commissioner for human rights, said in a video on Twitter: “I support the millions of women around the world who have dared to speak out against violence and harassment.”

She urged women everywhere to keep telling their stories of violence and “to demand accountability and reparation.”

In Madrid, demonstrators seeking to pressure the new Socialist government in Spain to address gender violence held signs reading, “No is No” and “Not one less,” and chanted, “We’re not all here; the murdered ones are missing.”

The government calculates that 45 women have been killed in Spain over the past year by their partner or former partner, but the organizers of the protest put the total at 89, including those killed by people outside their own personal circle.

The country has been roiled by recent court verdicts that women say play down the inherent violence in sexual assaults: On Friday, a court in Lleida, in northeastern Spain, cleared a man and his nephew of the more serious charge of sexual assault, the equivalent to rape in Spain, after attacking a woman they had met in a bar.

In a back alley, the men forced her to have sex without her consent, the court was told. They were sentenced to 4 1/2 years for sexual abuse because they were deemed not to have used intimidation or violence, even though the woman pleaded for them to stop.

Amnesty International released a study Saturday showing that rape laws across Europe were “dangerous and outdated,” with many countries recognizing rape only when physical violence, threat or coercion is involved.

The study said that out of 31 European countries, only eight — Ireland, the UK, Belgium, Cyprus, Germany, Iceland, Luxembourg and Sweden — legally define sex without consent as rape.

The New York Times

Raphael Minder, Yonette Joseph and Iliana Magra © 2018 The New York Times