Violence against Women Defenders in Mexico is on the Rise
January 19, 2012 (Mexico City) - Consorcio para el Diálogo Parlamentario y la Equidad Oaxaca, Red Mesa de Mujeres de Ciudad Juárez and JASS (Just Associates) published the groundbreaking report, Women Human Rights Defenders in Mexico: conditions and risks faced in exercising their work. According to the report, approximately “75% of women human rights defenders in Mexico are victims of gender violence.”
Based on research conducted for the Regional Baseline Report on Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRD) in Mesoamerica, this analysis highlights the violence – including threats, murders and rape – Mexican activists experience. The first of its kind in the country, the report’s findings were released at a press conference on January 19th in Mexico City.
Media impact of the report (in Spanish):
La Jornada
Proceso
Zócalo
Internet Ciudad
Por Esto Yucatán
La Información MX
CENCOS |
Women Human Rights Defenders Denounce the Rise in Violence against Journalists & WHRD in Mexico
On September 14, 2011, over 70 Mexican, regional and international organizations released a declaration denouncing the increasing violence against women defenders and journalists in Mexico. The declaration comes on the heels of a large protest earlier this month of over 500 media workers in Mexico City who demand a thorough investigation into the recent killings of journalists.
On the first of September, the bodies of slain journalists, Ana Maria Marcela Yarce Viveros, founder of and reporter for Contralinea, and Rocio Gonzalez, an independent reporter, were found in Mexico City. On August 28th, Morelia Carmela Elisarraraz Mendez, Secretary of Monarcas Libertad de Michoacan, and a leading defender of the rights and dignity of sex workers, was found murdered.
These cases of “femicide are not isolated incidents and now make up part of the seven women human rights defenders and three women journalists murdered in our country since 2010, in a national context of increased violence against women.”
This declaration is available in Spanish and in English. |
International Solidarity to End Repression in Honduras (April 2011)
Activists and human rights groups across the Americas are demanding a halt to violence and repression by police against women, women human rights defenders and feminist organizations on the frontlines of Honduran resistance.
Simultaneous solidarity protests took place from Argentina to Mexico to Washington, DC,in front of Honduran embassies and United Nations offices on Friday, April 8th.
In Mexico and Washington, DC more than 100 people came out in solidarity, calling for an end to state-sanctioned repressive tactics against women human rights defenders and activists, while in Honduras, more than 40 gathered in a protest coordinated by the Feminists in Resistance.
JASS, and over 60 local, regional and international organizations and more than 100 individuals signed a letter urging the UN to denounce the escalation of violence and impunity in Honduras.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Attacks against Women Human Rights Defenders (June 2011)
On the morning of May 20, 2011, a group of unidentified people broke into CIMAC’s (Women’s Information and Communication) office in Mexico City, destroying and stealing computers, documents and sensitive information. CIMAC is known for its journalism with a gender perspective, reporting violations of women’s human rights and defending freedom of expression and the work of women human rights defenders.
We cannot ignore the fact that these attacks against CIMAC are directly related to the type of work they do and are intended to intimidate, threaten and limit their work to defend and promote women’s human rights in Mexico.
Hundreds of organizations and women defenders from across Mesoamerica have signed onto a declaration demanding that authorities fully investigate these attacks and implement necessary security measures for CIMAC and its members.
In El Salvador, a similar incident occurred on June 5, 2011, where 15 human rights defenders, most of them women, were violently arrested and detained while peacefully protesting outside the OAS General Assembly meeting on Citizenship Security in the Americas. Many of the defenders arrested were from neighboring Nicaragua and Guatemala. For more information in Spanish, please visit El Nuevo Diario.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
National March for Peace and Justice in Mexico (May 2011)
Today the National March for Peace and Justice in Mexico begins with a march from the town of Cuernavaca to Mexico City, culminating in simultaneous protests on Sunday, May 8th in more than 40 cities around the country to end the violence and impunity that has plagued Mexico for over 4 years.
As a moment of reflection: 40,000 people dead in 5 years – an average of one every hour - more than 10,000 disappeared in Mexico. JASS stands in solidarity with the women and people of Mexico.
JASS stands in solidarity with the women and the people of Mexico. For more information in Spanish, please review INFORMACIÓN MARCHA NACIONAL POR LA PAZ Y LA JUSTICIA.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
UN Special Rapporteur draws on JASS Mesoamerica Initaitive (February 2011)
In a new report to the UN General Assembly, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders touched on the struggles of women human rights defenders (WHRDs) and activists promoting women’s rights. The report draws on research produced by JASS Mesoamerica and regional partners through our initiative to address the escalating violence against women activists in the region.
Congrats to the coordinator of this effort, Marusia Lopez, and our allies (including AWID) for their commitment to putting the spotlight on the violence and insecurity women face in their struggles for justice.
The Executive Summary of the ground-breaking report: Violence Against WomenHuman Rights Defenders in Mesoamerica is now available in English.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Honduran Human Rights Defender Threatened and Given Ultimatum (COFADEH) (March 2011)
The Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras (COFADEH)
expresses its grave concern for the continued attacks against Human Rights Defender Trinidad Sánchez Argueta, Executive Director of the Network for Alternative Community Trade (Red COMAL) based in the city of Siguatepeque in the central
department of Comayagua, at 149Km from the capital city of Tegucigalpa. COFADEH requests that the national and international community urge the Honduran
State to implement the necessary measures and mechanisms to effectively guarantee and protect the life and integrity of JOSE TRINIDAD SANCHEZ. The State must equally
guarantee the Right to Defend Human Rights, as stated and universally recognized by the UN Universal Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, ratified in 1998, and the 1999 and 2000 resolutions in the OAS on human rights defenders in the Americas.
For contact information and to read the full Press Release, click here. |
|
14 Sept. 2011 - Bloggers who write about Mexico’s ongoing drug war have been threatened in the past, but this is believed to be the first time that users of social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook have been targeted by the cartels.
Mexico’s Drug War, Feminized - NY Times
13 Aug. 2011 - The number of women incarcerated for federal crimes has grown by 400 percent since 2007, pushing the total female prison population past 10,000.
Mexican Women March for Rights, Mourn Slain Activists - IPS
19 Apr. 2011 - For the first time, Mexico has a female attorney general. But elation at this achievement is overshadowed by grief over the brutal murders of women police chiefs and activists.
Women Human Rights Defenders Risk Death, Discrimination - CIP
7 Mar. 2011 -This year has seen a marked rise in violence against women and harassment of women human rights defenders.
The Silencing of Women's Voices - Frontera NorteSur
7 Mar. 2011 - On Tuesday, March 8, International Women's Day 2011, the voices of many prominent human rights defenders will be absent from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
Mexican activist's relatives killed - AlJazeera
26 Feb. 2011 - Justice demanded after three family members of Josefina Reyes, killed a year ago, are found dead in Chihuahua state.
Urgent Action
JOIN! On Monday 17 January hundreds of activists are simultaneously mobilizing ACTS OF SOLIDARITY at Mexican embassies/consulates across the Americas to demand the government respond to the recent assassinations of rights’ activists, Marisela Escobedo and Susana Chavez in Cuidad Juarez. SEND A MESSAGE OF SOLIDARITY HERE to share on Radio Feminista’s broadcast. |
29 Jul. 2011 - On June 28, 2009 a civilian-military led coup d’état took place in Honduras, which led to the violent repression of social movements. This oppression has intensified over the past months.
OAS coup report implicates Honduras in 20 slayings - AP
09 Jul. 2011 - The Honduran government violated human rights by causing the deaths of 20 people in the seven months after the 2009 ouster of President Manuel Zelaya, an Organization of American States report said Thursday.
Honduras Repression vs. Teachers Intensify - InsideCostaRica
28 Mar. 2011 - The National People''s Resistance Front (FNRP) in Honduras denounced the escalation of repression and violence against the education sector in the country.
Killings of Honduran Women Remain Unsolved - InsideCostaRica
18 Feb. 2011 - More than 40 Honduran women have been killed this year and their cases remain unsolved, according to figures released by the prosecution.
US: Wrong on Honduras
On the ground, the resistance is alive and well despite terrifying and relentless repression. But in order for the Honduran people to rebuild their country from below, with their own broad vision of social justice, they desperately need progressives in the United States to back them, and to take on repressive policies in Latin America...
CAWN: INFORMATION LEAK COULD INCREASE REPRESSION AND VIOLENCE IN HONDURAS
Following information exposed by Wikileaks - which sheds light on the role of the United States (US) following the military coup that took place in Honduras in June 2009 - the Central America Women’s Network (CAWN) would like to express its concern about the controversy that still surrounds Honduras and the US regarding this issue. |
31 Aug. 2011 - The Guatemala Human Rights Commission in Washington, DC joins local and international groups in expressing extreme concern over the pattern of violent land evictions occurring in campesino and indigenous communities across Guatemala.
Guatemalan war rape survivors: 'We have no voice' - Guardian
28 Jul. 2011 - More than 100,000 women were raped in the 36-year Guatemalan civil war. Despite violent retributions, they are now breaking their silence.
Guatemalan Women Under Siege - UN Dispatch
23 Jun. 2011 - In a searing essay in On the Issues Magazine, Yifat Susskind, Executive Director of MADRE, argues that there is a systematic and ongoing abuse of women in Guatemala…
Guatemalan Women Seek Justice - NWI
30 Mar. 2011 - Rosa Elbira Coc Ich and ten other indigenous Mayan women recently filed a lawsuit against Canadian mining companies HMI Nickel, and its ownerHudBay Minerals.
Violence Against Women is Epidemic in Guatemala - PBS
22 Feb. 2011 - Parts of Guatemala have the highest murder rates in the world, according to the United Nations, especially along drug trafficking routes that lead from South America into the United States. The culture of violence has resulted in an epidemic of domestic violence, sexual abuse and rape, sex trafficking and femicide
IPS: Women Make Inroads in Key Positions of Power
Guatemala, it seems, is trying out a new image. As of this month, women are at the helm of the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Comptroller General's Office, winning their posts on merit, in what local activists are calling an important step in women's access to political power -- though "there is a long way to go." |
15 May 2011 - The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has established an Office of the Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders to address the increasing violence against those who defend human rights in the region.
Number of Women Murdered in Honduras Increased - Prensa Latina
28 Mar. 2011 - The discovery of two young women dead in a suburb of San Pedro Sula took to more than 60 the number of women murdered in Honduras so far in 2011.
Women at the Forefront of Grassroots Organising in El Salvador - IPS
02 Mar. 2011 - Women are playing a leading role in a powerful social movement addressing natural resource protection, adaptation to climate change, and corporate accountability in this coastal village in El Salvador.
Feminicidio - The brazen murder of women continues in Mexico
More than 500 women have been kidnapped, raped, mutilated, and murdered in Ciudad Juarez since the early 1990's in what has become known as the feminicidios. |
