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F.5.b.iii.3.k Mexico

Mexico: Submission to the Committee On the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Amnesty International, 2018, pp. 13

This report sets out Amnesty International’s concerns about the Mexican state’s failure to comply with observations of the Committee (in the combined seventh and eighth periodic reports) on violence against women. Amnesty notes in particular the murder of women for gender-based motives, also known as “femicides”, the gender alert mechanism, disappearances of women, and the torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of women during detention, which is exacerbated in the context of a militarization of public security.

Mexicans petition Dia de Muertas, memorial to femicide victims, TeleSur, 24/10/2018,

Describes Mexican activists that are collecting signatures to declare October 24 Dia de Muertas in order to create awareness of the three thousand femicides that occur every year. Human rights organizations hope the new commemorative day would draw international attention to the impunity surrounding the rising number of gender-based crimes.

Thousands of Mexican women march against femicide, kidnapping, TeleSur, 03/02/2019,

Describes the march to demand President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador should take appropriate action to protect women’s lives.

Bautusta, Nidia, Surviving one of Mexico’s deadliest places for women, NACLA Report on the Americas, 04/02/2019,

Bautusta describes the progress Mexico has made since 2007 in the legislation related to femicide, and provides information on the prosecution of femicide and the related conviction rate. She also describes the campaign ‘Invisibles Somos Visibles’ (Invisibles We are Visible), a collective that uses performance art to denounce femicide. The collective puts on performances that dramatise the stories of local women who have been killed, seeking to generate discussion about machismo and misogyny within their communities and the legal impunity that surrounds these crimes.

Klein, Hilary, A spark of hope: The ongoing lessons of the Zapatista revolution 25 years on, NACLA Reports on the Americas, 18/01/2019,

Klein discusses involvement of women within the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (Zapatista Army of National Liberation, EZLN). The movement is now engaged in activities such as peaceful mobilizations, dialogue with civil society, and structures of political, economic, and cultural autonomy even though it was previously known as a military movement demanding justice and democracy for Indigenous peasants in Southern Mexico. Women’s activism in fighting patriarchy, discrimination and violence across the Zapatista territory is crucial.

Lopez, Maria E., Femicide in Ciudad Juárez is enabled by the regulation of gender, justice, and production in Mexico, London School of Economics and Political Science Blog, 15/02/2018,

Sheds light on the causes of femicide in Ciudad Juarez, a city in Mexico with the highest rate of femicides. It highlights nonviolent initiatives led by feminist groups and emphasises that the pandemic of femicide in Ciudad Juárez should be placed in a national context of uncontrolled violence from organised crime, impunity, institutional corruption, and a patriarchal mentality.