By gomeznathalie - Ciudad
Juarez - February 19, 2013
Conavim study shows evidence of growth in violence
against women and young girls within nine states in Mexico.
Photo: Tribuna Digital de Quintana Roo
02/19/13
– According to a study published in 2012 by the Human Rights Department of the
Ministry of the Interior (Subsecretaria de Derechos Humanos de la
Secretaría de Gobernación, SEGOB) and the National Commission to Prevent and
Eradicate Violence against Women (Comisión Nacional para Prevenir y Erradicar
la Violencia Contra las Mujeres, Conavim), female homicides in Mexico
have increased dramatically, particularly in nine states in Mexico:
Chiapas, Chihuahua, the Federal District (Distrito Federal, DF), Durango,
Guerrero, Michoacán, Oaxaca, Sinaloa, and Sonora. The National Study Concerning the Sources, Origins, and
Factors that Produce and Reproduce the Violence against Women
(Estudio Nacional sobre las Fuentes, Orígenes y Factores que Producen y
Reproducen la Violencia contra las Mujeres) was presented to the
Commission of Human Rights and Gender Equality (Comisiones de Derechos Humanos
y para la Igualdad de Género del Senado de la República) on February 13,
2013. (To read the full report, click here). Lía Limón,
the assistant secretary for Legal Affairs and Human Rights (Subsecretaria de
Asuntos Jurídicos y Derechos Humanos, SEGOB), and Party of Democratic
Revolution (Partido de la Revolución Democrática,
PRD) Senator Angélica de la Peña spearheaded the call to action
against the ongoing femicide phenomenon bringing the issue to the Mexican
Senate.
The
study recognizes and emphasizes that regional zones in Mexico
matter. A woman living in the Northeastern region of Mexico,
between the ages of 20 to 24, is 29 times more likely to die as a result of a
homicide, than a woman with the same age residing at the center of the country.
Conavim reported that within Mexico
alone, 67% of women been the target of a crime. As an example of the
common occurrences that exemplifies mistreatment against women, the Commission
stipulates that 27% of indigenous women that used public health services were
sterilized without their consent.
Sociologist
Florinda Riquer discovered in her research that the violence against women in Mexico
is continual, that is, in many instances women have been abused as children and
by their partners. Violence also has a social dimension according to Riquer;
the same women may have been the subject of abuse in their work place and
within the academic setting. She noted that in many conservative Western
regions of Mexico including those of Aguascalientes,
Guanajuato, Jalisco, and Querétaro, women are encouraged to remain silent in
the midst of their anguish, due to the greater amount of complicity, which
exists within institutions in those regions. Riquer explained that
institutional entities, such as the church and medical establishments, have
been especially complicit in these Western regions, encouraging married women
to be silent against rape and similar abuses in order to protect the honor of
their husbands.
Assistant
Secretary Limón has condemned the attitude taken by Luis Walton, mayor of Acapulco,
referencing his remark that many women in Mexico
(outside of the Spanish citizens recently raped
in the beach town) suffer sexual abuse on a daily basis. Limón
expressed to the Senate that no one should be permitted to speak of sexual abuse
against women in such a casual manner, and thus reducing the issue to mere
normalcy. She compelled others to reject speaking on violence against women as
if it were a normal and daily occurrence. Further, Limón remarked that any
society that permits violence against women to be spoken of in such a manner
must reevaluate the principles on which it is based. Given the gravity of the
results of the study, Limón alleged that the very risks that women are exposed
to in Mexico,
obligate the government and the Congress to develop focused public strategies
to eradicate the violence.
Roberto
Castro, the national coordinator of the study commented on the results of
homicide mortality rates. In his study he found that among girls younger than
five years of age, 7.4% represent the total number of femicides, while women
aged 75 and older represent 5.3% of the femicides. Castro alleges that up until
2008, 20% of municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants did not register
femicides. In just three years, this percentage was reduced to 10% of
municipalities, a phenomenon that Castro describes as a contagion. For more
information on the Conavim study, click here.
Sources:
“Estudio Nacional sobre las Fuentes, Orígenes y Factores
que Producen y Reproducen la Violencia contra las Mujeres.” Comisión
Nacional Para Prevenir y Erradicar La Violencia Contra Las Mujeres, SEGOB.
2012.
“BOLETIN-0900 Presentan Estudio
Nacional Sobre Fuentes De Violencia Contra La Mujer En Mexico a
Senadores.” Senado De La Republica, Communicacion Social. February
13, 2013.
“Estudio Nacional Sobre
Violencia Contra Mujeres Aporta Elementos Para Impulsar Un Cambio De Paradigma
Cultura: Angélica De La Peña.” Senado De La Republica, Communicacion
Social. February 13, 2013.
Michel, Elena. “Se Disparan Feminicidios En Nueve
Estados: Estudio.” El Universal. February 14, 2013.