The Inter American Court of Human Rights hears important case of violence against women in Mexico
A collection of legal and human rights organizations are suing the Mexican government before an international court for failing to adequately investigate the torture and killings of women in Ciudad Juarez. It is thought that more than 5000 women have been killed in Juarez since 1993. A sentence can be expected within the next couple of weeks.
The lawsuit before the Inter-American Court on Human Rights blames on the federal government for failing to prevent the kidnapping, torture, and killing of eight women, specifically, whose bodies were found in November, 2001. All displaying clear signs of torture. Mexican authorities are charged with failure to fulfill their obligation to prevent and punish violence against women.
Marking the first time the Organization of American States’ court has heard a Mexican femicide case, the historic legal proceeding centers on the slayings of three young women who were found with five other female victims in a Ciudad Juarez cotton field in 2001. The three victims, Esmeralda Herrera Monreal, 14, Laura Berenice Ramos Monarrez, 17, and Claudia Ivette Gonzalez, 20, all went missing between September 25 and October 29, 2001.
A pattern of abduction, rape and murder of women in Ciudad Juárez had begun in 1993. The authorities consistently failed to take the crimes seriously, often saying that the victims were to blame for the crimes committed against them and treating the relatives with contempt. Few of the perpetrators of these crimes were brought to justice, creating a climate of fear and insecurity for women.
The case of the Campo Algodonero became notorious as it exemplified the manner in which municipal, state and federal authorities discriminated against women victims of killings and their families, misidentified bodies, failed to gather reliable forensic evidence or conduct effective investigations. Instead, they resorted to numerous irregularities including torture to extract confessions and build fabricated cases — one of those initially convicted later won his appeal and was released.
Since 1993 (when the first cases can be traced) it is said that more than 5000 women have been killed in what some consider the biggest gender related crime spree ever recorded. The majority of these women have been raped and tortured and many of them, internal migrant workers have never been identified. There have been numerous complains that the Mexican government has failed to properly investigate these cases and has treated the victims and their families with contempt, placing the blame on the dead women for being “lose” and for not being chaste and modest enough.
I haven’t found much on this Interamerican court case in the English speaking press, so the above has been clipped together from different reports, and I have added some background from Spanish speaking sources. Since I have been following these cases for years, hoping this time would come, I thought of summarizing the situation and pointing to some resources that contain more info on the subject. In depth accounts and analysis can be found here, here, here and here.
Edited to add: there might be some grammar inaccuracies (I just spotted two and corrected them), but bear in mind I translated some of this from Spanish and then I get into this language salad state of mind, mixing my adverbs and adjectives in funny ways.
