Pointing out deficiencies in the generation of figures and the lack of specific protocols, expert activists in the defense of women’s rights stressed that the sanction and eradication of all types of violence against gender remains a challenge for the country, since ” public policies are not having an impact and the data is alarming”.
According to the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System, from December 2018 to January 2022, the murder of 8,540 women was reported, of which 3,129 were classified as femicides.
In the same period, 786,479 calls to 911 were reported for violence against women.
In the forum on family violence and femicide in Mexico, organized by Common Cause in the context of International Women’s Day, María de la Luz Estrada, founder of the National Citizen Observatory of Femicide, stressed that a differentiated approach is needed in terms of femicide to understand the needs in each region.
“It is difficult for the authorities to recognize that the policies of care, prevention and punishment of femicides are deficient at all levels of government. Therefore, this issue remains a challenge, public policies are not having an impact, and the data is alarming,” she said.
María Elena Morera, president of Common Cause, stated that femicide violence goes beyond numbers, and reflects an unacceptable social and institutional reality, where the murders of women are not only common, but also do not generate a greater impact on a society. indifferent to pain and cruelty.
He pointed out that there is still a long way to go and that, above all, “after so many speeches and so many laws, there is a lot of dead letter that must be given life.”
protective orders
For her part, Flor Montes de Oca, Legal Coordinator of Equis Justicia para las mujeres added that it is important to promote legal reforms in Mexico and the promotion of protection orders for women and girls against gender violence.
She emphasized that this mechanism represents a vital right to guarantee a life free of violence for women and girls, a safe way to prevent aggression, or to protect them from violence. He stressed that it is an obligation of the State to guarantee the viability of this resource.
“Women and girls have the right to a resource that protects us from acts of violence, it is a duty of the State. All levels of government must act and be aware to dictate specific measures that protect us in any situation.”
The experts agreed that family violence is one of the main contexts in which violence against women and children is reproduced.
And it is that, from the beginning of the six-year term until January of this year, 2,198,202 emergency calls to 911 have been reported for family violence; that is, 1,952 calls per day.