PBI-Mexico accompanies the International Women’s Day march in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua

On March 9, PBI-Mexico tweeted:

“Yesterday #8M , PBI accompanied the women of #CiudadJuárez in the march for #InternationalWomensDay.

The women are demanding justice, fair treatment and an end to the violence against them. They demand security and guarantees from their #HumanRights.

#8M2023 #8marzo2023”

“Femicide nation”

Earlier this year, France 24 reported: “Mexico’s worsening gender violence crisis and the state’s failure to respond have led protesters and activists to call the country a femicide nation.”

In 2022, The Guardian adds: “Last year Mexico recorded 1,015 cases of femicide – when a woman is murdered specifically because of her gender – compared with 977 in 2020. Overall, about 3,500 women were killed.”

In August 2021, Border Report also reported: “High-profile reports by Amnesty International, the Northern Border College and others found a pattern of gender-based violence and sexual abuse in many of the 400 or so killings of women in Juarez between 1993 and 2005. …But for all the press the femicides have garnered in the past, the fact is that more women than ever are being murdered in Juarez. The city has recorded 491 homicides where women were the victims in the past three years alone.”

The Associated Press has highlighted key problems such as “police officers who won’t take reports about missing women, clumsy or nonexistent investigations, prosecutors and judges who revictimize women” and that despite increasing numbers “only 27% of violent deaths of women were classified as femicides [in 2021] and that women’s killings were more likely to be classified as unintentional, something akin to manslaughter.”

And Open Democracy has also reported: “Estimates from Mexico’s national human rights commission suggest that 90% of registered femicides go unpunished, with no convictions.”

IWD protests across Mexico

Mexico News Daily reports: “Marches were held in numerous cities, including Guadalajara, Monterrey, Morelia, Chihuahua, Puebla, Oaxaca, Zacatecas and Mérida.”

The San Diego Union-Tribune has also reported: “More than 1,000 women wearing purple marched in Tijuana on Wednesday [March 8] to demand an end to femicide and other abuses that they frequently face.”

And Reuters has highlighted: “By nightfall in Mexico’s second-largest city, Monterrey, protesters clashed with police and some set a local government palace gate on fire.”

We support the call for an end to femicide and all forms of violence against women.

#8M2023 #8marzo2023 #CallItFemicide #IWD2023