PHM-Exch> Murder of Women's Human Rights Advocates: Immediate Solidarity Requested

Tue Jan 18 04:38:29 PST 2011

Call out to all women's human rights defenders, health rights advocates, social/economic and reproductive justice campaigners, and community based advocates:

Below is a petition & letter  responding to the urgent request from women's human rights and health rights groups in Mexico for solidarity in the face of the urgent situation in the northern border communities of femicides - brutal assassinations of women, with their bodies left mutilated and dismembered - as well as recurring incidences of rape and sexual violence targetted at women's rights advocates. To date the Mexican government has been unwilling to investigate these cases, and impunity continues. The latest murder happened on Jan. 6th, when a 36 year old community based advocate who was working tirelessly to end violence against women and coined the term "Ni Una Mas" [Not one more (murdered woman)] was killed. Her body was just found last week, dismembered and strangled with a bag over her head. You can take action by: 

1. Signing the letter below by Wed. Jan 19th midnight UTC(as an organisation and/or as an individual community advocate) by replying to this email (tanya at wgnrr.org). It will be delivered by a delegation of WGNRR members to the Mexican Embassy in Manila on Thursday. 

2. Adding your endorsement to the petition here: http://www.tupuedessalvartuvida.org/nomasfeminicidios/ <https://mail.wgnrr.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=https://mail.wgnrr.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=https://mail.wgnrr.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.tupuedessalvartuvida.org/nomasfeminicidios/> 

Coordinated events are happening this week in solidarity with women's human rights advocates in Mexico, including the sending of letters and delivering of petitions to embassies of Mexico around the world. As a result, we are responding quckly. We apologise for the short notice, but since many of you work on supporting cases concerning an end to violence against women/gender based violence, this urgency won't come as a surprise... 

Thanks, and I look forward to hearing from you. Please feel free to forward to your allies and networks. Certainly also feel free to write your own letter to the Mexican embassy in your respective country. If you would like to use the duplicated petition we are using in Manila, please be in touch: tanya at wgnrr.org  

In solidarity,

Tanya

Tanya Roberts
Campaigns Officer, Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR) 
T: + 63 (2) 913 6708 F: + 63 (2) 911 8293 www.wgnrr.org <https://mail.wgnrr.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=https://mail.wgnrr.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=https://mail.wgnrr.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.wgnrr.org>  
tanya at wgnrr.org
::::::::::::::::::::::::

Ambassador of Mexico in the Philippines, 

Embassy of Mexico, G.C. Corporate Plaza, 2nd. Floor

150 Legaspi Street, Makati City, Philippines

January 18, 2011

To the Ambassador of Mexico in the Philippines:

As advocates for women's human rights, community health rights, and an end to sexual and gender violence, we, the undersigned members and allies of the Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR) denounce the ongoing brutal killings and gendered violence directed at the women's rights advocates living in the communities of the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Over the past month, we have been appalled and simultaneously enraged to hear from Mexican based members and allies of WGNRR about the two recent assassinations of human rights defenders tirelessly working to end violence against women, Susana Chávez and Marisela Escobedo Ortiz (mother of another murder victim, Rubi Marisol Frayre Escobedo). In particular, the continued pattern of impunity that has pervaded the hundreds of cases of women who have been sexually violated or murdered and mutilated is thoroughly shocking and must end if there is ever to be a sense amongst women in state of Chihuahua that they can live their lives free of fear and with dignity. Of urgent concern is the corresponding lack of political will to advance satisfactory forms of justice for the women, their families, and their communities. 

Mexico is signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Convention Against Torture (CAT), the Covenants on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), as well as party to the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. Accordingly, Mexican authorities have a legally binding obligation to ensure that the women of communities within the state Chihuahua - and across the country - have their human rights recognised and respected, including those to life, to be free from gendered violence, to the highest possible standards of health, and to be compensated when violations of these rights occur. However, we  are alarmed that despite signing onto regional  and international human rights instruments, the Mexican administration continues to defy rulings by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights as well as recommendations by various UN rapporteurs and committees that call on the state to immediately address the intense levels of sexual violence, disappearances and murders of women in Chihuahua. Civil society and local communities have yet to hear how the state intends to take these rights-based mandates into consideration at the policy, legislative or programmatic levels. 

Together with Mexican members and allies of WGNRR, we urge Mexican authorities to commit the political will and financial resources needed to:  

·         Conduct a thorough, independent investigation regarding the deaths of Marisela Escobedo Ortiz and Susana Chávez, and take measures to bring justice to these as well as all other unresolved murders of women in the State of Chihuahua - including reparations and redress to their families

·         Ensure gender-specific protective measures and support mechanisms  for the mothers, families, and friends of the victims, as well as that of the informants and defenders of women's human rights working on the cases;

·         Ensure that related commissions of inquiry/truth-seeking and policy developments comply with human rights outlined in CEDAW, the Beijing Platform for Action and ICESCR

·         Promote community, state and national socio-cultural initiatives that support the dismantling and transformation of patriarchal, sexist norms amongst all generations so that this type of brutal, sexualised and gendered violence will not continue to be repeated. 

We are calling on you, as the Mexican Ambassador, to forward these concerns to the state authorities in Mexico, including President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and Chihuahua State Governor César Duarte Jáquez. We will remain alert to the situation through Mexican-based members and allies of the Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights, and will await news regarding how the Mexican state will take action to address these urgent matters. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the WGNRR campaigns officer, Tanya Roberts, by email <tanya at wgnrr.org> or phone + 63 (2) 913 6708. 

Sincerely,

1. ___________________
2.____________________

3. ___________________

4.____________________

5. ___________________

6.____________________

7. ___________________

8.____________________

9. ___________________

10.____________________

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