Press briefing by women’s anti-discrimination committee

 

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women had conducted its first inquiry into the murders and disappearances of more than 320 women in the Ciudad Juarez area of Chihuahua State, Mexico, that had been occurring since 1993, correspondents were told at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.

The Mexican inquiry is the first of its kind since the adoption of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in 1999.  Under the Optional Protocol, the Committee can consider complaints from individual women, or groups of women, regarding violations of rights protected under the Convention, and can initiate inquiries into situations of grave or systematic violations of women’s rights.  The inquiry included a visit to Mexico in October 2003 by two Committee experts, Ms. Ferrer Gómez and Maria Regina Tavares da Silva.

Speaking to correspondents on a day preceding the closing of the thirty-second session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women were the Committee’s current Chair, Rosario Manalo, and Ms. Tavares da Silva.

On the inquiry, Ms. Tavares da Silva said that, during their visit to Mexico, the experts had conducted numerous interviews with the country’s authorities, both at the federal and state levels.  They had also met with non-governmental organizations and members of the victims’ families.  While looking into the matters related to the crimes, their nature, the profile of the victims and possible reasons, the experts had tried to go beyond specific cases and look into the very complex socio-economic, cultural environment where the crimes had taken place.  It was an environment where gender-based discrimination was widespread and systematic and where violence against women seemed to be regarded as a normal, or acceptable, fact.

Of course, the Committee strongly stressed that violence against women was one of the most serious forms of gender-based discrimination and was a gross violation of women’s human rights, she said.  Following the visit and the elaboration of the report, the Committee had discussed its findings and adopted a number of recommendations addressed to the Government of Mexico.  Those recommendations concerned the investigation of the crimes, pursuit of justice and punishment of perpetrators that had been pending for so long, as well as the need to prevent violence, guarantee security, and promote and protect the human rights of women by seriously addressing the social problems affecting communities, families, women and girls.

The findings and recommendations of the Committee had been transmitted to the Government of Mexico after the January session last year, she continued.  Under the norms of protocol, a period of six months had been given to the Government to submit its observations.  The Committee had received information, both in the July and present sessions, on the measures taken to address the situation.  On the whole, its members could appreciate that the Government was taking steps to find solutions.  Efforts were being made to conduct serious investigations of the crimes and promote development, raise awareness, provide training regarding violence and offer legal, psychological and other assistance to victims’ families.

While registering the will of the Government and its full cooperation all along the process, the Committee considered that it was still a matter to follow up, as the problem was far from being solved, she continued.  On the contrary, violence and murders had not stopped.  The Government itself had recognized that there was still a long way to go in changing the situation where sexist stereotypes were deeply entrenched and where gender-based discrimination had deep roots and a long, well-established tradition.  The Committee would continue its dialogue with Mexican authorities, always stressing its views that it was necessary not only to deal with specific individual cases, but also to address the causes of violence.  A clear gender dimension must be integrated into all the policies and programmes in place.

Focusing on the outcome of the Committee’s thirty-second session, Ms. Manalo said that, in the past three weeks, the Committee had held constructive dialogues with eight States parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women:  Algeria, Croatia, Gabon, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Italy, Paraguay, Samoa and Turkey.  Among the common elements that needed to be addressed to make progress in ensuring women’s enjoyment of their rights, she highlighted negative sexual stereotypes, access to justice and the need to ensure real equality of men and women.

In fact, there was no State where the Committee had been able to say that women’s de jure equality had been achieved, she said.  Discriminatory laws remained on the books everywhere, and there was a lack of legislation to adequately protect women from violations of their rights.  In some cases, seemingly neutral laws had a discriminatory impact on women.  All governments also had significant additional work to do to abolish and eliminate prejudices, customs and practices that cast women in positions of inferiority, constituted discrimination against women and curtailed their enjoyment of their rights.  Women remained insufficiently aware of their rights.  Even if mechanisms were in place to address grievances, women often did not know about them, or lacked the resources to use them.  Insufficient progress towards equality in the eight countries reviewed had also been noted in the fields of employment and participation in decision-making.

Regarding employment, she said that women’s participation in the labour force was lower; they were paid less; and they were prominent in the informal sector and in unpaid agricultural work.  They also held a larger number of part-time positions and predominated in low-paying jobs.  Women’s participation in public and political life left much to be desired.  Even when women achieved good representation in the Parliament, for example, they had low representation at the local and municipal levels.

On those and other areas covered by the Convention, the Committee had called on States parties to take specific measures to speed up the realization of equality.  The Committee had provided each of the eight States with detailed guidance to revise specific laws, provide incentives to increase the number of women in public office, provide scholarships to young women in untraditional educational fields, and train police officers and health workers to support victims of violence, to name but a few examples.  The experts had asked for implementation of campaigns to make society at large aware of women’s human rights and the Convention as a tool for achieving them.

Responding to numerous questions regarding the Mexican inquiry, Ms. Tavares da Silva said that the experts’ report had been presented to the Committee in January 2004.  The Government of Mexico had fully cooperated with the Committee, both in regard to the experts’ visit and in the responses provided to the Committee.  Much information had been provided on the investigation of the crimes and the programmes introduced to promote social development and human rights of women.

According to non-governmental organizations and victims’ families, initially, the authorities, particularly at the State level, had not paid much attention to the situation.  There was also an issue of federal and local authorities’ jurisdiction.  It had been proposed that matters of serious violations of human rights should be considered by federal authorities.  One of the Committee’s recommendations was that the Government of Mexico should consider the possibility of a more direct intervention at the federal level.  According to the response received from the Government of Mexico, an amendment of a relevant article of the Constitution was now under consideration.

To a question about cooperation with the United States’ authorities, she said that there had been cooperation with the FBI in 1995 and in 2002, but it mainly concerned providing capacity training for investigation.  What the Committee had recommended was a possibility of a joint agreement on exchange of information and possible joint investigations.  As mentioned in the Committee’s report, the events had been taking place very close to the United States’ border, and there was concern about possible trafficking in people and drugs.  The recommendation had been made from the point of view that it would be useful to look at the situation from both sides.

How many women had been murdered since the experts’ visit? a correspondent asked.  Ms. Tavares da Silva said she could not provide such figures, since various sources provided different numbers.  That, in fact, was one of the lines of action of the special prosecutor appointed in January 2004.  It was important to systematize the information because it was so contradictory.

As to whether the special prosecutor had sufficient authority to address the issue, she said that the federal Government had also appointed a special commissioner with a broad mandate, which mostly focused on the social problems.  The special commissioner now had a staff of 20 persons.  In 2003, a joint agency had also addressed the murders.  Significant resources had been invested in the investigation and social development programmes.

Asked if it was true that not enough steps were being taken to correct the problem in Ciudad Juarez and the rest of Mexico, she said that it was difficult to answer such a question, because there could always be more.  However, quite a number of actions had been taken by the Government of Mexico, and many programmes had been put in place.  The cultural environment could not be changed overnight, however, and the Mexican authorities recognized that.  The information received during the Committee’s current session contained some indication that some initial results had been achieved.

To a follow-up question whether the problem existed in other parts of Mexico and whether it was growing, Ms. Tavares da Silva said it had been mentioned in the report -– and the information had been provided to the experts during their visit to the country –- that while there was a regular pattern of abuse in Ciudad Juarez, the problem also existed in other parts of the country.  For example, there were some cases in the city of Chihuahua and along Mexico’s border with the United States.

To questions about trust for local authorities, particularly in view of the fact that some investigators had been named as possible perpetrators, she said that, indeed, several investigators and public officials had been identified as being responsible for the crimes.  Some of them had already been indicted, and the investigation was continuing.  Many figures had been replaced, including the state prosecutor and the governor of ChihuahuaState.

Responding to a comment that there had been complaints of non-reporting and late reporting by States parties to the Convention, Ms. Manalo said that some States were not reporting simply because they required technical support.  She did not have the list of non-reporting States with her, but the Committee was following up on the matter, trying to get those States to report.

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