Human Rights Violations: Nobel Prize winner Jody Williams denounces impunity for femicides in Mexico

EFE/CNN Mexico: The Nobel Peace Prize winner, Jody Williams, denounced impunity regarding crimes against women in Mexico and the lack of political will to find solutions. 

After meeting with a group of 50 activists who fight for collective rights of women, the American criticized the "nice words" from the government and demanded  "real" solutions to a problem that she said affects the entire population. "There is no time for excuses. Families who are suffering in this country want to see action and women who have been raped by the police and military want to see justice," she said.

According to her, joint action by civil society that demands responses from the government is necessary to reverse this situation. "No one person can change society; it has to be a whole community that goes into action," she said. Therefore, the unity that associations of victims have been showning in reporting cases of disappearances, rapes and murders across the country she considers to be a positive sign.

She also stated that one of the main obstacles to achieving justice and an end to impunity in Mexico is the high number of people involved in these crimes.

Accompanied by Lisa VeneKlasen, director of Just Associates, an international feminist organization, and Imelda Marrufo, of the Women's Network in Ciudad Juarez, Williams stated that, despite the oppression and dangers, there is hope. "This problem requires a constant struggle if we want to see a society in which we can live without fear," she said.

Her visit is part of an investigation being carried out by the Nobel Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú regarding murders of women in Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala. It began Saturday and ends on January 31. The activists are scheduled to go tomorrow to the state of Guerrero for a meeting with women and on Tuesday to meet with diplomats and women who hold high positions in Mexican political life and the judicial system.

The objectives of the visit is to make visible the role, contribution and actions that women have taken to eradicate violence and insecurity in the country and to urge the Mexican government to ensure the protection of human rights defenders.

During 2010, in Mexico about 3,100 women were killed, while in Honduras it amounted to about 1,500 between 2008 and 201, and in Guatemala over 5,000 women died in the last 10 years in a violent way.

Activist Williams won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her intense struggle for the prohibition and removal of landmines." Spanish original