Behind Ciudad Juarez’s New Labor Movement

FNS News: In a virtually unprecedented development, labor protest is widening in the maquiladora industry of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. While worker dissatisfaction or protest is nothing new in the foreign-owned border factories that produce goods for export to the United States, previous manifestations of discontent in the generally union-free industry have usually been confined to one company at a time.

But recently, movements for better pay and working conditions- and union representation- have emerged at four different companies-Foxconn, Lexmark, ADC/Commscope and Eaton. Hundreds of workers have participated in street protests, hunger strikes and leafleting. Read more.

Women’s prisons: abuse runs rampant

Mexico News Daily: More than 12,000 women in Mexico live in conditions that are substandard and dangerous, where widespread sexual abuse, inadequate services and outright neglect are a part of everyday life.

Thee women are those housed in 77 of the country’s 102 prisons, and were the subjects of a study released this week by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH). Read more. 

Femicide increases in the State of Mexico and other states; Amnesty calls for gender alert but the PRI resists

By Sin Embargo 
Published July 17, 2013
Original Americas Program Translation 

Mexico City, July 17 (Sin Embargo). - Just earlier this month, deputies and senators of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) prevented the First Permanent Commission from issuing  an appeal to the Government of the State of Mexico to stop resisting and implement a "gender alert" in the state.

Yesterday, Amnesty International drew attention to this request and asked to include other states like Oaxaca, Guanajuato, and Nuevo Leon. According to the organization, the Federal Government has ignored multiple requests that have been made to make the warning statement, due to the "alarming levels of violence against women."

Daniel Zapico, AI representative in Mexico, said that the refusal of the authorities seemed like an "attempt to minimize a situation that has claimed epidemic dimension."

According to the results of the National Study on Sources, Origins and Factors that produce and reproduce the Violence Against Women, the nine states that show an increasing trend of female homicides are Chiapas, Chihuahua, Mexico City, Durango, Guerrero, Michoacán, Oaxaca, Sinaloa and Sonora.

Mexico arrests many over slaying of 11 women

Aljazeera
June 13, 2013

Mexican prosecutors have arrested 12 people in connection with the killings of 11 young women whose skeletal remains were found near the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez early last year.

The suspects include alleged drug dealers, pimps and small store owners.

They allegedly belonged to a gang that forced young women into prostitution and drug dealing and then killed them when they were "no longer of use," the prosecutors' office for the northern state of Chihuahua, said in a statement late on Tuesday.

The 10 men and two women face charges of human trafficking and homicide.

Six were already in local jails for other offenses, and six other were detained early on Tuesday.

Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, was the scene of a series of killings of more than 100 women beginning in 1993. Read more.

Nobel Laureates to OAS leaders: "Vitally important to strengthen" the Inter-American Human Rights System

Ed: The OAS is meeting today to decide on measures to reform the Inter-American Human Rights System. The Nobel Women's Initiative, JASS, Movimiento Autónomo de Mujeres in Nicaragua and other Americas Program partners have been active to preserve the vital functions of the Inter-American Commission and Court on Human Rights that have been important in exposing violations and protecting human rights defenders. The Permanent Council was stuck on language about non-governmental funding to the System after a long series of meetings this week and last, but a meeting of nations that have signed the American Convention on Human Rights (San José Pact) agreed to remove proposals that would have seriously weakened the System. 

A group of center-left governments led by Ecuador objected to aspects of the precautionary measures and sentences against their governments. They have accused the U.S. of exercising excessive control over the operations of the system and argued that States that have not signed the Pact should not have representation on the Commission. The U.S. and Canada, among others, have not signed the regional human rights commission and  that lack of basic commitment to the System undermines regional efforts to guarantee human rights. Civil society organization and especially women's organizations that we work with have responded saying that the flaws should be addressed by strengthening, not weakening, the system. The draft resolutions call on all nations to sign the Pact and governments to fund all Rapporteurs adequately and equally.

Here is the press release and letter issued yesterday from Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Jody Williams and Rigoberta Menchu, from the Nobel Women's Initiative.

Nobel Women's Initiative: On the eve of a deadline for defining the future of the Inter-American human rights system, six Nobel Peace Laureates have sent an open letter to leaders in this hemisphere calling on them to strengthen both the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Tomorrow members of the Organization of American States (OAS) will be presenting proposals for reforming the regional justice system created in 1948, and which primarily oversees compliance with the American Convention on Human Rights adopted in 1969.

In their open letter to OAS leaders, the six Nobel Laureates—Jody Williams, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Shirin Ebadi, Leymah Gbowee, Mairead Maguire and Tawakkol Karman—note that the Inter-American Human Rights System has "proven to be an effective tool" for defending the basic rights of women and others threatened by rising levels of violence in some places in the region. They say the OAS mechanisms have been important in giving "voice and protection" to women and others at-risk.

The Nobel Laureates sent the letter in response to concerns from human rights groups in the region that some countries within the OAS are trying to weaken the power and effectiveness of the Inter-American Human Rights System. In 2011, Nobel Laureates Rigoberta Menchú Tum and Jody Williams led a delegation to Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala to investigate rising violence against women human rights defenders. The delegation heard testimony from women and organizations that had turned to the Inter-American Human Rights System after hitting walls in their own countries.

"It was really important that the Inter-American Court took [our] case," said Imelda Marrufo, whose organization denounced rising femicides in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.  "Authorities [in Mexico] were calling the femicides a 'myth'. The case led to the formal recognition that the killings existed."

Last week the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights heard the case of 11 women from Atenco, Mexico who were sexually assaulted by police in 2006 when Mexico's current President—Enrique Peña Nieto—was Governor of the state where the assaults occurred. A day after the Inter-American hearing got started in Washington, the Mexican government finally offered the women of Atenco a "friendly solution" to the case. The "solution" includes a public apology and reparations for the psychological and other damage caused by the sexual assaults.

The women of Atenco have since rejected the Mexican government's offer, instead opting to move forward with their case. "We are never going to be victims," said one of the Atenco women. "We are survivors full of hope."

Read the full text of the open letter below.

For more information, please contact:
Rachel Vincent, Media Manager
Nobel Women's Initiative
rvincent@nobelwomensinitiative.org
Mobile +1 613 276 9030

STRENGTHEN INTER-AMERICAN HUMAN RIGHTS SYSTEM

An Open Letter from Nobel Peace Laureates to All Member States of the Organization of American States

On the eve of the Extraordinary General Assembly on March 22, 2013, we are writing to call on all member states of the Organization of American States (OAS) to join together to strengthen the Inter-American Human Rights System.

The Inter-American Human Rights System—made up of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court on Human Rights—has proven to be an effective tool for the defense of basic rights, especially for groups that face discrimination in the justice system: women, indigenous peoples, Afro-Americans, migrants and displaced persons, members of the LGBT community, leaders of political opposition and the poor. The System also plays a critical role in cases where state actors are in complicity or directly involved in committing human rights violations.

The Inter-American Human Rights System has protected women human rights defenders and survivors of violence by making the work of such defenders visible, investigating complaints and contributing to prevention.  This is vital work in a region where threats against some women and their communities are a daily fact of life.

At this juncture in history—when human rights are all too often taking a back seat to corporate and other interests—the goal should be to broaden and strengthen the System and ensure full funding for its important functions.  This support should extend to all eight of the thematic Rapporteurs and the country Rapporteurs.

We urge the member states that have not ratified the Convention to do so as soon as possible to send a strong signal that human rights are a priority. We also strongly encourage the member nations to strengthen the system by fully and promptly complying with the recommendations and decisions of the Commission and the Court, and contributing to funding their operations at an adequate level.

The Inter-American Human Rights System has given voice to and protection to human rights defenders throughout the region, as well as at-risk populations.  At this critical moment in it development, we call on all OAS countries to reaffirm their commitment and support for the important work of the Inter-American Rights System.

Respectfully,

Jody Williams
Chair, Nobel Women's Initiative
Nobel Peace Laureate, 1997

Rigoberta Menchu Tum
Nobel Women's Initiative
Nobel Peace Laureate, 1992

Indigenous Women In Mexico Call For An End To Domestic Violence

The Huffington Post 
By Hirania Luzardo
February 22, 2013

A group of indigenous rarámuri women in Sierra Tarahumara, north of Mexico, have launched a campaign to stop the increasing violence they face daily, which in many cases is culturally accepted in their communities and involves physical, verbal, psychological and sexual aggression.

They are known as "las multiplicadoras" ("the multipliers") and their mission is to raise consciousness by educating men and women from the mountains of Chihuahua to reverse the pattern of abuse, program coordinator Vianney Salas said in an interview with Univision’s “Primer Impacto.”

"They come out different," Salas said. "They come out of this program understanding the right to have a life free of violence."

According to various studies, it is estimated that 90 percent of women in these communities have suffered some form of violence.

"I thought it was normal to be worth less than men," an indigenous woman said on the Univisión show. "I understand now that I have rights."  Read more. 

3rd National Meeting Of Women Human Rights Defenders: Public Statement

National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders*
January 30, 2013

On the 25th and 26th of January, the National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) convened a meeting of more than 60 indigenous, rural and mestiza WHRDs.  Dedicated to the defense and promotion of the human rights of women, they gathered from diverse regions of the country for the Third National Meeting of Women Human Rights Defenders.

Together we recalled that to date in Mexico there have been more than 70 000 assassinated, 20 000 disappeared, more than 250 000 displaced, and that up to five women are assassinated daily.  We also remembered the past election, marked by unlawfulness, a lack of legitimacy, and the repression of protesters on December 1, 2012.  Far from respecting and protecting our human rights, security forces at the state and federal level continue to be involved in acts of corruption, impunity, authoritarianism, and state terrorism.  

This violent reality has cost at least 25 WHRDs their lives, among them 8 journalists.  Mexico’s rate of death threats to WHRDs is the second highest in the Americas, exceeded only by Colombia, according to the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders.

Mexico's most powerful woman faults working mothers

LA Times, October 18, 2012.

MEXICO CITY -- She may be Mexico's most powerful woman, but she doesn't seem too keen on power for women.

Elba Esther Gordillo, the much-feared head of Mexico's gigantic teachers union, is blaming the abysmal state of education here on none other than working mothers.

In an "open letter to the public" covering two full pages of Mexico's leading Reforma newspaper, Gordillo seemed to rue the days decades ago when traditional family roles were clearly established (link in Spanish, registration required).

"A fact that was changed when women had to share responsibility for the family income, which didn't only contribute to the deterioration of the individual but also of society," Gordillo wrote.

"The abandonment of the mother in the rearing of children turned schools into daycare centers, gave teachers sole responsibility for education and emptied education of any substance," she added.

Gordillo went on to say that the void created by absent mothers working outside the home was filled with "the excessive consumption of junk TV" and similar distractions, which generally contributed to the demise of society's values.

Quite a lot to hang on working women, especially since most experts would blame Mexico's poor educational system on precisely the union that Gordillo lords over like a private fiefdom.  Read more.