NOW Calls on International Court and Mexican Government to Stop Violence Against Women

Last week NOW joined a distinguished group of professors, women's rights organizations, and international human rights NGOs in filing an amicus brief with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, seeking to compel the Mexican government to take effective action to stop the on-going epidemic of murders, rapes and disappearances of women and girls in Cuidad Juarez.

The main case, Campo Algodonero: Gonzalez v. the United Mexican States, was brought by the families of three victims of the violence in Juarez. Our amicus ("friend of the court") brief argues that such gender-based violence violates the basic human rights of women and children, and all nations must provide meaningful protection from it. In the current situation, the Mexican government's long-standing failure of more than 15 years to investigate, prosecute or prevent crimes against women and girls in Juarez violates several important human rights treaties to which Mexico is a party, including the American Convention on Human Rights and the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women (more commonly know as the "Convention Belem do Para").

Our brief calls for a holistic response by the Mexican government to gender-based violence, including criminal justice remedies as well as those aimed at changing the underlying economic, social and cultural conditions that give rise to such violence. The full range of responses available under the relevant human rights treaties should be applied in Juarez, ranging from restitution or money damages to legislative and policy reform, training and education programs for state officials, and the continued gathering and analysis of indicators of continuing human rights violations, among others.