Mexico Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Anti-Femicide Activists teleSURtv.net
go to original March 26, 2015

Mexico: High Numbers of Feminicides Raises Alarm Bells (teleSUR English)

In a landmark decision, Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that cases of violent deaths of women need to be investigated with a “gender” perspective, setting a precedent for cases considered to be femicides.

The first chamber of the of the country’s highest court voted unanimously that Mexico State authorities need to re-open the case of Mariana Buendia, who died June 28, 2010. While state authorities deemed her death to be a suicide, family and anti-femicide activists have called the case a blatant femicide.

According to Irinea Buendia, mother of Mariana, Julio Cesar Hernandez Ballinas, husdband of the then 29 year old lawyer, murdered her daughter and altered the crime scene. Hernandez Ballinas is a Mexico State police agent. Rights groups accuse Mexican authorities of often applying irregular investigation practices and impunity in cases that they argue should be deemed as femicide. They affirm "gender violence and discrimination in Mexico is practiced daily, violating the human rights of women and girls" and that "impunity for such violence including sexual abuse and femicide is widespread."

In an interview with CNNMexico, Rodolfo DomInguez, lawyer and director of the organization Justice, Human Rights and Geneder, expressed that the Supreme Court’s decision will be an opening against impunity in cases of gender violence.

“From now on we have our first precedet that obliges all criminal authorities to apply these standards in all cases that are known to be cases of violent deaths of women, and this is historic.”

According to official statistics in 2013, Mexico saw a number of 7 cases of femicides per day, and over the past 28 years, more than 44 thousand women have been murdered.

See the original at teleSURtv.net

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!