Local activist Norma Andrade, who was recently at the UN Office in Geneva to raise awareness about femicide, knows the issue first-hand.\u00a0 Her own daughter, Lilia Alejandra, was murdered in that same city in 2001.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs my granddaughter would sum it up: we are worth a peanut \u2013 which in other words means that a woman is just disposable,\u201d she told UN News<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cOn one day, she was working in a factory, the next day she disappeared, the next she is found dead, while another person has already replaced her at work, so [her death] is only important to her family – not for society, not for the government, much less for the authorities or the company,\u201d she explained.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Norma Andrade in front of the art work of Clara Garesio \u201cIn Women\u2019s Hands\u201d at the Palais des Nations, Geneva. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n According to Ms. Andrade, the fact that Ju\u00e1rez is a key border crossing with the United States contributes to the lack of community rootedness, which dehumanizes the population and makes it harder to fight the crime of femicide.<\/p>\n But the problem is not confined there. Across Mexico, around 10 women and girls are killed every day by intimate partners or other family members, according to Government data.\u00a0<\/p>\n Since 2001 – the year when Lilia Alejandra was killed \u2013 50,000 women have been murdered, while the impunity rate exceeds 95 per cent.\u00a0<\/p>\n Furthermore, only two per cent of cases end in a criminal sentence and only one in 10 victims dares to report their aggressor.<\/p>\n Ms. Andrade has survived two murder attempts in the 23 years since her daughter\u2019s body was discovered, as she continues her quest for justice.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIn Mexico, the growing number of disappearances is real, but this boom in organized crime and drug trafficking has erased what is happening to women, not that it stopped happening, but it is becoming invisible\u2026\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n Even though the violence against women is increasing, its visibility is going down – local activist Norma Andrade<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Speaking about the lack of justice, she said that even when the skeletal remains of a missing young woman are found, it is an \u201cachievement\u201d as it gives closure to their families. \u201cIt gives them a place to go and mourn their daughter,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Since the disappearance of her daughter, Ms. Andrade has been fighting for justice.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cRecently, an expert made me see a reality that I hadn’t seen for the past 23 years, one that I didn’t want to accept: maybe I won’t find justice for Alejandra. Or at least not the legal justice that I want that would put Alejandra’s attackers in jail\u201d, she stressed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Her case was transferred to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, located in Costa Rica, in December 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPerhaps we can find moral or symbolic justice,\u201d Ms. Andrade said, \u201cbecause the moment the Mexican State is given a criminal sentence [\u2026] it publicly acknowledges that it didn\u2019t protect Alejandra, neither all the Alejandras in the country, nor all those children who were orphaned when their mothers were murdered; and that would alleviate to some extent the lack of legal justice\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n Blaming the lack of political will, Ms. Andrade who is also a co-founder of non-profit association of mothers whose daughters were victims of feminicide in Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez, added that the mothers are the ones \u201cswimming against the tide\u201d.<\/p>\n Supported by other women, academics, feminists, and civil society, they are the ones \u201cwho must go, protest and raise their voices to be taken into account\u201d, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n In recent years, the crimes have sparked several waves of protests and put gender violence at the top of Mexico\u2019s political agenda.<\/p>\n Keeping the issue of\u00a0femicide in the spotlight and making information available and accessible for women, is key for holding the authorities accountable and preventing violence against women and girls.\u00a0<\/p>\n Since 2011, UN Women, in partnership with key state institutions, has\u00a0published periodic studies analysing the scope, trends, characteristics of femicide in the country.<\/p>\n UNIC Mexico\/Elo\u00edsa Farrera<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n The Ecatepec mural “Voices in Resistance: murals for justice and memory” seeks to dignify all mothers who fight for their daughters killed by femicidal violence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ms. Andrade stars in the documentary Norma, in search of justice\u00a0<\/em>directed by French journalist Brigitte Leoni, which was screened in Geneva ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on 25 November.<\/p>\n She hopes the documentary will bring more visibility to the cases of disappearance, noting that\u00a0\u201cthis boom in organized crime has caused people to flee, crossing into the United States, and drug trafficking has made what is happening to women invisible\u201d.<\/p>\n Speaking in Geneva, home to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), UN News<\/em> asked Ms. Andrade what message she would like to share with rights experts.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cLook at us, look at the mothers. Come here and see the families and don\u2019t just stick with the image that the government gives to the outside world\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n Violence against women is a global crisis, according to a report by\u202fUN Women\u202fand the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), released on the International Day.<\/p>\nImpunity is rampant<\/strong><\/h2>\n
There is no justice<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Symbolic justice<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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\n<\/div>\n\u2018Look at us\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Femicide transcends borders<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Women](\"https:\/\/global.unitednations.entermediadb.net\/assets\/mediadb\/services\/module\/asset\/downloads\/preset\/Libraries\/Production%20Library\/10-06-2022_UNSPLASH_Maria_Fuentes_Mexico.jpg\/image1170x530cropped.jpg\" "\\"Women")
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