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MEXICO: Law on Violence Against Women - Necessary but Not Sufficient
By Diego Cevallos
MEXICO CITY, Feb 14 (IPS) - "This is the last time Patricia will be
battered," says a radio spot about the law on violence against women,
which entered into force this month. But will this hopeful statement come
true?
Patricia, who represents millions of Mexican women, will probably go on
being beaten, and if she reports it she will face an unsympathetic justice
system, and most likely even more mistreatment.
The law's success depends on the resources devoted to enforcing it, and
educating women to take advantage of the protection it offers.
No budget funds have yet been earmarked to implement the new law. Besides,
some legal experts are of the opinion that it suffers from technical
flaws, and several members of Congress want to modify it, while women's
organisations value its contents and are offering to spread the word about
it to make sure that it does not become dead letter.
The Senate approved the bill in December 2006, and it was signed into law
by the Calderón government on Feb. 1, to the delight of politicians and
social organisations.
The General Law on Women's Access to a Life Free of Violence addresses
broadly, for the first time in Mexico, a problem suffered on a daily basis
by close to half of all women in this country, usually in silence.
According to the National Institute of Statistics, an average of over five
women a day are murdered in Mexico. It is not known how many of them are
killed by their partners or relatives.
The new law punishes psychological, physical and patrimonial violence
(plundering goods and money) against women, whatever their age and marital
status. It provides for the immediate arrest of the presumptive aggressor,
and the protection of the victim, among other measures.
It also proposes models of preventive practices and sets out a series of
State actions to eliminate gender violence.
"The new law makes the problem more visible, that's true. But it has
shortcomings, and the reality of gender violence will overwhelm it,
because there are no trained prosecutors, police or judges, nor is there a
network of shelters for battered women, nor educational programmes about
violence," Mariela Martínez, gender affairs coordinator for the
non-governmental Entornos Educativos (Educational Settings) which runs
awareness-raising workshops on this issue, told IPS.
In Martínez's opinion, publicising the law is of little use. "It's only
the Senate congratulating itself. Our experience is that most women see
this law as being out of reach, impractical and even contradictory," she
said.
Advertising a law on violence against women is not very useful "if no one
tells women what the law says and how to use it, especially if every radio
and television programme and magazine they read condones abuse against
women," she said.
To confront these problems, women's organisations welcomed the law's
passage as a big step forward, and committed themselves to getting the
word out so that it would be enforced, even with its alleged flaws. They
also urged the media to cooperate with the effort to fight gender
violence.
According to Francisco Cervantes, founder of the Men's Collective for
Egalitarian Relationships (CORIAC) which offers therapy to violent men,
"without budget resources or institutions such as expert authorities and
shelters, the new law won't go any further than political soundbites," he
told IPS.
In an oft-repeated radio spot in Mexico, police officers approach a man
and say, "Mr. Martínez, you have been accused of violence towards your
wife. Come with us, please." The man struggles unsuccessfully to escape
arrest, and the announcer then states that Patricia will not be battered
again, thanks to the new law.
This publicity spot was devised by the Senate. Another television spot
shows a woman whose facial bruises fade away as the script is read.
"This is the last time that Patricia will be battered, because the next
time someone dares to touch her, even with a feather, the offender will be
punishedàFrom now on, Patricia will be able to smile all her life long.
The Senate of the Republic is protecting you," the announcer says.
According to the dispositions of the General Law on Women's Access to a
Life Free of Violence, the government must have detailed regulations ready
by May, and as of July the state legislatures will adjust their legal
frameworks to accommodate them.
By April the National System to Prevent, Treat, Punish and Eradicate
Violence Against Women must be set up, including central, state and
municipal government bodies, and within one year there should be a
diagnosis of the problem, a database on cases of violence and an action
plan.
The chairwoman of the Chamber of Deputies Gender Equity Commission,
Maricela Contreras, admitted that the State budget for this year, already
approved by Congress, makes no provision for implementing the new law.
But she proposed that the funds assigned to the "femicide" commission in
Ciudad Juárez be used to support and organise the obligations arising from
the new law, according to Mexican news agency Women's Communication and
Information Network.
In the northern town of Ciudad Juárez, which has been dubbed the "femicide
capital of the world", about 4,000 women have fallen victim to forced
disappearance and murder, according to human rights groups.
Contreras, a deputy for the leftwing Party of the Democratic Revolution
(PRD), has calculated that around two million dollars are needed to start
up the actions provided for by the law, including free food and shelter
for women in safe houses and police protection measures for victims.
Some members of Congress belonging to the governing conservative National
Action Party (PAN) and to the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party
(PRI), are considering amending the new law, which legal experts have
criticised.
For example, the law refers to jealousy and lack of love as expressions of
psychological violence, although these feelings are hard to measure or
evaluate in a court room. It also introduces new legal terms like
"femicide" which are not used in local laws.
The law is "a catalogue of good intentions that still need to be given
proper legal expression before they can be put into practice," said Luis
de la Barreda, head of the non-governmental Citizen's Institute for the
Study of Insecurity (INCESI).
Deputy Contreras acknowledged that the law contains errors which must be
corrected, but she urged that it not be discredited before it is put into
practice, which could occur within a year or two.
Improving the law is important, but that will not change the violence
suffered by millions of women, Entornos Educativos activist Martínez said.
"It's a tool, and we must learn to use it in the best possible way," she
said.
"There is a 'machista', sexist culture here that affects us all, but that
is particularly strong among prosecutors, police and judges," she said.
In the capital city, the Law on Assistance and Prevention of Domestic
Violence, a precedent for the national law, has been in force for over 11
years. "From what we have seen, most people don't know about this law, and
in fact many teachers who work with us are unaware of its existence,"
Martínez said.
Seminars on violence against women and gender policies, based on this law,
have regularly been provided in the city to police, prosecutors and other
local authorities.
But these efforts "ended as soon as the diplomas were given out, and
battered and abused women continue to face discrimination in the
established institutions," Martínez said.
The Men's Collective led by Cervantes has been working hard since 1993. He
said that the law in Mexico City did bring about some changes, but in his
opinion these were minimal as yet.
"Positive efforts deserve recognition, but it must be pointed out that the
level of violence in Mexico is enormous, and one law isn't going to change
that. It's going to take a lot of effort, education and time," he said.
(END/2007)
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