Photo: @IM-Defensoras.org

From November 25th, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, until December 10th, Human Rights Day, the Campaign of 16 days of Activism against Violence against Women will take place, it being an opportunity to promote actions that put an end to violence against women and girls throughout the world.

This year, UN Women’s UNiTE campaign has as its general motto: “Let no one be left behind: Let us stop violence against women and girls”, aiming to reinforce the commitment of a world without violence for women and girls by looking out for situations that cause more marginalized and neglected people, such as refugees, migrants, minorities, indigenous peoples and populations affected by conflict and natural disasters.

Within the framework of the 16-day campaign, it highlighted the Mesoamerican Initiative of Women Human Rights Defenders that wanted to direct the campaign “to visibilize the context of risk and aggressions that defenders suffer,” under the slogan “Women defenders take care of themselves, we build collective power, we demand protection.”

In their pronouncement they affirmed that according to their own register between 2012 and 2016, at least 53 women defenders have been murdered and there have been 3,886 attacks against women defenders in Mesoamerica. They hold the State responsible for these attacks, as is seen in the fact that in “59% of cases, the State has been responsible for these aggressions, in breach of its obligation to guarantee the safety and protection of those who defend human rights, even in cases where protection measures issued by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) or by national protection mechanisms existed. States are also responsible for the continued attacks, threats or defamation of women defenders by players such as business monopolies, organized crime or religious fundamentalisms.”

They denounce the extreme vulnerability of women defenders, in which the increasingly serious phenomenon of the feminization of poverty, the dispossession of lands and the plundering of community assets such as water and seeds, among others, stand out, adding even more seriousness to the matter since “at least in 37% of the aggressions registered against WHRDs some gender component has been identified, that is, elements of aggression that are directly and explicitly oriented to the fact that the assaulted person is woman.”

In Mexico, within the framework of this campaign, the murder of 22 activists during Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration was reported. The death of the murdered compañeras, they say, “is accompanied by life, their conscience and strength is our legacy”. The National Network of Human Rights Defenders in Mexico denounce and repudiate “the violence that we experience as a result of our work and our gender, including those that come from our organizations, communities and the social movement because we challenge the laws of patriarchy,” and demand that the State “comply with its duty to guarantee our right to defend rights in conditions of equality, security and dignity: # ProtecciónYa “.

For more information in Spanish:

16 días de activismo. (ONU Mujeres )

Campaña únete para eliminar la violencia contra las mujers y las niñas. (ONU Mujeres-México)

Pronunciamiento IM-Defensoras/29 de noviembre: Día Internacional de las Defensoras de Derechos Humanos

For more information from SIPAZ:

Foros y marchas en el marco del Día Internacional de la Eliminación de la Violencia contra la Mujer. (SIPAZ, 27 noviembre 2017)

En el marco de la conmemoración del día Internacional de la Eliminación de la Violencia contra la Mujer. (SIPAZ, 29 noviembre 2017)

Día Internacional de Lucha Contra la Violencia hacia las Mujeres. (SIPAZ, 28 de noviembre 2016)