(@Melel Xojobal)

On October 11th and 12th, 41 girls, adolescents and youths from Mexico City, Chiapas, Guanajuato, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Michoacan, Oaxaca, Puebla and Veracruz, as well as several civil organizations that work with children, participated in San Cristobal de Las Casas in the First National Encounter of Girls and Adolescents “Girls Struggling and Transforming The World “. The aim of the event was “to reflect on what is happening in our country” and to look for “solutions through our participation, sharing experiences, living together and learning about our rights, to recognize and exercise them, based on feminism.”

In the final declaration of the event, the participants expressed that “it causes us sadness to see how male chauvinism and the patriarchal system influence femicides, forced marriages, teenage pregnancies, gender discrimination. We feel powerless because although we are generating changes, we cannot transform situations that violate the rights and dignity of all girls, adolescents and young women in Mexico, such as sexual harassment or abuse or dating violence.”

They demanded that the authorities “exercise their office in a correct manner. That they install more surveillance cameras in the cities, to prevent femicide and sexual harassment”; that the protection attorneys “give us fair treatment and help us when we denounce whether we are beaten or mistreated”; that companies “pay a fair and equal salary for women and men”; and that society in general, “eliminate the stereotypes that exist about women and be open to other ways of thinking and acting.”

For more information in Spanish:

Construyen acciones para erradicar abusos contra la niñez (Ultimatum, 11 de octubre de 2018)

Declaratoria del Primer Encuentro Nacional de Niñas y Adolescentes “Las niñas luchando y al mundo transformando” (13 de octubre de 2018)

Niños y jóvenes demandan mayor seguridad (Cuarto Poder, 14 de octubre de 2018)