SB_SocialScience_Wong_K Date: Feb 15th, 2020 ID: 0000000105 What factors influence the strength of domestic laws against ?

I. Introduction

Femicide is the most extreme form of . It was first defined as “the misogynist killing of women because they are women,” (Radford & Russell, 1992) and then redefined as “the killing of females by males because they are female” in order to encompass all girls and female babies killed. (Russell, 2008) Femicide was first introduced in the Latin American context by Mexican scholar Marcela Lagarde in 2004 (Ihmoud, 2011) with the neologism feminicidio (feminicide) instead of the literal translation femicidio (femicide). The political term

“feminicide” “holds responsible not only the male perpetrators but also the state and judicial structures that normalize misogyny, tolerate the perpetrators’ acts of violence, or deny state responsibility to ensure the safety of its female citizens”(Sanford, 2008).

Femicide has been recognized as an escalating crime globally. Between 113 and 200 million women disappear every year worldwide. Also, between one and a half and three million women lose their lives as a result of gender-based violence annually. (Vlachova & Biason, 2004)

Five out of the twelve countries with the highest femicide rate are located in , (Boira

& Nudelman, 2018) and the most common types of femicide are the of an intimate partner and the murder of a woman preceded by sexual violation. (Toledo, 2008) Femicide is not only human rights violations against women on the basis of gender discrimination, but also reflects the flawed institutions, social issues and creates a “barrier to economic development for countries.”

(Saccomano, 2015; Bott, Guedes, Goodwin & Mendoza, 2013) Some countries have attempted to address femicide by passing and implementing new legislations. However, the femicide rate in most Latin American countries are still increasing, even though some of them had an initial decrease of the crime. (Saccomano, 2015) In order to address the root causes of this multi-

1 SB_SocialScience_Wong_K Date: Feb 15th, 2020 ID: 0000000105 dimensional issue, we have to understand the dynamics of femicide instead of only examining it through the legal lenses.

This research aims to understand what factors influence the strength of domestic laws on violence against women, by comparing and contrasting five independent variables influencing the effectiveness of the anti-femicide law in Nicaragua and Guatemala, including 1) Context for

Adopting the Legislation; 2) Access to Police system; 3) Access to Judicial system; 4) Involvement of Non-governmental organization; and 5) Political Leadership. I hypothesized that the access to judicial system and the access to police system would have an impact on the effectiveness of the anti-femicide law because of the direct interaction between the judicial and law enforcement officials and the female victims and survivors. Also, the machismo culture of Latin American countries has been commonly offered as one of the explanations for the widespread violence against women in the region. Thus, I decided to look at the general context for adopting the legislation in the two countries. Lastly, I learnt from other researches that the involvement of non- governmental organizations and the political leadership also plays a role in the implementation of the anti-femicide law, so both factors are included in the research. This study encourages policymakers to prioritize the funding for victims to gain access and free representation in the judicial system and the collaboration of non-governmental organizations, which would increase the effectiveness of the anti-femicide legislation more significantly than only focusing on a criminal justice approach.

II. Literature Review

A variety of perspectives from different disciplines have been applied to analyze femicide in the past. Based on the previous studies by Saccomano, according to Latin American feminist theorizers, the main causes of feminicide are the “structural system of gender repression”,

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“patriarchy, impunity and institutional violence.” (Saccomano, 2015; Lagarde, 2008; Carcedo,

2000; Toledo, 2009) Sociological-feminists investigated femicide through gender lenses

(Saccomano, 2015; Monarrez, 2009; Vera, 2012; Ariza Sosa, 2012) Sociologists explored femicide in relations to various social circumstances and as a public health problem (Saccomano, 2015;

Arias 2008) The “low number of women in elected government”, reduced government spending on social services, and absence of legislations restricting access to firearms for perpetrators of are also identified by the World Health organizations as important factors contributing to femicide. (Saccomano, 2015)

Carcedo emphasized on the importance of typifying femicide as a gender specific crime, which is the first step towards ending femicide. (Carcedo, 2000) The sexual division of labor and process of gender socialization have facilitated the violence towards women by dominant and privileged men. The acknowledgement of the states’ responsibility towards femicide has led to two waves of legal reforms, from targeting domestic violence without addressing the underlying causes of the violence to finally typifying gender-based killings of female as “femicide”. (Ibid)

Typification would help to reduce the number of by increasing penalty and expanding the scope of the crim which could prevent femicides from being normalized as a “crime of passion”.

(Carcedo, 2000)

The lack of access to the judicial and law enforcement systems has been identified by various scholars such as Lagarde and Carcedo as one of the main causes contributing to the rise of femicide. The ineffective and corrupted institutions in Latin American countries have failed to provide any deterrence to potential criminals (Agrast, Botero & Ponce, 2014). These findings are highly relevant to this research in regard to my examination of the access to judicial system and the access to police system in Nicaragua and Guatemala. I have also included the general historical,

3 SB_SocialScience_Wong_K Date: Feb 15th, 2020 ID: 0000000105 cultural, and political context for the adoption of the legislation and the involvement of non- governmental organizations to see how these factors may interact and lead to a different outcome on the effectiveness of the anti-femicide law for these two countries.

III. Methods and Cases

To investigate the factors impacting the anti-femicide law, this study will assess the case studies of Nicaragua and Guatemala. I chose these two cases because of the significant difference they had on their progress to fight against femicide, even though they implemented similar anti- femicide law at a similar time frame with comparable features such as similar cultural, economic, and political background. Overall, this study includes the researches and data from the years between 1960 and 2018. The variables being assessed are the context for adopting the legislation; access to police system; access to judicial system; involvement of non-governmental organization; and political leadership of the two countries. I am assessing the effectiveness of the law based on its impact on both the prevention and the prosecution aspect. I will look at the available data of the rate of femicide reported after the law has been implemented to see if there is any decrease in the femicide rate. These two case studies would reveal the relative importance of different variables that would make a difference on the effectiveness of the anti-femicide law through a comparative regional perspective.

Ley Integral Contra la Violencia Hacia Las Mujeres (Law 779) passed in 2012 in Nicaragua and “The Law Against Femicide and Other Forms of Violence Against Women” (The 2008 Law

Against Femicide) in Guatemala are chosen for case studies in this paper. Nicaragua and

Guatemala are neighboring Central American countries with seemingly similar cultural, economic, social, and political environment. Both countries are under the influence of “machismo” culture,

“manifests itself in a violent manner,” “allows women to be treated as objects rather than humans,”

4 SB_SocialScience_Wong_K Date: Feb 15th, 2020 ID: 0000000105 while victim-blaming and rape culture are normalized with misogynistic tendencies. (JASS, 2012)

In addition, both countries have similarly poor institutional structures. According to the annual

Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) established by Transparency International, an international nongovernmental organization which aims to bring together government structures, civil society, and business to combat corruption, Guatemala was ranked 144th and Nicaragua was ranked 152th out of 180 countries in the year of 2018. Even though both countries passed similar laws to fight against femicide in recent years, Guatemala has been consistently criticized for its failure to implement the law effectively, while Nicaragua received some positive feedback until the government amended the law to provide the victims with an alternative option of mediation instead of pressing charges against the perpetrators two years later.

Guatemala has the 3rd highest femicide rate in the world and remains “the most dangerous place for women in Latin America.” (Suarez & Jordan, 2007) There was an estimate of over 5,000 violent of women between the year of 2000 to 2008 (Valdez, 2010), while 98% of the cases have remained in impunity. On April 9, 2008, the Guatemalan Law Against Femicide was passed, which recognizes femicide as a punishable crime for the first time, with sentences from 25 to 50 years without the possibility of early release (The Advocates for Human Rights, 2017). It also codifies an expansive definition of violence against women, such as psychological and economic violence. Its objective was to “guarantee the life, liberty, integrity, dignity, protection, and equality of all women before the law.” However, the new legislation had little effect to reduce the crime of femicide. According to the data from the National Institute of Forensic Sciences

(INACIF), there were 748 femicide cases reported in 2013, which was a 10% increase compared to 2012. Complaints of violence against women also increased from 51,790 in 2012 to 56,000 in

2013. The impunity rate remains in 98% after the femicide law was implemented for five years.

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In contrast, Nicaragua is considered as the “safest country for women” on the continent.

(Lovato, 2018) Nicaragua is the second-poorest country in the hemisphere and suffers from corruption as its neighbor Guatemala does. Nonetheless, Nicaragua is ranked 4th at the Global

Gender Gap Index, in which Guatemala is ranked as 105th only. This demonstrates that Nicaragua has far more equal protections than Guatemala between women and men in the area of health, education, economy, and politics. The Nicaraguan Parliament approved Law 779 on January 26,

2012, which also classifies femicide and various forms of violence as official crimes for the first time like the Guatemalan law does. Moreover, the law prohibits mediation to resolve any disputes for gender-based violence and acknowledges that violence against women stems from “unequal relations of power” between men and women. (Neumann, 2016) It was described as “a light of hope” which guaranteed that women are treated like “human beings” at both the international and local levels. (Neumann, 2016) In the following passages, I will first examine the contextual factors of the two countries that led to the adoption of the anti-femicide law, and continue with the victims’ access to the judicial and police system, then assess the contribution of the non-governmental organizations, and look at the political leaders who adopted the legislation at the end.

IV. Analysis

A) Context for Adopting the Legislation

Guatemala experienced the Guatemala Civil War from 1960 – 1996, which was fought between the Guatemalan government and various leftist rebel groups and the indigenous people.

At the same time, Nicaragua had the Nicaragua Revolution from 1961-1990, which resulted in the revolutionary Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) successfully overthrowing the Somoza dictatorship. However, these two internal unrests set completely different social climates and led to different outcomes for the anti-femicide law.

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The prevalence of gender-based violence in Guatemala today is analyzed as “being rooted in the maintenance of institutional practices of impunity cultivated” during its civil war, in which the Guatemalan government remained in impunity for its acts of . (Sanford, 2008)

Additionally, Guatemalan men underwent initiation rites reinforcing a violent and machista ethic during the compulsory military service. (UNIFEM, Gender Profile of the Conflict in Guatemala)

The Guatemalan army, paramilitary and police all used violence against women, such as “rape, dismemberment, and techniques of torture and mutilation” (Neumann, 2016) as a weapon of war.

Approximately one million men were trained to commit acts of gendered violence, and they returned to civil society “with no services available to pave the transition from a wartime mentality” after the war ended. The neoliberal policies implemented during the civil war and the subsequent patterns of migration also exacerbated women’s social and economic vulnerability, by forcing women to work outside the of the household. (Neumann, 2016) “Working late, taking public transportation, and walking home late at night increases the risk” of women to be a victim of violence because perpetrators could target women more easily from public transportation or when they are at the street at night. Traditional Guatemalan culture also blames women for not taking precautions if they are attacked on the street, because “a woman’s place is in the home.” (Neumann,

2016) The normalization of racialized against indigenous women “contributes to the overwhelming silence encompassing the continuum of violence” in the community. (Ihmoud,

2011)

In contrast, the FSLN positively impacted Nicaraguan women’s lives because of women’s involvement during the war. By 1987, 67% of the active members in the popular militia were women. (Stevens, 1996) More importantly, women comprised an estimated 50% of the Sandinista leadership by 1984, which means that women were able to penetrate the traditionally male-

7 SB_SocialScience_Wong_K Date: Feb 15th, 2020 ID: 0000000105 dominated leadership status during the war. (Stevens, 1996) Topics like domestic violence and sexual abuse were taboo and were not viewed as injustice by the Nicaraguan society before the revolution. However, the revolution led to the flourishing of the Nicaraguan women’s movement, beginning with the Luisa Amanda Espinoza Association of Nicaraguan Women (AMNLAE) since the early 1980s, and initiated changes in “gender discourses, policies and programs.” (Neumann,

2016)

There were reforms that created a more favorable condition for the Nicaraguan Law 779 than the 2008 Guatemalan femicide law, including Nicaragua’s zero-tolerance policy against US- style policing models. On the contrary, the Guatemalan government adopted the US-style mano dura policies under the pressure of the U.S. government, in which police were given “enormous discretion in persecuting, jailing, and abusing suspected members.” (Lovato, 2018) Thus,

Nicaragua’s gangs have a “fundamentally different culture from those of the more violent and homicidal Mara culture of similar groups in Guatemala,” (Lovato, 2018) which was recognized as

“factors contributing to rising rates of feminicide in Guatemala.” (Hayes, 2009) Gang initiations in Guatemala often consist of a rite of passage to kill an innocent victim. For some particular gangs, female victims could garner “a higher level of points.” (Hayes, 2009) Thus, gang activities have been linked to the femicide cases in Guatemala.

On the other hand, the Sandinista revolution enabled the youthful revolutionary leaders and subsequent governments to experiment with, and then institutionalize, policies and programs focusing on “altering Nicaraguan masculinity in ways first pushed by revolutionary Sandinista women.” (Lovato, 2018) According to Argentina Martínez, country director of the Nicaragua office of Save the Children, “the revolution didn’t just radically alter policing structures,” but it

“also altered consciousness” which led to “success in fostering a culture of nonviolence, regardless

8 SB_SocialScience_Wong_K Date: Feb 15th, 2020 ID: 0000000105 of ideology or government in power.” For instance, there were classes offered by the local community, religious organizations, and government agencies to introduce Nicaraguan men to newer, less-violent ways to be a man. (Lovato, 2018) This substantive cultural change in Nicaragua did not only impact the culture surrounding the new legislation itself, but also facilitated the implementation of the law among the law enforcement authorities. To summarize, the alternatives to the repressive policing model became a key distinction between the Nicaragua and Guatemala society for their later implementation of the femicide law.

B) Access to Police system

“Street-level bureaucrats” (Lipsky, 1983) such as police and prosecutors play a pivotal role in both the process and outcomes of women's legal claims (Chaney and Saltzstein, 1998), because of their “close proximity to women throughout the legal process” and their “high levels of discretion.” (Neumann, 2016) Thus, the uneven and ineffective application of the law is often due to inadequate state resources, or a lack of appropriate training for state officials (Martin, 2005).

In Guatemala, police officers often fail to respond to requests for assistance in cases of violence within a family. Only twenty-four out of the 1,315 training sessions taught at the Police

Academy are dedicated to topics related to gender-based violence. (Englehart, 2014) Even though several offices were created to protect women, such as the Women and Crimes Against Life and

Personal Integrity Unit, the wartime practice of stigmatizing and blaming the victim emerges in the investigative process. The female victims are often being judged as “unworthy of investigation” because their physical attire or appearance are seen as too revealing. (Hayes, 2009)

Many victims are also dismissed as “prostitutes, gang members, or criminals.” (Hayes,

2009) Some high-level officials from the Guatemalan National Civilian Police stated that

“women’s liberation” and women’s increased involvement in criminal activity were the cause of

9 SB_SocialScience_Wong_K Date: Feb 15th, 2020 ID: 0000000105 accelerating murders of women in the region, which implied that the victims were rarely innocent.

(Beltran & Freeman, 2007). Thus, the discriminatory attitude of the Guatemalan police towards the murder of women has crippled the investigation process and the perpetrators would act with impunity.

Moreover, marital femicide is commonly dismissed as a private matter by the Guatemalan police. Women were viewed as instigating the acts of violence for not obeying their husbands and being regarded as unfaithful in cases of crimes of passion, in which victims were killed by a lover or a former lover. (Beltran & Freeman, 2007) The prosecutors often attribute the murder of women as an incident of a “crime of passion” especially in cases when the suspects turned out to be “former partners who do not seem to have entered into another relationship.” (Beltran & Freeman, 2007)

The Guatemalan authority’s approach towards the killings of women implicitly legitimizes gender- based violence as an unfortunate yet natural by-product of “inappropriate female behavior.”

(Beltran & Freeman, 2007) Consequently, the gender biases, ineffectiveness and corruption within the police institutions in Guatemala inspired distrust and fear for the victims of gender-based violence.

In contrast to the nominal support displayed in the Guatemalan police system, the

Nicaraguan police system took a more localized approach to assist victims of gender-violence.

Comisarías are a special type of Nicaraguan women police station staffed entirely by female police investigators, psychologists, and social workers (Jubb, 2008). They were the first state institution charged specifically with investigating cases of violence against women, and they provided victims with specialized assistance, such as legal and psychological support. By 2015, there were 162 comisarías in Nicaragua. (Neumann, 2016) Feminist organizations viewed the creation of comisarías as a positive step toward reducing impunity and providing women victims with better

10 SB_SocialScience_Wong_K Date: Feb 15th, 2020 ID: 0000000105 legal and psychological support (Delgado, 2003). Even though there have been critiques of the lack of funding and resources of the comisarías, and the marginalized position of its female police who were subordinated to the male district police chief because of traditional gender expectation, when compared to the traditional Guatemalan police forces, Nicaraguan comisarías have demonstrated a more sensitive and integrated approach to the needs of women victims. (Neumann,

2016)

C) Access to Judicial system

In Guatemala, organized crime has successfully infiltrated key public institutions, including the police and justice system. (Hayes, 2009) Judges, prosecutors, and legal workers are under constant death threats and attacks, which are aimed at intimidating the judiciary officials and hindering their work. From 2001 to 2005, 469 cases of threats or attacks against judicial workers were reported. (Hayes, 2009) Within 2005, eight judicial sector workers, including two judges, were murdered. (Hayes, 2009) These institutional challenges pose significant obstacles in the investigation and prosecution process in femicide cases, when gang activities are identified as being responsible for the high femicide rates in Guatemala. (Hayes, 2009) The proliferation of

“organized crime, transnational gangs, narcotrafficking, and sex trade” all contributed to the impunity for gang members in regard to the femicide cases in Guatemala. (Hayes, 2009) After the passage of the 2008 Law against Femicide, the National Institute of Forensic Sciences (INACIF) performed 251229 autopsies on women who were killed violently. However, the judicial system had only handed down 391 sentences for femicide between 2012 and April 2016. (Englehart, 2014)

In contrast with the 8.6% indigenous population in Nicaragua, Guatemala has an estimated

45-60% indigenous population. The indigenous Amerindian women have been constantly targeted by the military and the state authorities with gender-based violence in Guatemala. However, there

11 SB_SocialScience_Wong_K Date: Feb 15th, 2020 ID: 0000000105 are rarely any official translators at the police or judicial system to assist the indigenous women to overcome the language barrier, as many live in extreme poverty and do not speak Spanish due to a lack of formal education. (Neumann, 2016)

Nicaraguan women have been facing similar challenges as Guatemalan women when they try to gain access to the judicial system. They often risk their jobs and face potential retaliation from the perpetrators during the slow, time-consuming legal process. (Neumann, 2016) Besides, there is tremendous pressure for the victims to resolve the case through mediation. The burden of proof and investigation were often shifted from the police to the victims themselves. Many women, especially those with low education levels, are easily discouraged from filing their claims when judicial officials talk to them through legal jargon and seemingly arbitrary procedures. (Cole 2001;

Frias 2013)

Nevertheless, there is one condition that could help the female victims to receive more systematic and rapid attention from the judicial office which has been found in Nicaragua but not

Guatemala. It is when the victim “begins and continues through the legal process accompanied by a knowledgeable advocate, particularly a representative of a local feminist organization.” (Frias,

2013) The involvement of a legal representative could add to the social capital of the victims, signals a higher degree of legitimacy to the judicial authorities, and helps them to navigate obstacles during the legal process. Hence, “the law itself is not enough—representation to ensure its implementation matters.” (Frias 2013). The discussion on access to free and informed legal counselling will be centered on the difference in involvement of non-governmental organization between Nicaragua and Guatemala in the next sub-section, which makes a critical impact for poor, uneducated women in the countries.

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D) Involvement of Non-governmental organization

In Guatemala, discourses of femicide have gained increased visibility in the public sphere due to the mounting international pressure and advocacy work of national and transnational non- governmental organizations (NGOs). It also led to the ratification of major international legal instruments protecting women rights and the adoption of the 2008 Law Against Femicide. (Ihmoud,

2011) Women’s rights organizations in Guatemala have received significant support from the international community for their campaign. For instance, legislators from Guatemala, Mexico, and Spain have coordinated national and international law through the Interparliamentary Network

Against Femicide to prioritize violence against women as a crime against humanity. Besides, some

U.S. organizations such as the Guatemala Human Rights Commission and the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) also helped to raise awareness of the violence against women in

Guatemala. (Hayes, 2009) However, these campaigns by the “Western human rights organizations” are flawed because of their framing of the Guatemalan culture as “inherently patriarchal, oppressive, and violent,” (Hayes, 2009) which “fails to account for external social, political and economic factors” that shape the Guatemalan society, and furthers the “colonial relationships between the global north and the global south.” (Hayes, 2009)

At the same time, local Guatemalan human rights institutions have faced different cultural, institutional, and financial barriers in their effort to eliminate violence against women. The

Network of Non-Violence Against Women (REDNOVI) and the Women’s Sector (Sector de

Mujeres) have campaigned for legislative reform to address gender-based violence. (Hayes, 2009)

Besides, the Guatemalan Group of Women (GGM) and the Survivor’s Foundation (Fundación

Sobrevivientes) have assisted women survivors of violence with legal assistance. However, these local NGOs are often underfunded without any support from the Guatemalan government, which

13 SB_SocialScience_Wong_K Date: Feb 15th, 2020 ID: 0000000105 has led to an ineffective implementation of their programs and services for the victims of gender- based violence. (Musalo & Bookey, 2013) In addition to the machismo culture and the flawed police and judicial institutions, an estimated 90% of over 3,000 femicide cases are portrayed by the media through a sensationalist perspective relying on “blood, gore, nudity, and torture” to catch the attention of the public. (Hayes, 2009) Thus, local non-governmental organizations in

Guatemala are crippled by a lack of consistent funding, “poor media portrayal” of the victims and the causes of the crimes, and “a lack of understanding of the law and inadequate efforts” by the implementers of the Law Against Femicide. (Hayes, 2009)

In contrast, grassroot local organizations are the leading forces in Nicaragua against gender-based violence. Since the early 1990s, much of the Nicaraguan advocacy work has been coordinated by the Red de Mujeres Contra la Violencia (RMCV) or Women’s Network against

Violence (Delgado, 2003), which works with dozens of smaller women's organizations across the country, by organizing public forums and workshops, designing media spots, and planning public demonstrations (Delgado, 2003). The RMCV was formed as part of a national shift in feminist politics following the Sandinista party's loss in the 1990 presidential election (Chinchilla, 1990), and it was instrumental in the establishment of the comisarías. (Delgado, 2003) Violeta Chamorro was elected as the President of Nicaragua in 1990. He implemented various neoliberal economic policies prescribed by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, such as “market deregulation, debt control and repayment, trade liberalization, and privatization of both industry and government-supplied social services.” (Ewig, 1999) The significant reduction of state- provided services had forced women to take on greater responsibility to maintain the needs of their families such as childcare work, while working at the informal employment sector simultaneously.

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It was grassroots organizations in Nicaragua such as the RMCV which provided women with critical social services that were no longer available from the state. (Pamela, 2016)

Some of the Nicaraguan activist organizations were directly led by revolutionary

Sandinista women, for example, Monica Zalaquett from the Center for Prevention of Violence

(CEPREV), who “understood the need to fundamentally alter Nicaraguan masculinity.” (Lovato,

2018) According to Skarlleth Martínez, a researcher from the Institute for Strategic Studies and

Public Policy (IEEPP), “the collaboration between the police and the NGOs” was the “key to success in preventing the growth of Maras in Nicaragua.” (Lovato, 2018) Moreover, grassroot feminist organizations concentrated effort on neighborhood-level charlas (talks) to educate and empower women. (Neumann, 2016) Many small-scale feminist groups in Nicaragua provide support for women victims through other women volunteers known as promotoras (promoters) by accompanying the women to the comisarías.

Pressure from international NGOs seems to be insufficient on the elimination of violence against women because “many forms of domestic violence and sexual assault are perpetuated by private citizens rather than by states.” (Merry, 2006). At the same time, the local non-governmental organizations in Guatemala are impaired with the country’s historical and cultural context, corrupted institutions, insufficient funding, and inappropriate media portrayal of violence against women. Hence, the local grassroot advocacy network in Guatemala is ineffective when compared to the Nicaraguan activist organizations in terms of their goal to eliminate gender-based violence.

E) Political Leadership

Guatemalan authorities responded to international pressure on violence against women by passing the 2008 new legislation and establishing special units such as the National Coordinator for the Prevention of Domestic Violence Against Women (CONAPREVI), accompanied by the

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Presidential Secretariat for Women (SEPREM) to investigate, analyze, and make policy recommendations to eliminate violence against women within the nation. However, the Mutual

Support Group (GAM) stated that SEPREM lacks “competent workers who fully understood the struggles of women in the country,” and had a “lavish public relations spending” in comparison to the little contact it maintains with other women. SEPREM has focused on establishing an international image instead of advancing women rights issues in Guatemala. (Hayes, 2009)

Moreover, the Guatemalan government passed an amendment to the law in 2017, which targets women who misuse the law by granting judges the discretion to “punish women for submitting complaints with no legal grounds.” This “regressive” change has brought forward the consequence of deterring individuals from coming forward to report femicides. (Englehart, 2014)

In addition, The first case technically classified as femicide under the new law was heard at the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights, a process initiated only when a country’s own legal system is deemed inadequate or unresponsive. (Beltran, 2007) In the April 2008 report on Femicide in Guatemala, the PDH states that “only 15% of the bodies are hidden, and the rest are left in a public place or in the victim‘s home,” which “indicates that the victimizers are not attempting to hide the crime.” (Hayes, 2009) The number of women murdered in 2008 was higher than ever before. However, there has not been an increase in the conviction rate. (Hayes, 2009)

Hence, I suggest that the legislative move by the Guatemalan government was a show to promote its international reputation and to avoid being seen as less progressive than other Latin

American countries in the region, which lacks substantive effort and genuine political will in resolving the issue. This approach allowed the perpetrators to operate in a climate of political impunity with little incentives to change. (Hayes, 2009)

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In comparison, Nicaragua faced similar obstacles as Guatemala within its administration.

The enthusiastic climate brought by the Law 779 was described as a “short-lived” “moment of victory” (Neumann, 2016) as most of the major advances in the legislation were overturned after two years of its adoption under legislative “reform” and executive orders by President Ortega. The prohibition of mediation on gender-based violence cases was now banned. All comisarías were also shut down in early 2016. Ortega rose to power in 2006 by “forging a strategic alliance with powerful conservative religious leaders.” He repeatedly emphasized the government’s goal of

“strengthening the unity of the Nicaraguan family through Christian and solidarity practices.”

Ortega had “slowly consolidated power” and taken an “increasingly authoritarian approach to his critics”, “including but not limited to local feminist organizations.” (Kampwirth, 2011) It was argued that Ortega passed Law 779 for the interest in preserving Nicaragua’s reputation as the so- called “safest country in Central America” (Neumann, 2016), while his alliance with conservative religious groups had ultimately led to the derailment of the law.

V. Conclusion

Femicide is the most extreme form of violence against women and is an escalating crime globally. Even though anti-femicide legislations have been implemented in different countries, this crime is still tolerated and justified by individuals, communities, and even the state. In order to reduce femicide and to end the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators, it is crucial for us to understand the complex dynamics of femicide.

My first main takeaway from this study is that the policy makers in Nicaragua and Guatemala should prioritize funding and encourage cooperation between judicial authorities, law enforcement officials, and non-governmental organizations over the elaboration on criminal prosecution. The training of government officials should have an emphasis on domestic and sexual violence to

17 SB_SocialScience_Wong_K Date: Feb 15th, 2020 ID: 0000000105 ensure the law is implemented properly. This study finds that the presence of an informed legal representative in the legal process have been making a significant, positive difference on the victims’ experience in the legal system, especially low-income women who received little education and lack other sources of social capital. Thus, the government should allocate resources to ensure access to free and informed legal counsel for gender-based violence victims.

My second key finding from this research is that the government should also allocate its resources to address social and economic problems including poverty and unemployment which are also the underlying causes of femicide. The education of the general public on the new legislation through the effort of local non-governmental organizations could foster a culture of non-violence for the men to depart from the traditional machismo culture.

The anti-femicide legislations in both cases were passed recently and then amended shortly after. After a greater passage of time, future research could be expanded to examine whether the effectiveness of the anti-femicide law would increase over time, as new legislations often takes time to demonstrate more substantive progress. Also, future researchers could assess femicide through a more intersectional approach and include variables such as racial, social, and economic status that may lead to different experience of the women within the legal system. Different types of gender-based violence legislation, such as domestic violence, rape, and sexual harassment could also be examined to provide a bigger picture of the cases. Lastly, other precipitating factors that may influence the implementation of new legislation within a country, such as the national economic and social structure could also be assessed.

A more thorough analysis would require the future development of institutional tools to gather and analyze sex-disaggregated databases in a more standardized way. The current data has created uncertainty of the actual number of femicide victims in the two countries because of the different

18 SB_SocialScience_Wong_K Date: Feb 15th, 2020 ID: 0000000105 criteria used by various agencies to compile data, especially because it could be hard to distinguish between female and femicide victims. It is also difficult to show a direct causational relationship between the factors being analyzed and the number of femicide cases. While the rise of the femicide cases may be caused by the increased recognition of the crime instead of the ineffectiveness of law. Lastly, even though Nicaragua has done relatively better in resolving gender-based violence than Guatemala, there are still a lot of room for improvement within the

Nicaraguan system, which is beyond the scope of this research.

To shortly conclude, the key variables I found in my research which play the most to ensure the effectiveness of the anti-femicide law are the victims’ access to the judicial and police system, accompanied by the involvement of non-governmental organization in the legal process. If policy makers only emphasize on a criminal justice approach, the femicide rate would hardly be reduced in the future. It is in the best interest of the states to provide adequate training for its police and judicial officials and to address the corruption within the system. A consistent funding for non- governmental organizations is as essential to bring substantive cultural change through the education of the public. Unless the culture and the institutions also change, legal change by itself is never sufficient to eliminate gender-based violence.

19 SB_SocialScience_Wong_K Date: Feb 15th, 2020 ID: 0000000105

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