MEXICO the 2011 UNDP Human Development Index Score for the Country Is 0.775, Placing It 61St (Out of 187 Countries)
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MEXICO The 2011 UNDP Human Development Index score for the country is 0.775, placing it 61st (out of 187 countries). The Gender Inequality Index score is 0.382. Mexico's World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Index score for 2013 is 0.692, putting it in 68th place (out of a total of 136 countries).1 The Federal Constitution of the United States of Mexico establishes under Article 4 that women and men are equal under the law. The most recent federal reform for the promotion of gender equality, the 2007 Ley General de Acceso de las Mujeres a una Vida Libre de Violencia (General Law of Women’s Access to a Life Free of Violence), was preceded by the National Development Plan 2001- 2006 (PND). The 2001 PND marked the creation of the Instituto Nacional de las Mujeres (INMUJERES) and aimed to address all issues regarding women’s social, political and civil rights. The commitment was “to rectify previous injustices or exclusive biases; provide food security; promote educational capacity and the ability to generate incomes; facilitate access to land ownership, housing and credit; and strengthen capacity to participate in decision-making.”2 1. Discriminatory family code The statutory minimum age of marriage for women and men is established at the state level in Mexico. Sixteen states require that both spouses are 18 years old (Aguascalientes, Coahuila, Colima, Guerrero, Guanajuato, Hidalgo, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Quintana Roo, Sonora, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, Zacatecas, Distrito Federal de Mexico); four states require that both spouses are 16 years old (Chiapas, Jalisco, Morelos, Puebla). In the state of Baja California Sur, the minimum legal age is 16 for women and 18 for men; in 11 states, the legal age is 14 for women and 16 for men (Baja California, Campeche, Chihuahua, Durango, México, Michoacán de Ocampo, Nayarit, Sinaloa, Tabasco, Veracruz, Yucatán). In April 2013, the Federal Chamber of Deputies urged the state legislatures toincrease the minimum age of marriage to 18, as stipulated by the international accords signed by Mexico.3 The Committee of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) recommended increasing the legal age of marriage to 18 in 2006.4 In regards to early marriage, recent data revealed that 22.9% of Mexican women were married before the age of 18 from 2000-2011.5 1 World Economic Forum (2013), p. 280 2 CEDAW (2006), p. 79 3 Mexico’s Federal Chamber of Deputies (n.d.) 4 Recommendation 41, CEDAW (2006), p. 60 5 Gender Equality Observatory of Latin America and the Caribbean (2012), p. 20 1 Marriage for same-sex couples has been legalised in two Mexican states: the Federal District of Mexico6 and Quintana Roo.7 Moreover, in 2012, the Mexican Supreme Court ruled that state provisions proscribing same-sex marriages are unconstitutional8 based on the constitutional principle of equality and that states should define marriage as a union between “two people” and not between a man and a woman.9 Federal law provides that women and men have equal decision-making authority over children during marriage and that both women and men can be the head of the household under articles 164-168 of the Federal Civil Code.10 According to federal law, parents have equal rights in terms of parental authority after divorce.11 The Civil Code provides women equal inheritance rights as wives12 and as daughters.13 There is evidence suggesting that widows are often subject to discrimination whenever the Community Assemblies are designated as the final institution for arbitrage in the case of hereditary conflict. These informal institutions tend to resist changes imposed by the legislation. Moreover, male children tend to be privileged over females, unless the female did not receive a wedding endowment.14 More The Federal Civil Code states that women and men have equal rights to initiate divorce under Article 269.15 The custody of the children will be decided in their best interest by a federal court, as established under Articles 283-285 of the Federal Civil Code. A 2008 study published by the Revista Mexicana de Sociología (Mexican Journal of Sociology), revealed an increase in marriage dissolutions in the past 30 years and then attributed this trend to an increased economic and social independence of women and to evidence showing that Mexicans are moving away from traditional gender roles.16 2. Restricted physical integrity Mexico’s homicide rate has increased from 7 per 100,000 in 2002 to 23.7 today, much higher than the OECD average of 2.2 and the highest in the OECD. In Mexico, men are far more likely to be murder victims than women, as the homicide rate is 44.5 for men compared with 4.8 for women. While men are at a greater risk of being victims of assaults and violent crimes, women report lower feelings of security than men. This has been explained by a greater fear of sexual attacks, the feeling 6 World Economic Forum (2013), p. 69 7 Quintana Roo’s Civil Code defines marriage as a union between “persons”, not woman and man 8 In this case, it was Oaxaca State’s Civil Code Article 143, which defines marriage as the union between a man and a woman that was contested 9 Amparo En Revisión 581/2012, http://www2.scjn.gob.mx/ConsultaTematica/PaginasPub/DetallePub.aspx?AsuntoID=143969 (accessed 11/02/2014) 10 http://www.diputados.gob.mx/LeyesBiblio/pdf/2.pdf (accessed 10/02/2014) 11 Articles 283-285 of the Federal Civil Code 12 Articles 1624-1629 13 Articles 1602 and 1607 14 FAO (n.d.) 15 http://www.diputados.gob.mx/LeyesBiblio/pdf/2.pdf (accessed 10/02/2014) 16 Ojeda et al. (2008), pp. 142-143 2 they must also protect their children and their concern that they may be seen as partially responsible.17 Femicide has been a punishable offence in Mexico since 2007 through the passing of the Ley General de Acceso de las Mujeres a una Vida Libre de Violencia (General Law of Women’s Access to a Life Free of Violence)18 According to ECLAC, this law belongs to a newer trend in gender-based violence legislation in Latin America, which aims to go beyond protecting women from domestic violence by also guaranteeing a violence-free life for women in general.19 In addition, 8.8% of the budget allocated for Women and Gender Equality is directed to fighting gender-based violence.20 Complaints can be filed in 3,347 state agencies and 157 federal agencies. At the federal level, these cases are also received by the Special Office of the Attorney General for Crimes against Women and the Office of the Special Prosecutor for Trafficking in Persons and Violence against Women Offenses, which was created in 2008.21 Before the 2007 law, domestic violence was addressed by the programme PROEQUIDAD within INMUJERES. From 2001, PROEQUIDAD provided a national framework for co-ordinated action against violence against women through the creation of the Institutional Panel to Co-ordinate Preventive Action and Attention to Domestic Violence and Violence against Women. This effort resulted in the creation of specific programmes in 16 states.22 More recently, Article 38 of the 2007 Law for Women’s Access to a Life Free of Violence established the creation of the Integral Programme to Prevent, Address, Sanction and Eradicate Violence against Women23 The Comisión Nacional para Prevenir y Erradicar la Violencia Contra las Mujeres (CONAVIM, National Commission to Prevent and Eradicate Violence Against Women) is charged with executing this plan and with ensuring the proper co-ordination between all the local entities. CONAVIM’s activities include prevention plans, surveillance of lower-level entities, reporting to the Secretary of Governance, analysing and assessing the current policies, etc.24 Personnel charged with receiving domestic violence complaints receive special sensitisation training. The victims are entitled to free legal services provided by the Public Prosecutor’s Special Office for Violence against Women Offenses and Trafficking in Persons.25 The latter also created the National Directory of Care Centres for Victims of Violence against Women and Trafficking in Persons (DINCEAVIT), which provides information about safety centres for domestic violence victims.26 These centres exist in 25 of the 32 federal states. Between 2008 and 2009, 17 shelters and 127 outpatient care centres were established. Also in 2009, there were 13 Homes for Indigenous Women overseen by the National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples. The Office of the Attorney 27 General also established a shelter for victims of Trafficking in Persons. A 24-hour hotline called 17 OECD (2014) 18 Gender Equality Observatory of Latin America and the Caribbean (2012), p. 12; OAS (2012), pp. 18, 107 19 Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (2010), p. 35 20 OAS (2012), p. 182 21 Second Hemispheric Report on the Implementation of the Belém do Pará Convention 2012, p. 150 22 CEDAW (2002) p. 2 (Supplement No. 38 (A/57/38) 23 OAS (2012), p. 137 24 Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. (accessed 24/03/2014) 25 OAS (2012), p. 158 26 OAS (2012), p. 163 27 OAS (2012), p. 172 3 “Life without Violence” is provided by INMUJERES, which disseminates information about available services.28 In 2006, 46%of women aged older than 15, have been victims of violence by their spouses or partners.29 After the 2011 survey, a forum was held with specialists of the Regional Multidisciplinary Research Centre of the National University of Mexico, the College of Mexico, the Chamber of Deputies, the Education Secretariat, the Social Development Secretariat and the National Population Council.30 The Subsistema Automatizado de Lesiones y Causas de Violencia (Subsystem to Record Injuries and Causes of Violence) of the Health Secretary, reported 2,768 cases of domestic violence between December 2009 and April 2010.31 Rape is addressed by the 2007 Violence against Women Law and also by the Federal Penal Code.