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October 2, 2002

The Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women c/o Ms. Jane Connors, Chief of Women’s Rights Unit Division for the Advancement of Women United Nations

Dear Committee Members,

We are writing on behalf of Casa Amiga and Equality Now to request you, the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (the “Committee”), to undertake an inquiry in accordance with Article 8 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (the “Convention”) concerning the abduction, rape and murder of women in the Ciudad Juárez area of the state of Chihuahua, Mexico. Casa Amiga is a rape crisis center in Ciudad Juárez that has been in the forefront of the campaign, documenting and protesting these abductions and murders. Equality Now is an international women’s rights organization that works to end violence and all other forms of sex discrimination.

Since 1993, more than 230 young women and girls have been killed in or near Ciudad Juárez. Most of the victims are maquiladora workers with dark, shoulder-length hair who have been killed on their way to or from work. Some of them appear to have been sexually assaulted as well. Despite the appointment of a special state prosecutor for women homicides, there have been few arrests and many of the suspects have charged the police with torturing them for a confession. To date there has only been one reported conviction, which may have been overturned. Much evidence has been lost or contaminated by inept police investigations when they have been carried out, and government officials have blamed the women themselves for their murders on the basis of the way they were dressed or the fact that they went out at night (often to go to work). The response from Mexican authorities has been belated and ineffective. Meanwhile, the murders continue.

The Committee recently expressed concern over the Juárez killings, when it considered the Periodic Report of Mexico under the Convention in August 2002. In its Concluding Comments, the Committee noted the continuing abduction and murder of women in Ciudad Juárez and expressed particular concern over the apparent failure of government investigation to identify and bring the perpetrators to justice. This same concern has been expressed by other treaty bodies and special rapporteurs in the United Nations. The Committee in 1999 stated in its Concluding Observations on the Periodic Report of Mexico under the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that it was “concerned at the level of violence against women, including the many reported cases of abduction and murder which have not led to the arrest or trial of the perpetrators.” In his

EQUALITY NOW WORKS FOR THE CIVIL, POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RIGHTS OF WOMEN AROUND THE WORLD. report to the Commission on Human Rights following his visit to Mexico in May 2001, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Param Cumaraswamy, stated that the murders of women in Ciudad Juárez “remain a matter of grave concern,” and that it was clear to him that "these murders were inefficiently and incompetently investigated, if there were any investigations at all.” In her report also to the Commission on Human Rights following her visit to Mexico in July 1999, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Asma Jahangir, noted while meeting victims’ families from Ciudad Juárez, “Some sources suggested that the authorities had been actively trying to cover up some of the cases.” Jahangir further stated that “The arrogant behaviour and obvious indifference shown by some state officials in regard to these cases leave the impression that many of the crimes were deliberately never investigated for the sole reason that the victims were ‘only’ young girls with no particular social status and who therefore were regarded as expendable.”

As the Special Rapporteur on Women’s Rights of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Marta Altolaguirre, noted in a press release following her visit to Mexico in February 2002, “In spite of the gravity of the situation and the steps that are being taken, the State response to these crimes continues to be markedly deficient.” She further stated that, “The impunity that has existed since 1993 with respect to the serious violations of women’s human rights in Ciudad Juárez contributes significantly to the perpetuation of violence against women.” In 1998, the independent National Human Rights Commission in Mexico (CNDH) called for the investigation of the Chihuahua state attorney general for his role in neglecting to investigate the human rights abuses being committed against women in Ciudad Juárez.

We believe the documentation over the past decade, and the concern repeatedly expressed in UN and other international fora, have established a pattern of failure on the part of the Mexican government that constitutes a grave and systematic violation of the fundamental right of women in Ciudad Juárez to equal protection of the law, as set forth in Article 2 of the Convention. As General Recommendation 19 has clarified, “The definition of discrimination includes gender-based violence, that is, violence that is directed against a woman because she is a woman or that affects women disproportionately.” By its terms, laws against “rape, sexual assault, and other gender- based violence” are expressly covered by Articles 2 and 3. More specifically, General Recommendation 19 notes that discrimination under the Convention “is not restricted to action by or on behalf of Governments,” and that States may be responsible “for private acts if they fail to act with due diligence to prevent violations of rights or to investigate and punish acts of violence....”

On 15 March 2002 Mexico ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention, thereby creating a new avenue of recourse for violations of the Convention. We hope that you will use the process created by Article 8 of the Optional Protocol to help further the efforts the Committee has already supported through its Concluding Comments. Enclosed is documentation of the abductions, rapes and killings in Ciudad Juárez, including a copy of the recent documentary broadcast on television, Señorita Extraviada (Missing Young

Woman) by Lourdes Portillo, which includes interviews constituting first-hand testimony of police misconduct in Juarez and possible complicity in these violations.

We would be glad to provide further information or assist you in any way to undertake this inquiry.

Sincerely,

Esther Chávez Catharine MacKinnon Jessica Neuwirth Executive Director Co-Director Co-Director Casa Amiga Equality Now LAW Project Equality Now LAW Project

List of Enclosures

Draft report, Consideration of reports of States parties, Mexico, fifth periodic report, CEDAW/C/2002/EXC/CRP.3/Rev.1, 23 Aug. 2002 (advance unedited version).

Concluding observations of the Human Rights Committee: Mexico, CCPR/C/79/Add.109, 27 July 1999.

Civil and Political Rights, Including Questions of: Independence of the Judiciary, Administration of Justice, Impunity, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Dato’Param Cumaraswamy, submitted in accordance with Commission on Human Rights resolution 2001/39, Addendum, Report on the mission to Mexico, E/CN.4/2002/72/Add.1, 24 Jan. 2002.

Civil and Political Rights, Including Questions of: Disappearances and Summary Executions, Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Ms. Asma Jahangir, submitted pursuant to Commission on Human Rights resolutions 1999/35, Addendum, Visit to Mexico, E/CN.4/2000/3/Add.3, 25 Nov. 1999.

Press Release No. 04/02, Special Rapporteur of the IACHR Concludes Visit to Evaluate the Situation of Women’s Rights in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, Feb. 13, 2002, http://www.cidh.oas.org/annualrep/2001eng/chap6c.htm.

Recommendacíon 44/98, la Comisíon Nacional de Derechos Humanos, http://www.cndh.org.mx/Prinicipal/document/recomen/recomen1/htm.

Señorita Extraviada (Missing Young Woman), documentary by Lourdes Portillo (Xochitl Films, 2001).

Evelyn Nieves, “To Work and Die in Juarez,” Mother Jones, May/June 2002.

Molly Ivins, “A Call for Justice in Troubling Murders,” Boston Globe, May 15, 2002.

Kris Axtman, “Border mystery: 274 murders in nine years,” The Christian Science Monitor, May 2, 2002.

Mark Stevenson, “Activists blame police for lawyer’s death in Juarez,” AP, Feb. 8, 2002.

ABC news, “Death in the Desert – Who is torturing and Raping the Women of Juarez”.

Laurance Patin, “250 Murders Prompt Mexico Anti-Violence Campaign,” Women’s Enews, Dec. 21, 2001.

BBC News, “City of Dreams,” Jan. 12, 2001.