Mexico: Boom in organised crime making femicide invisible, local activist says | UN News
With more than 2,526 women murdered in the past three decades – from 1993 through 2023 – and hundreds disappeared, Ciudad Juárez remains Mexico’s deadliest city for women.
Since 2011, UN Women, in partnership with key state institutions, has published periodic studies analysing the scope, trends, characteristics of femicide in the country.
‘Look at us’
Ms. Andrade stars in the documentary Norma, in search of justice directed by French journalist Brigitte Leoni, which was screened in Geneva ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on 25 November.
She hopes the documentary will bring more visibility to the cases of disappearance, noting that “this boom in organized crime has caused people to flee, crossing into the United States, and drug trafficking has made what is happening to women invisible”.
Speaking in Geneva, home to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), UN News asked Ms. Andrade what message she would like to share with rights experts.
“Look at us, look at the mothers. Come here and see the families and don’t just stick with the image that the government gives to the outside world”, she said.
Femicide transcends borders
Violence against women is a global crisis, according to a report by UN Women and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), released on the International Day.
The commemoration marks the start of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, an annual campaign that runs through 10 December, Human Rights Day.
Regional data shows that femicide transcends borders, socio-economic status and cultures, but its severity varies.
Africa recorded the highest rates of intimate partner and family-related femicides, with 21,700 women killed in 2023, followed by the Americas and Oceania.
In Europe, 64 per cent of victims were killed by their intimate partners; in the Americas, it was 58 per cent.
In contrast, women in Africa and Asia were more likely to be killed by family members than by their partners.
The report revealed that globally, 140 women and girls died every day at the hands of their partner or a close relative in 2023 – one woman killed every 10 minutes.
