In Memory of Women Whose Lives Were Taken or Who Are Disappeared

February 28, 2022

People from Chihuahua, Nuevo Leon and Coahuila have come together to give visibility to dozens of women who have been murdered and/or are disappeared; we want to share their stories, say their names, denounce that the Mexican State has a great debt because it has been unable to bring truth and justice to them.

In the context of March 8, International Women’s Day, we launched this campaign called “Norteñas por la verdad y la justicia” (Northern Women for Truth and Justice) not only to commemorate that day, but to remember that even in the 21st century hundreds of women have had their basic rights violated, including the most important one: their right to life.

These are not statistics, these are women with a story

In Mexico, 3,642 women were murdered between January and November 2021. That is an average of 10 women per day, according to data from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System. Of that total, 922 were victims of femicide. The top states are Nuevo Leon, in fifth place with 57 femicides; Chihuahua, in seventh place with 44 femicides, 27 of which took place in Ciudad Juarez (16) and Chihuahua, the capital city

(11), which makes them two of the municipalities with the highest number of femicides nationwide. Coahuila is number 17 nationwide with 20 femicides, a number that is still high. Furthermore, these data do not include cases that due to omissions have not been classified as femicides, but rather as homicides.

Also, according to the National Registry of Disappeared and Missing Persons (RNPDNO) in Mexico 24 thousand 352 women are listed as disappeared and/or missing, with 1,774 cases in the state of Nuevo Leon, 849 in Coahuila and 474 in the state of Chihuahua. We know that fear and mistrust of the authorities have a serious effect on the number of complaints made, so it is estimated that these figures could be much higher.

These crimes are only femicides and disappearances, but violence against women would have to include other human rights violations such as sexual violence, sexual abuse, sexual harassment, domestic violence, abuse of power, discrimination, work rights, education, health, etc.

In this context, human rights defenders and family members of disappeared persons continue to fight, and have no guarantees for their own safety and life and those of their families.

The stories shared in this campaign to be carried out during the month of March are to remember female defenders, disappeared women and victims of femicide; to bring them to memory, to tell society that they are women who should never have been murdered and/or victims of disappearance and that we MISS THEM! Their families miss them, society misses them, and we cannot normalize the violence that exists in our country as we see chilling figures every year.

It is our hope that every time we hear or see a story like these we realize that it can happen to us. Let us remember that we need to raise our voice so that there will be Truth, Justice and above all so that history will not repeat itself because we want the murders and disappearance of other women to stop.

#InTheNorthWeNameThem

Centro de Derechos Humanos de las Mujeres (CEDEHM)

Centro de Derechos Humanos Paso del Norte (Paso del Norte)

Ciudadanos en Apoyo a los Derechos Humanos, A.C. (CADHAC)

Centro para los Derechos Humanos Fray Juan de Larios