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Last Updated: Mar 19, 2019 - 11:26:23 AM |
Washington
DC. Last Friday, March 15th 2019, the Inter-American Model Law on the
Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of the Gender-Related Killing of
Women and Girls (Femicide/Feminicide) was officially launched, a
document that seeks to create or update legislation in the region, as
well as strengthen comprehensive action on prevention, protection, care,
investigation, prosecution, punishment and reparation to guarantee the
right of all women and girls to a life free of violence, as established
in the Belém do Pará Convention, an international instrument signed and
ratified by 32 States of the region.
The meeting was opened by
Luis Almagro, Secretary General of the OAS, who stressed the importance
of redoubling efforts to combat femicides in the region. Rita Segato, a
well-known Argentinean anthropologist who gave a keynote address on the
origin of gender-related killing of women, said that "the training of
law and publicity students is fundamental to combat femicides and
contribute to cultural change." Later, Sylvia Mesa, President of the
Committee of Experts of the MESECVI, and Paula Narvaéz, Regional Adviser
of UN Women for the Americas and the Caribbean, presented the Model Law
and the joint work among the mechanisms to bring this instrument to
life.
Noelia Diaz Esquivel, Secretary General of the Union of
Journalists of Paraguay, and Arlette Contreras, lawyer and inspirer of
the Ni Una Menos movement in Peru, shared their testimonies and the
situation in their respective countries. Both, in addition to being
prominent activists and defenders of human rights, are survivors of
attempted femicide that have had to face media exposure, impunity in
judicial processes and revictimization as a result of institutional and
media violence.
The event was also attended by Liriola Leoteau,
Executive Director of the National Institute for Women of Panama (INAMU)
and President of the MESECVI; Carmen Moreno Toscano, Executive
Secretary of the CIM; Luz Patricia Mejía Guerrero, Technical Secretary
of the MESECVI; and Rosa Celorio, Associate Dean for International and
Comparative Legal Studies and Lecturer, George Washington University Law
School
Femicide is the most extreme and irreversible
expression of violence and discrimination against women, radically
opposed to all the rights and guarantees established in international
and national human rights legislation. This has been reiterated by the
Committee of Experts of the MESECVI, through the Third Hemispheric
Report on Prevention.
© Copyright 2019 by thebahamasweekly.com
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