Breathe
By Ariadna Camacho Contreras
Mexico is undergoing a historic transformation in all areas of public life, however, some of the structural inequalities that have marked our country are still latent and continue to lacerate our social reality. Today, we seek to have a more inclusive and equitable judicial system that recognizes and combats the inequalities that affect the different groups that have been historically marginalized, guaranteeing full access to justice for all people.
The Mexican population is coarse, according to INEGI data (INEGI, 2020), in Mexico there are 126,014,024 people, of which 51.2% are women and 48.08% are men. And all are equal before the law, in accordance with the provisions of Article 4 of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States. That is to say, all people must be treated equally by the State, and enjoy the fundamental rights recognized in our Magna Carta.
However, when speaking of access to justice, a series of guarantees are required that recognize the diversity and complexity of the social panorama, with the objective of providing all persons with the appropriate measures to eliminate the obstacles that prevent them from fully enjoying their rights, or, failing that, guarantees that seek to level the different conditions in which millions of Mexicans live, thereby reducing the inequalities that limit the full exercise of their rights. Thus, we speak of the importance of implementing the Gender Perspective in the administration of justice.
Judging with a gender perspective is an obligation of the Mexican State. The gender perspective is an analytical approach that has been developed over the years, which allows understanding how the differences and social roles assigned to men and women influence power relations, the distribution of resources and opportunities, and the construction of identities and behaviors. This approach recognizes that gender is a social and cultural construct, not just a biological characteristic, and is used to identify and combat existing inequalities and discrimination in different spheres of life (from politics and the economy to education and the judicial system).
In the judicial sphere, gender has a differentiated impact on people's lives and must therefore be taken into consideration when assessing facts, evaluating evidence and interpreting and applying legal norms.
More often than not, it is women who face the most obstacles in accessing justice on equal terms and without discrimination, but talking about gender is not reduced to talking exclusively about women. We must not lose sight of the fact that what is fundamental is not the gender of the persons involved in the dispute per se, but rather the recognition of a possible situation of power or context of inequality based on sex, gender roles or sexual orientation. In other words, the gender perspective should be applied in all cases in which, regardless of the gender involved, a condition of inequality is apparent.
Today, after the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1981, and the ratification of the Belém do Pará Convention in 1998, as well as various rulings of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, Mexico has defined some indispensable elements for judging with a gender perspective, which are more valid than ever and which guide the jurisdictional bodies in the administration of justice.
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