Interview: “We need to strengthen understanding of the roots of femicide and design policies that specifically tackle them”

Alejandra Mora Mora is a Costa Rican jurist, feminist, researcher, academic and politician recognized for her activism on the human rights of women and girls. Former Minister for Women in Costa Rica, as well as former Ombudsperson, she has held the position of Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM) at the Organization of American States (OAS) since 2019. In this interview for UN Women, Mora Mora explains how the Inter-American Model Law to Prevent, Sanction and Eradicate Violent Death of Women on Gender Reasons can be used as a tool to advance the prevention and response to violence against women and why all the states need to strengthen their understanding of the roots of femicide and design policies that specifically tackle them.

Ms. Mora Mora, why is Latin America far more advanced as a region in establishing a model protocol for the investigation of gender-related killings of women (femicide)?

Femicide has constituted and still constitutes a very alarming reality in the region and has increased this year due to many factors, including the increase of organized crime and confinement during COVID-19, among others. Because of this crude reality for women in our region, civil society has historically demanded specific law instruments, such as the model protocol, that tackled the issue directly, defying standards that were, and still are, entrenched in the region´s justice systems. This is why there is an urgent need to highlight and legally recognize that women are targeted because they are women, and normative jurisdictions and investigation protocol for these crimes also need to recognize this in order to effectively address the issue.

The Inter-American Model Law to Prevent, Sanction and Eradicate Violent Death of Women on Gender Reasons, designed by the Follow-up Mechanism to the Belém do Pará Convention (MESECVI), provides tools to OAS member states to advance the fulfilment of their obligations to the Istanbul Convention in an integral manner. It generates detailed standards that could be adapted to any and every context in the region for the investigation of femicides.

How is this model being used as a tool in the region to advance the prevention and response to violence against women?

The prevention element of the Model Law is based on the most recent international standards of the matter, while the protection factor was designed around victims’ and survivors´ rights. The investigation subject describes specific elements this process must have when we talk about femicide as such, and finally, the reparation factor for victims and survivors integrates the perspective of transformative reparations and non-repetition guarantees.

The Model Law also has very innovative elements that make this tool unique. First of all, it expressly points out that in femicide, the active subject of the crime must be a man, and the victim must be a woman. Considering this, it mandates States to adopt necessary measures of prevention and response that consider how femicide affects groups of women differently (e.g., indigenous women, Afro-descendant women, transgender women, immigrant women, etc.). Some innovative definitions of criminal behaviour we have included as part of this model legislation include crimes against women politicians to obstruct their political rights, culpable homicide for denial of access to abortion in case the pregnancy endangers the woman’s life, and femicide suicide.

One of the most important elements of the Model Law is the inclusion of preventative public policies, an aspect that has been overlooked in solutions to counter gender-based violence. These policies aim not only to mitigate risk factors, but also to strengthen institutions so they can provide effective responses, with emphasis on capacity building for public servants. Moreover, the document highlights the importance of data and information collection by maintaining registries and ensuring access to them and creating databases with genetic information on both victims and aggressors. Finally, it proposes the creation of a Judicial Observatory in order to develop judicial registries with information on crimes, sentences and sanctions.

How are other regions benefitting from the work carried out in Latin America?

The Model Law has set a precedent worldwide, highlighting the importance of categorizing a crime such as femicide and outlining the procedures necessary to address it.

Violence against women has become incredibly challenging to fight in the past few years in our region, so governments are always looking for innovative solutions. There is a certain level of political will that needs to be extended, but I would say that countries in our region are setting precedents and examples for others on how to manage this crisis.

What are the three key messages you would convey to states regarding the use of data to address femicide?

First, there is no national policy in the world that can fully prevent femicide because the context in which it happens differs by the social, family and criminal dynamics of each place. As a result, data collection efforts must be based on local context. We can develop and recommend standards, but my main recommendation would be that everything we develop needs to be adapted to the context in which femicide occurs.

The diagnostics and data collection need to happen in real time and inform the creation of “heat maps” that show the difference in rates of violence in specific locations and contexts. This enables us to strategically focus our actions so they have a structural impact.

Data needs to be available for public use with a focus on transparency, not only to keep civil society informed, but also to help design solutions to combat violence. Violence against women is an issue that needs to be tackled on all fronts.

What is next in Latin America? And worldwide?

As I mentioned earlier, typifying a crime is not enough, and that is a lesson learned the region has had. The typification of femicide needs to be accompanied by its adequate interpretation and application. The reduction of femicide and all types of violence against women will become a reality when a real cultural transformation takes place, for which political violence also needs to make a turnaround.

We need to strengthen understanding of the roots of femicide and design policies that specifically tackle them. Acknowledging the social construct of masculinity, the role of hegemonic masculinities, the desire to exercise power over women, and the patriarchal features within our system are essential to enforcing women’s physical autonomy over their bodies, once and for all.

From the CIM, we keep working for these guiding principles to become regional standards on the prevention and response to violence in the region.