A few days ago, Mexican society was shaken by the stabbing of a 13-year-old student in the Iztapalapa district of Mexico City.. The authorities classified the case as a crime of attempted femicide, after the young woman survived the attack by another teenager, her ex-boyfriend, according to what the victim’s family published on social networks. In accordance with Mexican legislation, the detainee, a 14-year-old boy, was released under the guardianship of his parents.
As is the case with adult women, gender-related homicides against girls and adolescents are also femicides. In fact, “child feminicide” usually refers to the “murder of underage girls due to their gender, with misogynistic motivations or hatred towards the feminine,” Daniela Castro, an academic at the Political Economy of Development Unit, told DW. the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
For María Vega, director of the Colombian Justice For All Foundation, Femicide is an “extreme form of violence.””, becoming a form of “domination and a flagrant violation of the rights of women and girls,” according to DW.
The phenomenon persists, but data is missing
Cases of femicidal violence are not isolated crimes, but there are thousands in Latin America.
“The information available shows the persistence of femicide, despite greater public awareness on the matter, advances in measuring cases and the state response,” indicates the latest bulletin published by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
The report states that, In 2022, at least 4,050 women (4,004 in Latin America and 46 in the Caribbean) from 26 countries in the region were victims of feminicide. Brazil tops the list in absolute numbers, although it is Honduras that registers the highest rate. These figures, however, are not comparable with other years due to changes in the registration of cases in some countries, warns ECLAC, which affects the interpretations of the real number of femicides. And the same thing happens with the figures for child feminicide.
“Not all countries report victims of feminicide disaggregated by age groups, which prevents an exhaustive analysis of this phenomenon,” Ana Güezmes, director of the Gender Affairs Division of ECLAC, told DW.
Based on that study, eight countries (El Salvador, Panama, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Guatemala, Chile and Uruguay) They counted 310 female victims of feminicide, 13 of whom were between 0 and 14 years old. Guatemala reported 6 victims in this age group, followed by Uruguay, with 4, and Panama with 2.
On the other hand, the 15 to 29 age group stands out, with 107 victims among these eight countries, with Guatemala, Paraguay, El Salvador and Chile being the countries with the highest number of victims.
In the group of countries formed by Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru – which use a different age range to measure femicides – 41 girls and adolescents between 0 and 18 years old were victims of this type of homicide in 2022.
A common framework
The case of the student in Iztapalapa, like others in the region, has put the legal umbrella that supports minors guilty of femicides in its sights. According to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the United Nations’ own framework on the Rights of the Child, minors under 18 years of age must be considered as such, so that even after a crime of feminicide, they are unimpeachable – exempt from prison sentences – and instead alternative measures must be applied, such as permanent custody or the assignment of the minor to a family.
Only as a last resort, and in a short period of time, preventive detention would be applied, Miguel Barboza, senior researcher at the Rule of Law Program for Latin America at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, explains to DW.
Under this common framework, Barboza recognizes that “Not all criminal justice systems in Latin America have recognition of these standards, which is quite problematic.” Even so, there has been “very strong progress, such as alternative measures to preventive detention, determining behavioral patterns, and providing psychological services,” she maintains.
However, for Amalia Alarcón, regional manager of Programs and Influence of the NGO Plan International, “the theory mentions that juvenile justice should have a rehabilitative approach, focusing on the reintegration of the boy or girl who commits the crime, but this “It doesn’t happen in the youth systems in the region.”
For Barboza, The problem lies in the fact that not all countries classify feminicide in the same way and that there is even “resistance” and “ignorance” from the institutions.
According to ECLAC, in Latin America there are 18 countries that have approved legislation to criminalize femicides, of which 13 have comprehensive laws to confront this type of violence.
In the case of Mexico, the crime of feminicide is classified in article 325 of the Federal Penal Code, although “child feminicide is not separated from the crimes of feminicide, so these cases are not made visible,” Daniela Castro explains to DW. . Mexican legislation also contemplates the principle of the “best interests of children,” so that young people guilty of crimes are exempt from criminal responsibility. On the other hand, a teenager convicted of femicide may only be imposed “internment” as a last option, and only if she is between 14 and 18 years old.
Early actions
For Castro, it is necessary to “exhaust the avenue of prevention”, with policies to eradicate gender violence, which include educational programs and awareness campaigns.
In the opinion of Miguel Barboza, “feminicide is a crime that is going to increase, especially taking into account the characteristics of the new generations with new technologies,” he tells DW. “It is a crime that is still serious, but it is also part of the collection of crimes classified at the regional level,” he emphasizes.
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