Durango ordered to comply with Gender Violence Alert

The Fourth District Court in La Laguna granted an injunction to the Foundation for the Promotion, Development and Empowerment of Women AC (Funprodem) against the Government of the State of Durango, for failure to comply with the resolutions indicated by Conavim, following the Gender Violence Alert issued in November 2018, in 16 of the 39 municipalities that make up the entity, for which it orders compliance.

The Amparo Law establishes the following for the crime of contempt of an amparo ruling: prison sentences, fines, disqualification, or even jail for those who fail to comply with the court order.

Sandra Sierra Limones, a representative of Funprodem, reported that on August 29, the Fourth District Court in La Laguna issued a ruling on the amparo lawsuit she filed regarding the lack of response, inaction, and delay by the three branches of government in responding to the resolutions of the Gender Violence Alert. The ruling was granted against the omissions complained about by the State Congress, the State Government, and the Superior Court of Justice.

The Court notes that "women's rights to safety and integrity have been violated, specifically with regard to the State's duty to guarantee their access to a life free from violence, which promotes their development and well-being in accordance with the principles of equality and non-discrimination."

According to the foundation's representative, the injunction claimed noncompliance with the resolutions, as well as the fact that, unjustifiably, the matter has not been addressed more than six years after the Alert was issued.

Reason why the Court granted the protection, requiring the authorities to: "Undertake the actions tending to start with the implementation of each of the measures indicated in the third resolution point of the Declaration of the Gender Violence Alert, in the understanding that the guidelines of the present sentence will be declared fulfilled when the authorities demonstrate that they initiate the respective actions, reporting the progress to the Interinstitutional and Multidisciplinary Group (GIM), who will be in charge of evaluating them, in order to establish when and which ones are fulfilled.

According to the injunction ruling and the fourth report issued by Conavim on the implementation of the measures: of 33, only one was complied with, five are in the process of being complied with, and 27 are considered unfulfilled.

"Now it's a judge who's ordering compliance with the Gender Violence Alert," Sierra Limones emphasized.

Background The Ministry of the Interior, then responsible for the National Commission to Prevent and Eradicate Violence against Women (Conavim), issued a declaration of Gender Violence Alert against Women (AVGM) in the municipalities of: Durango, Gómez Palacio, Lerdo, Mezquital, Pueblo Nuevo, Poanas, Tamazula, Canatlán, General Simón Bolívar, Mapimí, Nombre de Dios, Rodeo, Tlahualilo, Vicente Guerrero, Santiago Papasquiaro and Guadalupe Victoria, in the state of Durango, with the purpose of implementing the necessary measures to stop violence against women in that federal entity, addressing the cultural, social and institutional conditions that hinder the free exercise of their human rights, particularly, the right to a life free from violence and discrimination based on gender.

"The foregoing, taking into consideration the context and circumstances corroborated through a thorough prior analysis process by the Working Group established for this purpose, pursuant to Article 36 of the Regulations of the General Law on Women's Access to a Life Free of Violence," reads the declaration, issued on November 7, 2018.