Central American coalition raises a clarion call to stop violence against women as Canadians remember the Montreal Massacre
This week Horizons of Friendship staff will travel to Costa Rica to join with its partner, the Central American Feminist Network to End Violence towards Women, in the release of a pivotal report on femicide; the systematic killing of women based on their gender. The study and the policy recommendations will be presented directly to The Council of Ministers for Women in Central America (COMMCA), an official body established by the governments of the region. The study, which has been supported by Horizons of Friendship and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), will focus on six Central American countries: Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. Horizons Executive Director Patricia Rebolledo will be present when the report is released, and states, “it is important for Canadians to understand the level of violence towards women and to raise our voices of concern, and to support initiatives to stop this violence”.
Just as the Montreal massacre at the École Polytechnique twenty years ago helped lift the veil of silence that concealed violence against women in Canada, the Central American Feminist Network to End Violence towards Women is likewise raising the alarm bell. According to the study, while murder rates are on the rise in many parts of Central America, women are being affected disproportionately. For example, between 2000 and 2006, killings of men in El Salvador increased by 40%, while female murders grew by 111%. In Guatemala, the killing of men doubled from 1990 to 2004, while rates for women tripled. The most extreme case is Honduras (scene of a recent military-backed coup d’état) where from 2003 to 2007, the killing of women grew four times faster than that of men. Most shocking, an increasing number of these slayings have been accompanied by signs of brutal torture, mutilations and rape.
Undoubtedly, part of the violence can be attributed to the legacy of civil wars in the region and a culture of impunity for abuses committed. However, the study finds that the dramatic increase in femicides is directly related to high levels of poverty and growing inequities that have resulted from an economic model which has exacerbated the social exclusion of women and other marginalized communities. The causes of this crisis are complex but are rooted in a patriarchal culture which is based on unequal power relations between men and women.
“Increasingly, women have become targets of the shady ‘businesses’ that have emerged from this model” according to Ana Carcedo, a professor of women’s’ studies at the Universidad de Costa Rica and the principal researcher of the study. “These include the trafficking of girls and women for labour or sexual exploitation, and criminal networks connected to drug trafficking, arms sales, hired assassins, and gangs operating at the national and international levels. Gender relations and codes of conduct are being transformed in such a way that women are being viewed as ‘disposable’ and as pawns in territorial disputes”.
Corruption and the entrenchment of these criminal networks encourage the invisibility of femicide. And the failure of the authorities to adequately investigate the murders and prosecute those responsible is reinforcing an already existing climate of impunity.
Though awareness has been raised in Canada following the Montreal massacre, the issue is as pressing here as it is for our neighbours in Central America. Just one year ago, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women issued an urgent call to the Canadian government to carry out thorough investigations of the cases of missing or murdered aboriginal women in Canada; to examine the reasons for the failure to investigate these cases, and to take necessary steps to remedy the deficiencies in the system.
