Partners in Mexico
The delegation will visit the following PWRDF partners:
Read the story of the arrest and release of Martin Barrios, President of the Mexican Human and Labour Rights Commission.
March 12, Human and Labour Rights Commission of the Tehuacán Valley A.C
Founded in 1995, the Human and Labour Rights Commission of the Tehuacán Valley A.C. Commission works in defense of indigenous peoples of the Tehuacán Valley and surrounding communities in the state of Puebla, Mexico. It focuses particularly on the defending and promoting the labour rights of young, indigenous workers who come from those communities to work in the garment maquilas ( export assembly factories). The Commission is an integral part of the regio’s independent indigenous movement. In early 2003, together with the Maquila Solidarity Network, the Commission published Blue Jeans, Blue Waters and Workers Rights, exposing the systematic violations of workers’ rights and environmental standards in Tehuacán’s maquila industry. For the past two years, PWRDF has supported the Commission with a small grant of $2,000 from the Latin American/ Caribbean (LA/C) Human Resources Development Fund
The Commission has to-date operated without institutional support, relying on the time and commitment of a volunteer staff team.
March 13, K’inal Antzetik (Land of Women)
K’inal Antzetik is a Mexico City-based NGO that works to empower indigenous women throughout southern Mexico through workshops, training programs, exchanges, research and publication of educational materials, advocacy and accompaniment. Combating Maternal Mortality in Indigenous Regions Program is a continuation of the Indigenous Maternal Mortality Prevention Program previously supported by PWRDF. PWRDF has been a partner of K’inal Antzetik since 1997.
Organisations Goal/Impact: To contribute to the improvement of the health conditions of indigenous women – in particular maternal mortality rates – and to the exercise of indigenous women’s sexual and reproductive rights with seven indigenous organizations in the states of Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas. The program will focus on prevention and will develop from a gender perspective.
Women's memorial at Cuidad Juarez. Related story.
March 16, Centre for Women’s Human Rights (Centro de Derechos Humanos de las Mujeres)
Established in 2005 and based in Chihuahua City, Mexico, the Centre for Women’s Human Rights (Centro de Derechos Humanos de las Mujeres) carries out legal representation on behalf of several families in Ciudad Juárez and the city of Chihuahua, whose daughters have been disappeared and/or assassinated, and who, in 2002, together with the Centre’s founders, established, Justice for Our Daughters (Justicia para Nuestras Hijas). The Centre is also involved in education and advocacy work with the municipal, state and federal governments, with the United Nations and the OAS, as well as carrying out media work, political mobilization and psychosocial accompaniment to some of the families of the victims. While there are other organizations in Ciudad Juárez doing similar work, what sets the Centre apart is its in-house capacity to concretely address the impunity that perpetrators enjoy by bringing forward legal cases.
Organisations Goal/Impact: To promote and defend women’s human rights, particularly the right to live without violence, and to seek justice for women in the State of Chihuahua.
March 19, Centro de Derechos Humanos Paso del Norte (Paso del Norte Human Rights Centre)
Established in 2001, the Centro de Derechos Humanos Paso del Norte (Paso del Norte Human Rights Centre) is based in Ciudad Juárez, on the border with the United States in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua. A city whose social fabric has been torn by migration, maquilas (export processing factories) and the drug trade, Ciudad Juárez is also known as the paradigmatic case of violence against women in Mexico, with over 400 brutally murdered since 1993. In this context of violence, the Centre’s mission is “to defend and promote human rights with the participation of those persons most affected, in order to construct a positive culture that respects life”. The Centre describes itself as “independent, open, plural, ecumenical, in solidarity, and in the permanent search for truth and justice”. A new partner of PWRDF, the Centre grew out of the work of local Catholic priest, Fr. Oscar Enriquez, and several young adults (mostly women) involved in social justice activities in their local parishes and barrios. Today, the Centre focuses its work in five areas: Equity and Gender; Popular Committees; Legal Assistance; Psychological Assistance; and Administration. The project that PWRDF is being invited to support, was presented by the Equity and Gender area.
Organisations Goal/Impact: To create favourable conditions for the human rights of women in order to ensure women’s development and leadership, and gender equity in the southwestern barrios of Ciudad Juárez, through programs of capacity building, training, participation, legal aid and psychological therapy that aim to overcome negative family and social situations.
