Zero Tolerance & Zero Impunity in Mexico City
Upon taking office in 2018, Mayor Sheinbaum inaugurated a new role, the Secretary for Women, and also set up a parity cabinet. With this seismic shift in place, her team then set off to tackle a serious and growing problem in the city: gender-based violence (GBV). In fact, the Mayor went on to declare a State of Emergency for Violence Against Women in 2019. With that, the Mayor and her cabinet set off to prevent, address, and penalize violence, with a single goal: Zero Tolerance and Zero Impunity.
Since then, Mexico City has taken a holistic approach to addressing this issue: from classifying online violence as a form of GBV, to passing legislation that forces aggressors to leave their home instead of victims. Streets have been equipped with better lighting and panic buttons for women to feel safer, and women’s only areas have been installed in public transportation. A new emergency hotline has been created, and new care centers have been set up to deliver psycho-emotional, financial, legal, and social support for victims of abuse… Only to name a few projects rolled out by the city.
During her presentation at the 2022 CHANGE annual summit, Diana Alarcón González, Chief Advisor and International Affairs Coordinator in Mexico City, talks about the policies and programs that have helped the city reduce cases of gender-based violence by more than 15% in three years.
CHANGE 