According to recent estimates, 28 million people lack access to adequate nutrition in Mexico. Of the 18.1 million people who live in the areas that have a high or very high level of marginalisation, 80.6 percent live in rural zones.

While data regarding how many women are affected by malnutrition is not easily accessible, FIAN Mexico conducted community meetings with 171 women from the states of Guerrero and Morelos on the subject of rural and indigenous women’s right to adequate food and identified a number of obstacles to the realisation of this right.

Main areas of concern

UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) periodically reviews state reports and civil society submissions with the goal of highlighting gaps and failures in the implementation of international obligations of State Parties under the CEDAW Convention.

FIAN Mexico, with the support of FIAN International, presented written and oral statements about the right to adequate food in Mexico, highlighting severe inadequacies in the implementation of this right. These include insufficient and insecure access to, and ownership of, productive resources, in particular land; harmful cultural practices; violence against indigenous rural women human rights defenders; and the inability of single women and women responsible for caring for disabled people to realize their right to adequate food. In its Concluding Observations on Mexico, the CEDAW Committee expressed concern about “the lack of indigenous rural women’s access to land, property and justice”, in particular in regard to women in the states of Guerrero, Chiapas and Oaxaca. The CEDAW Committee recommends to the government of Mexico to “adopt temporary special measures to address the disparities that indigenous rural women face with regard to access to land and property, as well as basic social services, including education and health, and participation in decision-making processes”.

The state fails to address problems

Concerns were also raised with regard to “information indicating that the State party’s public security policy against organized crime has negatively impacted indigenous rural women, who have been since subjected to higher levels of violence” and recommends that the State “take all necessary measures to ensure the effective implementation of the relevant legislation to prevent violence against indigenous women, investigate, prosecute and punish perpetrators of violence against indigenous women, and ensure effective and prompt access to justice to victims, including redress mechanisms”.

Finally, the CEDAW Observations recommend that Mexico “put in place a comprehensive strategy aiming at the elimination of harmful practices which discriminate against indigenous rural women including by conducting awareness-raising campaigns targeting indigenous communities in collaboration with civil society and women’s organizations, to enhance a positive and non-stereotypical portrayal of women”.

FIAN International welcomes the Committee’s Observations and, together with FIAN Mexico, will closely monitor State action in regard to compliance with the recommendations made by the CEDAW Committee at the country level. 

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