The importance of social justice to analyze gender-based political violence against women in Mexico

Abstract

Gender-based political violence against women is one of the main forms of political discrimination that threatens equality and basic human rights (PNUD-Idea, 2013, 2017, 2019). It affects women, obstructing parity democracy and adversely impacting on social justice. In Mexico over the last three decades, the Constitution and various legal frameworks have been reformed in order to allow women the full exercise of their political-electoral rights and have access to formal power in the political arena. In this context, after significant inter-institutional activism and organization, in April 2020 the most important federal reform on political violence against women based on gender was approved. The political reform of April 13, 2020 marks an important precedent on the matter in Mexico and Latin America, so it is important to evaluate it in the light of the context. Reviewing the historical literature on the subject in recent decades, making visible both the contemporary discussions around the reform and those of the historical pioneers on the subject, it is considered fruitful to address gender-based political violence against women from a social justice lens. This article presents a theoretical-conceptual discussion around this, with the example of cases in the 2017-18 federal electoral process, the last one prior to the reform.