Mexico, struggle against impunity of rape as victim continues to live in hiding

Speaking to the General Council of the Spanish Bars in Madrid on Thursday, human rights activists from Mexico condemned the sexual violence committed against women, and in particular women from the most vulnerable groups of Mexican society according to elpais.com. One of the activists who testified was Valentina Rosendo, the indigenous woman who was tortured and raped in 2002 by officers of the Mexican Army. Because the military court was unresponsive to her denunciations, Rosendo took her case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Though the latter ruled in her favor, the sentence against Rosendo’s assailants was not carried out, and increasing threats against Rosendo and her daughter have obligated her to live in hiding. In a country where 98.5% of crimes go unpunished, women, and especially indigenous women, suffer most significantly from the inaccessibility of legal justice, said activists. Read Article