INEGI joins the commemoration of the first International Day of Women Judges of UNODC
“The promotion of women’s rights gender equality and the empowerment of women at all levels of the judiciary is key, because the justice sector has an implication in the society as a whole. Women can be change makers and we need the world to see that” – Minister of Justice of Austria, Ms. Alma Zadić.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) commemorated the first International Day of Women Judges with a high-level event addressing different aspects of gender responsive justice, including access to justice, the role of women in promoting integrity and accountability, responses to gender-based violence, and strengthening data collection and analysis.
During the event, UNODC Executive Director, Ms. Ghada Waly, and Ms. Alma Zadić, Minister of Justice of Austria, launched the “Women in Justice/for Justice” initiative, which seeks to incorporate women’s representation issues into judicial systems
The panel was moderated by Ambassador Annika Markovic of Sweden, and featured Reem Al-Ansari, CEO & Founder of Dr. Reem Al-Ansari Law firm; Martha Chizuma, Director, Anti-Corruption Bureau of Malawi; José Igreja Matos, President of the International Association of Judges; Kimberly Prost, Judge, International Criminal Court; Inés Mónica Weinberg de Roca, Judge of the Supreme Court of Buenos Aires; and Graciela Márquez Colín, President of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) of Mexico.
During her intervention, Ms. Márquez pointed out that INEGI and UNODC have a strong common vision regarding the importance of producing relevant data on crime and criminal justice, especially when talking about making women visible in justice statistics. Still, she recognized that important data gaps still need to be filled, specifically, when it comes to making women visible in justice statistics. This is why, derived from this joint vision, both institutions have collaborated continuously for more than a decade, through its UNODC-INEGI Center of Excellence, to support countries produce better statistics in these areas.
Just to mention two milestones of this collaboration, she alluded to the elaboration of the International Classification of Crimes for Statistical Purposes (ICCS) published in 2015 and since then, adopted by the INEGI. Also, the statistical framework for measuring gender-related killings of women (also referred as femicide/feminicide), an international guideline recently approved by the Statistical Commission, which INEGI has committed to implement in the coming years.
Ms. Márquez concluded her intervention by pointing out that “if we want to shed light into inequalities, gender stereotypes and discrimination, we must be ready to expand our knowledge base and continue investing in producing more statistical data on crime and criminal justice responses.”
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