Mexico City launches the campaign ‘If they touch you, it touches us’ against gender violence

Mexico.- The Head of Government of Mexico City, Clara Brugada, presented this Monday the campaign ‘Si te tocan, nos toca’ (If they touch you, it touches us), aimed at combating gender violence within the framework of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, which is commemorated on November 25. The strategy includes 12 messages to prevent and eradicate sexist violence, as well as cultural and health activities, it was reported in a statement. The contents will be disseminated in streets, markets, public squares, mass transit, and community spaces. Among the central messages, the following stands out: ‘If they touch you, it’s up to us to be the people who don’t close their eyes to harassment and abuse‘. Brugada emphasized that the goal is to send a “forceful” message to the women of the capital: “You are not alone”, and insisted on social co-responsibility and the need for men to reflect and act in order not to reproduce violence. Likewise, she announced that within the 16 days of activism against violence against women, which culminate on December 10, she will send a package of reform proposals “to strengthen the protection of women victims of domestic violence, sexual abuse and guarantee safety conditions in hotels, where femicides have been recorded”.

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These initiatives will be presented tomorrow, Tuesday, by the Attorney General’s Office and the Legal Counsel, she specified. Brugada also reported the upcoming opening of a women’s ombudsperson’s office, which will provide direct legal representation to victims of violence starting next January 1st. As well as a gender module in the Secretariat of Citizen Security (SSC), specialized in the attention of crimes against women. In addition, she announced that the first progress report on the Alert for Violence against Women will be presented, without specifying the date, and added that an agreement will be signed with the concessioned transport to prevent and punish sexual harassment and abuse. The announcement comes after the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, was attacked by a man who touched her without consent while she was walking through the streets of the city center on November 4th. The aggression against Sheinbaum generated strong indignation in the country due to the persistence of sexual crimes and violence against women, which reaches the highest authority in the country. In Mexico, more than 70% of women over 15 years of age have suffered at least one type of violence —sexual (48%), psychological (52%) or physical (35%)—, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi). Furthermore, one in five Mexican women has faced violence in public spaces, but 92% of those cases are not reported, according to the same organization.