GENEVA - Mexico's mandatory and prolonged use of pretrial detention for certain types of crimes, along with failures to provide gender-specific healthcare and ensure proximity to families at the country's only women's federal prison, violated the rights of 22 women detainees, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has found.
The Committee made public its Views today after reviewing a case filed by 22 women held in pretrial detention at the Federal Social Rehabilitation Centre No. 16 (CEFERESO 16), Mexico's only federal prison exclusively for women, some of them since 2009. The charges against them related to organized crime. According to Mexico's Constitution, such crimes call for mandatory pretrial detention at the charging stage. Yet years later, most proceedings have not advanced, and they have not had a meaningful hearing in a federal court, while three of them were acquitted in 2023-24, more than 10 years later.
"These women were kept in pretrial detention for an excessively prolonged period, some of them for over 15 years, without proper review of the detention measure, and without any gender-sensitive assessment of its disproportionate impact on them as women," said Committee member Erika Schläppi.
According to the information brought before the Committee, the number of women in pretrial detention in Mexico increased by 10.3% in the first six months of 2020, compared with the increase of 1.9% for men. Overall, 51.7% of women detainees were in pretrial detention at the federal level in 2020, compared with 41.34% of men.
Despite being the only federal women's prison, CEFERESO 16 lacks continuous and permanent medical personnel, including general practitioners, gynaecologists, psychiatrists and paediatricians, who are necessary to the care of women detainees and their children. In addition, most of the women detainees do not receive visits from their families as they live far away and lack of economic resources. In 2023, 12 women committed suicide at CEFERESO 16, prompting the National Human Rights Commission to issue a recommendation, stressing the lack of adequate measures to ensure access to health.
The Committee received written testimonies from the 22 plaintiffs. Among them, Patricia Melo Tapia was held in pretrial detention following her arrest in June 2011. She suffered from gastritis and colitis and sought a transfer that would allow her daughter to visit more easily; however, this was denied. Despite her lawyer's repeated appeals for appropriate medical treatment, she died of untreated septic shock, acute liver failure and probable ovarian cancer in 2020.
Ivonne Hernández Carbajal, arrested in September 2012, alleged that she and her two teenage children were tortured at the time of arrest. Both children were subsequently institutionalized, and she said she had received no visits for eight years. She also described years of untreated allergies and insomnia.
The plaintiffs brought their complaint to the Committee, alleging Mexico had violated their rights under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and said they were disproportionately impacted by public policies and legislation.
In its findings, CEDAW held that Mexico's mandatory pretrial detention in this case resulted from both legal provisions and entrenched judicial practices that impose the measure automatically, without assessing individual circumstances, violated the principle of proportionality and "unjustifiably excluded" women from alternative or mitigating measures. The Committee also found that prolonged pretrial detention had disproportionate effects on women, especially regarding their ability to maintain contact with families. The Committee further warned that the 2024 and 2025 constitutional reforms had aggravated this structural problem by expanding offences subject to mandatory pretrial detention and restricting meaningful judicial review of its necessity, proportionality, and reasonableness.
The Committee also noted that Mexico did not refute the specific allegations of inadequate medical care, and considered that the failure of detention centres to address women's specific needs constituted discrimination.
"These women in detention face structural discrimination owing to the lack of gender-sensitive alternative mitigating measures as a result of the government's failure to address their specific needs and the absence of effective gender-sensitive mechanisms for the review of prison-related decisions," Schläppi said.
The Committee called for comprehensive and appropriate reparations, including financial compensation for the 22 victims. As a matter of urgency, it urged Mexico to ensure specialised medical and psychological care tailored to their needs. In line with the ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in García Rodríguez et al v Mexico, the Committee also called on Mexico to amend the constitutional and legislative provisions and eliminate mandatory pretrial detention, which has a disproportionate effect on women, and to review the complainants' precautionary measures through a gender lens, including caregiving responsibilities, with the aim of ending pretrial detention where possible and replacing it with non-custodial alternatives. It also urged the State Party to adopt urgent steps to mitigate harm caused by prolonged detention, including facilitating transfers to facilities closer to families, taking account of gender considerations and women's roles as primary caregivers.
