Femicide in Mexico: A Comparative Discourse Analysis of State and Non-State Actors

A transnational feminist perspective was used to construct a comparative critical discourse analysis of the three main actors involved with the effort to combat femicide in Juárez, Mexico since the early 1990s. The discourse analysis is utilized as a means of attempting to understand the similarities and the differences between the Mexican state, Mexican grassroots activist groups, and the United Nations Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), with regard to their beliefs concerning the causalities of and solutions for combating femicide in Ciudad Juárez specifically and Mexico in general. Using documentation provided by CEDAW, we examined the language used by activist groups in their appeals to this United Nations committee, juxtaposed with the response on the part of the Mexican government to the committee\u27s allegations. The findings of the comparative discourse analysis revealed that activist groups, the government, and the United Nations had focused most of their attention on only one of the main root causes of femicide and failed to address the entire causality of gender-related violence in Mexico, leading to inadequate policy and action, resulting in the continuation of femicide in Mexico today