Nobel Women's Initiative

--Ottawa (January 17, 2011)

Six Nobel Peace Laureates--Rigobert Menchu, Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi, Mairead Maguire, Betty Williams and Wangari Maathai--today joined activists from around the world who are calling on the Mexican government to fully investigate the murder of Marisela Escobdedo Ortiz and her daughter Rubi Marisol Frayre.

Escobedo Ortiz was killed on December 16 while protesting on the steps of the governor's office in the state capital, Chihuahua, demanding progress on her daughter's case.  Rubi was killed in August 2008 by her boyfriend.  Escobedo investigated her daughter's case on her own, and though the killer confessed, he has walked free.

The day after the murder of Escobedo, arsonists burned down the lumber business of Escobedo's partner, Jose Monge, and the asphyxiated body of Monge's brother was found dumped in a town near the U.S.-Mexico border on Sunday morning.

Suspected criminals are rarely successfully prosecuted in Ciudad Juarez, where more than 7,000 people have been killed in the past three years.  In 2010, nearly 300 women were murdered in Ciudad Juarez, which is right across the border from El Paso, Texas.

Last year the Inter-American Human Right's Court ruled that Mexico is not preventing and duly investigating the violence against women in Ciudad Juarez--the disappearances, sexual violence, and murders of women as well as the aggression against family members and defenders who demand justice for these cases.

The Nobel Laureates--joined by activists protesting today at Mexican Embassies around the world--are calling for Mexico to comply with the ruling of the Inter-American Human Right's Court.

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Read the full statement.

For more information, please contact:

Rachel Vincent
Nobel Women's Initiative
613-276-9030 or 613-569-8400, ext. 113