Catalogue of Local Inclusive Public Policies

Public policies
catalogue

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Safe and Friendly Mexico City for Women and Girls

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Mexico City - Mexico

Region
Latin America and the Caribbean
Range of Demographic Size
1,000,000 inhabitants or more (metropolis)

5.1 End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere in the world.

5.2 Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation.

11.1 By 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums.

11.2 By 2030, provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all, improving road safety, notably by expanding public transport, with special attention to the needs of those in vulnerable situations, women, children, persons with disabilities and older persons.

11.3 By 2030, enhance inclusive and sustainable urbanization and capacity for participatory, integrated and sustainable human settlement planning and management in all countries.

11.7 By 2030, provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces, in particular for women and children, older persons and persons with disabilities.

16.1 Significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere.

11.2 By 2030, provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all, improving road safety, notably by expanding public transport, with special attention to the needs of those in vulnerable situations, women, children, persons with disabilities and older persons.

11.6 By 2030, reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management.

11.7 By 2030, provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces, in particular for women and children, older persons and persons with disabilities.

11.b By 2020, substantially increase the number of cities and human settlements adopting and implementing integrated policies and plans towards inclusion, resource efficiency, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, resilience to disasters, and develop and implement, in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, holistic disaster risk management at all levels.

A - Full integration of population dynamics into sustainable development with equality and respect for human rights.

B - Rights, needs, responsibilities and requirements of girls, boys, adolescents and youth

E - Gender equality

G - Territorial inequality, spatial mobility and vulnerability

American Convention on Human Rights

• Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (Convention of Belém do Pará)

Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

Others

Summary

“Safe and Friendly Mexico City for Women and Girls” is a program designed to prevent and address violence against women and girls in Mexico City’s public transport and public spaces. The Program was conceived as part of the execution of a Memorandum of Understanding between Mexico City and UN Women, and Mexico City’s adherence to the “Safe Cities Free of Violence against Women and Girls Global Programme” in March 2015.

The policy design was built upon a diagnosis study funded by UN Women and the Women Institute of Mexico City (Inmujeres CDMX), and conducted by an interdisciplinary team of COLMEX. The study encompassed a research about the uses of and needs for public transport and spaces by women from 15 to 34 years old, the systematization and analysis of violence and insecurity statistics sources, and a geo-referenced analysis of crimes mapped to the public transport network. The program design and implementation include five components: i) Travel safe; ii) Walk safe; iii) Get involved and contribute to your safety; iv) Sensitive and supportive government, and v) Information and cultural change campaigns.

Implementation Date:

Start: 11 / 24 / 2015

End: End: Currently in force

Gender and sexual diversity - Equality Gender and sexual diversity - Women Security - Citizen security Gender and sexual diversity - Gender violence
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Existence of several forms of sexual violence (street harassment, intimidation, touching, rape, etc.) undermining the rights and personal safety of women, teenagers and girls, both in Mexico City's public transport and public spaces. For a better understanding of the situation, a diagnosis study was conducted that gave rise to this local public policy (for more information, see Section 3 of the Program official document enclosed to the “Supporting Documents” section). Then, certain statistics were analyzed on several topics, including safety and gender gap perception in crime incident rates, crimes and sexual abuse against women on the street and public transport, and the public spaces within Mexico City where the offenses and crimes are perpetrated, among other focus areas of the public policy design.
Overall goal: • To drive a cultural change in Mexico City’s population in favor of women’s and girls’ right to safe mobility free of any form of violence in public spaces and transport, positioning the actions and services stemming from the Program under a corporate identity and standardized messages. Specific goals: • To benefit the creation of a social environment with “zero tolerance” towards any form of violence against women and girls. • To create a suitable urban environment where women and girls may exercise their rights more confidently while moving around Mexico City. • To coordinate and/or develop women’s and girls’ protection and assistance programs if they are victims of an assault.
Cross-institutional Commission for the Implementation of the Special Program named Safe and Friendly Mexico City for Women and Girls—chaired by the head of the Secretariat of Government of Mexico City. The Commission’s Technical Secretariat is in charge of the Secretariat of Women of Mexico City (former Women Institute of Mexico City). Its main role is arranging the participation of the governmental agencies involved in the execution of the Program's action lines. It also arranges joint actions with the “Cross-institutional Coordination of the Law for Women's Access to a Violence-free Life” for the Federal District.
Local government agencies comprising the Cross-institutional Commission for the Implementation of the Special Program named Safe and Friendly Mexico City for Women and Girls: Secretariats of Urban Development and Housing, Health, Social Development, Mobility, Law Enforcement, and Culture; Legal Counseling and Legal Services; Institute of the Youth; Office of the General Prosecutor; Center for Command, Control, Computation and Citizen Contact (C5) of Mexico City; Electrical transport Center; Mobility System 1; Metro Public Transport System; Locatel CDMX-Women’s Line; Public Space Authority; Urban Management Agency of Mexico City; Coordination of Modal Transfer Centers “CETRAM”; Passenger transport Public Corridor System, Metrobus; Political-Administrative Territorial Delimitation Bodies.
- Sections 1 & 4 of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States, incorporating international human rights conventions and women's rights to the national regulatory framework. - General Law for Equality between Men and Women. - National Program for Equal Opportunities and Non-discrimination against Women 2013- 2016. - Mexico City’s Law for Women's Access to a Violence-free Life. - Law of the National Women Institute of Mexico City. - Mexico City's Substantive Law on Equality between Women and Men, which sets out action lines within the Special Program for Equal Opportunities and Non-discrimination against Women of Mexico City 2015-2018. - Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Mexico City and UN Women, establishing a cooperating framework to make progress in addressing violence against women.
Women
Children and teenagers
Social/citizen participation
Advice
Awareness and/or information campaigns
Education and training
Systems of production, survey, systematization and monitoring of information (data)
Building of partnerships, networks, associations and coalitions
Creation of entity/plan/programme
The Safe and Friendly Mexico City for Women and Girls program is implemented through a medium-term strategy comprising five core components: i) Travel Safe: Accommodates public transport services, schedules and specific requirements to women's and girls’ uses and needs to guarantee safe mobility. It builds upon the previous “Viajemos Seguras” program, which is strengthened from this component. ii) Walk Safe: It includes actions leading to recover and enhance pedestrian traffic distances for the safe access and mobility of women and girls in Mexico City. iii) Get Involved and Contribute to your Safety: This component is intended to create and/or strengthen citizen engagement mechanisms for women's and girls’ safety, through the identification of risky places and the development of proposals to enhance the community safety. This component comprises the “Vive Segura CDMX” (Live Safe Mexico City) app, the “Silbato Vive Segura” (Live Safe Whistle) initiative, and the “Vive Segura en tu Delegación” (Live Safe in Your Delegation) program, implemented since 2016 in Cuauhtémoc, Iztacalco, Iztapalapa, Magdalena Contreras, Milpa Alta and Xochimilco. Since 2017, this component has been extended to Azcapotzalco, Manuel Hidalgo and Tlalpan. iv) Sensitive and Supportive Government: It includes the coordination of victims’ assistance services under the same conceptual and operational approach, as well as the creation of a system for the preventive monitoring of violence against women and children in public spaces and transport. v) Information and Cultural Change Campaigns: It encompasses the implementation of a communication strategy that encourages a cultural transformation in order to eradicate gender-based discrimination in public and private spaces. The local public policy is strengthened by institutionally mainstreaming these five components. For instance, three governmental levels were involved in the “Vive Segura en tu Delegación” program, namely: The federal level (through the Support Program to Women in Mexico's Federal States and the Program for Strengthening Gender Perspective Mainstreaming); the state level, and the delegation level (execution of cooperation agreements with Mexico City's delegations).
This Program has several innovative aspects, such as the comprehensive approach to violence against women and girls in public spaces and public transport in Mexico City; the progress this initiative means in terms of prevention, assistance and punishment of sexual violence in urban areas, and the program's pursue to include women’s and girls’ complaints into its action lines to guarantee their rights to safe mobility and to live in a violence-free city.
The Center of Interdisciplinary Research in Sciences and Humanities (CEIICH) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) is an associate agency to the Program. The relationship with the university center was built upon the experience of the CEIICH in the development of the “UNAM Segura” (Safe UNAM) program, which was a pioneer in accommodating UN-Habitat's and UN Women's “Safe City for Everyone” model to college venues. The cooperation was intended to build a methodological proposal to recover public spaces from a community-based gender perspective sustainable over time (social laboratories).
The third component of the Program seeks to strengthen the participation of women and men from Mexico City's neighborhoods and settlements. The “Silbato Vive Segura” initiative introduced a preventive and deterrent tool to alert law enforcement officials and the general community about risky situations and threats against women's and girls’ safety on public transport means. This action was also accompanied by the ADA protocol (the Spanish acronym for Aid, Stop and Assist) and training addressed to citizens and law enforcement officials on how to implement it. On the other hand, the “Viaja Segura CDMX” app introduced a digital tool which enables women to assess how they perceive safety while moving around the city, and to report harassment and risky situations by calling 911 and receive assistance, if necessary. The app also includes useful information (addresses and active lines) to receive assistance in case of violence against women and girls. Finally, under the “Vive Segura en tu Delegación” program, social laboratories were conducted in more than ten “Political Delegations of Mexico City” with the involvement of the community to repurpose public spaces into violence-free areas.
This policy involves the challenge of continually strengthening and improving the cross-institutional coordination mechanisms with governmental agencies engaged in executing the policy action lines. Besides, partnerships with social and women organizations should be built and strengthened, with the academia and the media involvement. On the other hand, since 2017 federal resources have been deployed to work on two specific proposals to enhance the Program operation, including the development of i) guidelines for the operation of a Citizen Observatory; and ii) a proposal to enhance the methodology of the “Vive Segura en tu Delegación” program.
Since 2017, a performance indicator system was profiled to keep track, on a cross-institutional basis, of the actions framed within the five components of the Safe and Friendly Mexico City for Women and Girls program. Currently, work is underway to enhance such indicator system and its implementation.
Local goverment
National government
- Conduction of Social Laboratories in several Delegations of Mexico City (9 until 2017, according to available information). - Creation of the Program monitoring commission. - Development of campaigns on violence prevention, promotion of women’s and girls’ rights to safe mobility, and dissemination of information on the services provided by the government of Mexico City to address cases of sexual violence against women and girls in public spaces and transport. - Strengthening of strategic partnerships that enhance the local administration's response capacity to the issues addressed by the Program. - Recovery of public spaces as violence-free areas, with the community involvement in recognizing points of risk. - Subverting street harassment, touching and verbal violence in the city areas where the Program was implemented.
The local public policy relies on print media and institutional social networks for widespread dissemination and to let the target and general population know about the specific progress made by the Program. The communication strategy is aimed at raising awareness among citizens and reporting on the action lines of the Safe and Friendly Mexico City for Women and Girls program and the public services of assistance and prevention of violence against women and girls available in the city.
Information on the Program is available on the website of the Secretariat of Women of the Government of Mexico City: https://www.semujeres.cdmx.gob.mx/programas/programa/cdmx-ciudad-segura-y-amigable Link to the Program official document: https://semujeres.cdmx.gob.mx/cdmx-ciudad-segura-y-amigable-para-mujeres-y-ninas
Foro Global Ciudades y Espacios Públicos Seguros (Safe Cities and Public Spaces Global Forum), within the website of the Secretariat of Women of the Government of Mexico City:
Link to the Program official document


Instrumentos

5.1 End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere in the world.

5.2 Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation.

11.1 By 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums.

11.2 By 2030, provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all, improving road safety, notably by expanding public transport, with special attention to the needs of those in vulnerable situations, women, children, persons with disabilities and older persons.

11.3 By 2030, enhance inclusive and sustainable urbanization and capacity for participatory, integrated and sustainable human settlement planning and management in all countries.

11.7 By 2030, provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces, in particular for women and children, older persons and persons with disabilities.

16.1 Significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere.

11.2 By 2030, provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all, improving road safety, notably by expanding public transport, with special attention to the needs of those in vulnerable situations, women, children, persons with disabilities and older persons.

11.6 By 2030, reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management.

11.7 By 2030, provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces, in particular for women and children, older persons and persons with disabilities.

11.b By 2020, substantially increase the number of cities and human settlements adopting and implementing integrated policies and plans towards inclusion, resource efficiency, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, resilience to disasters, and develop and implement, in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, holistic disaster risk management at all levels.

A - Full integration of population dynamics into sustainable development with equality and respect for human rights.
B - Rights, needs, responsibilities and requirements of girls, boys, adolescents and youth
E - Gender equality
G - Territorial inequality, spatial mobility and vulnerability
American Convention on Human Rights
• Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (Convention of Belém do Pará)
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
Others

Location

Region
Latin America and the Caribbean
Range of Demographic Size
1,000,000 inhabitants or more (metropolis)

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/* Educacion = 2 Empleo = 14 Género y diversidad sexual = 8 Interculturalidad y no discriminación = 21 Medio ambiente = 18 Movilidad Humana = 7 patrimonio e identidad cultural = 88 Salud = 25 Seguridad = 31 Vivienda = 30 */