Feminist Law Prof Caroline Bettinger-López, Deputy Director of the Human Rights Institute at Columbia Law School, seeks signatories to an amicus brief to be filed in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in a case against Mexico involving the disappearance and murder of 3 young women in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico in 2001. Professor Bettinger-López writes in an email (reprinted with permission):
The case is representative of a larger pattern of disappearances and murders of young (often migrant) women in Juarez and northern Mexico that has occurred over the past 15 years. It is the first case to come before the Court that squarely deals with gender-based violence and discrimination. The amicus brief sets forth the due diligence standard in international human rights law for responding to gender based violence, and urges the Court to adopt broad remedies in the case that are in line with the American Convention on Human Rights and the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence Against Women (Convention Belem do Para).
If you would like to sign onto this amicus brief, please send your statement of interest as soon as possible:no later than close of business on Monday, June 30.
Counsel for Petitioner in the case have emphasized to us the importance of having a significant show of support from U.S. civil society and academics in this amicus brief. Thus, we would welcome your support for the brief.
Anyone — law prof or not — interested in signing on to the brief should contact both Professor Bettinger-López (c.lopez@law.columbia.edu) and pro bono counsel M.C. Sungalia, Esq. at Horvitz & Levy LLP (msungaila@horvitzlevy.com). They will send a working draft of the brief for your review.
-Bridget Crawford
