Nobel Women's Initiative - Home
Join Us Donate
  • Home
  • Who We Are

    Since 2006 we have worked in solidarity with women's movements, organizations, and activists around the world to build peace, defend justice, and champion equality for all.
    • The Laureates

      • Rigoberta Menchú Tum
      • Jody Williams
      • Shirin Ebadi
      • Leymah Gbowee
      • Tawakkol Karman
      • Maria Ressa
      • Narges Mohammadi
      • Oleksandra Matviichuk
    • The Board

      • Profiles
    • Supporters

      • Individual and institutional donors
    • Staff

      • Profiles
  • What We Do

    Nobel Women's Initiative delivers programs, events, training, mentorship, advocacy and campaigns.
    • Areas of Work

      • Influencing Change
      • Shifting the Narrative
      • Leading Peace Together
    • News & Information

      • Press releases and Statements
      • Annual & Thematic Reports
      • Blog
  • Our Approach

    This is why and how we work to increase the visibility of women striving for peace, justice and equality.
    • About Us

      • Vision, Mission, Feminist Principles
      • Highlights of our Work
      • History & Background
    • What's Our Approach?

      • Transition and Renewal
      • Strategic Directions 2023-2027
  • Get Involved

    Subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates on opportunities to join us in our work.
      • Donate
    • Work With Us

      • Jobs
Join Us Donate
  1. Shifting the Narrative
  2. 16 Days of Activism
  3. Meet Andréa Medina Rosas, Mexico

Meet Andréa Medina Rosas, Mexico

Feminist human rights lawyer and independent consultant. Andréa courageously works towards defending murdered and disappeared women, many who come from Ciudad Juárez, a city on the border of Mexico and the United States.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email
Meet Andréa Medina Rosas, Mexico

Starting in the 1990s, Ciudad Juárez earned the nickname “capital of murdered women” due to the endemic violence targeted at women. The official death toll of women killed since 1993 is about 400.  But local activists would put it up to 5,000.  And this figure does not take into account all the women disappeared, raped and tortured.

When Andréa was just a teenager her feminist mother created a civil society organization in Mexico with the idea of advancing women’s rights.  Andrea says that they did not set out to work on sexual violence—the issue landed right on their doorstep.  The first woman who came to seek their help had experienced rape.  Fifteen years later, Andréa says that this is her life: working with survivors of sexual violence and legally advocating for an end to the high levels of violence being targeted against women. 

One of Andréa’s biggest challenges was the Campo Algodonero case.  This case, filed at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 2007, held Mexico responsible for the disappearance and murders of Claudia Ivette González, Esmeralda Herrera Monreal and Laura Berenice Ramos Monárrez. The bodies of the women, two of whom were minors, were discovered in 2001, in an abandoned cotton field known as Campo Algodonero.

On December 10, 2009, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued an opinion finding Mexico in violation of human rights conventions under the American Convention of Human Rights and the Convention Belém do Pará. The Court ordered Mexico to comply with a broad set of remedial measures including a national memorial, renewed investigations and reparations of over $200,000 each to the families in the suit. Andréa and her colleagues continue the fight to get Mexico to comply with the ruling.

Andréa says throughout the case she drew inspiration and courage from Irma Monreal, the mother of one of the murdered girls.  Andréa found it remarkable that despite all that she had suffered, Irma chose to focus on her joyful memories such as swimming with her daughter in a local river. Andréa says it was reminder that she, too, needed to sometimes focus on the beautiful moments to keep going in her work.

Andréa stresses the importance of women from different cultures coming together to talk about gender violence. She says that through this process women realize the ways in which all of our societies contribute to gender injustice—and then together they move forward to work together on solutions.

The work of Andréa and her colleagues is moving us all closer to a time when governments will take responsibility for their part in sexual violence and other crimes committed against women.

Learn More

 

 

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email

16 Days of Activism

November 25, 2022

Afrah Nassar: "Believe that you are worth listening to."

November 25, 2022

Jamila Afghani: “We should extend hands of support to each other."

November 25, 2022

Mèaza Gidey Gebremedhin: “I always need to fight for myself, for my place in this world, and to help others.”

November 25, 2022

A Q&A with democracy activist Khin Ohmar: "I feel at peace knowing there is a young generation fighting for their rights."

November 25, 2022

Amira Osman Hamed: "Don't let them terrify you."

November 25, 2022

Lubna Alkanawati: "What's really helped me to survive is the women's network around me."

November 25, 2022

Nina Potarska, Anna Chernova and Oksana Senyk: "Family peace is a small piece of peacebuilding."

November 25, 2022

Nadia Murad: "We don't get anywhere by pacifying with politeness."

December 10, 2021

Manal Shqair: I’m always fighting every day for my existence as a woman (Palestine)

December 9, 2021

Ounaysa Arabi: Knowledge is power and we have a good inheritance from feminists around the world (Sudan)

December 9, 2021

Ilaf Nasreldin: We as women deserve to live a better life (Sudan)

December 8, 2021

Musu Diamond Kamara: When one woman is affronted, all of us are affronted (Liberia)

More — 16 Days of Activism

Nobel Women's Initiative

Contact Information

General Inquiries
Email:
261 Montreal Rd, Suite 310
Ottawa, ON K1L 8C7
Media Inquiries
Daina Ruduša
Email:

Join Us

  • Join us
  • Donate
  • Event Registration Fee

Social media

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube

Subscribe


© 2025 Nobel Women's Initiative

Sign in to control panel Created with NationBuilder Built by Progressive Nation
Loading…