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María del Rocío García Gaytán

President of the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM)

Ms. Garcia’s political career began with her being elected to public office as an alternate and then a regular member of the Puerto Vallarta City Council in the state of Jalisco. In 1995, she served as the city’s Director of Social Development and was the driving force behind solving several problems in the Puerto Vallarta community. With the benefit of this experience, Ms. Garcia was elected to the Jalisco State Legislature, where she chaired the Equity and Gender Committee. While in this position, she sponsored several bills in favor of women, notably including the Domestic Violence Law.

After serving in the Jalisco Legislature, she was elected to serve in the Mexican Congress, where she was Secretary of the Equity and Gender Committee and served on the Population, Borders and Migratory Affairs Committee. During this period, she supported creation of the National Institute for Women (INMUJERES), over which she would later preside. She also supported amendments to the Federal Code of Electoral Institutions and Procedures that added the quota system for the first time, and she actively participated in the Bicameral Commission, where she was in charge of the Mexican Women’s Parliament.

On March 8, 2002, Ms. Garcia accepted an appointment by the Governor of Jalisco to preside over the Jalisco State Women’s Institute, a position she held until January 30, 2007. As part of her job, she designed and launched the 2002-2007 State Program for Equality between Men and Women. She also worked intensively on linking the three branches of government through the State Agreement on Equity, an activity that involved the participation of mayors throughout the metropolitan area.

She also actively promoted increased awareness among judges and magistrates, stressing the importance of their incorporating a gender perspective into their professional work. This has been one of the programs she has also promoted as President of the National Institute for Women. Here, she has made an additional valuable contribution by supporting a set of strategies to reform judicial and law enforcement organizations to take into account women’s perspective, needs, and interests.

Among her most important achievements as head of the Jaliciense Institute for women at the state of Guadalajara, is the first training for political parties—in coordination with the Federal Electoral Institute—to increase their awareness of the importance of women holding decision-making positions under the same conditions as men. She also launched a Women’s Hotline telephone number (“Línea mujer”) and a program of in-person services to orient and counsel women on subjects such as domestic violence, education, health and work.

During this period, in August 2002, she also served as a member of the national delegation that defended Mexico’s Fifth Regular Report before the Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and she served on the Mexican delegation that participated in the APEC Second Cabinet Meeting on Women, which was held in Mexico in September 2002.

In November 2007, The Jalisco State Legislature recognized her for her outstanding work in the fight against violence toward women.

On February 2, 2007, Mexico’s President, Felipe Calderon, appointed her to head the National Institute for Women, a position she still holds.

As leader of the national body responsible for policy on equality and nondiscrimination against women, her first task was to get the three branches of the Federal Government to sign the National Agreement for Equality, which commits them to promote equal treatment and opportunities for women and men as a national priority.

Her leadership ability and skills in conciliation and negotiation have enabled her to promote and strengthen efforts coordinated with the public, the three branches of government and the three levels of government through a variety of collaboration agreements with government agencies, academia, civil society organizations and international bodies in Mexico.

Aware of the importance of the synergies among all these sectors and participants, she played an active role in planning the 2008-2012 National Program for Equality between Men and Women. She was instrumental in including two important mechanisms in the plan: the National System for Equality between Women and Men and the National System to Prevent, Address, Punish and Eradicate Violence against Women.

It is noteworthy that, with the entry into force of the General Law for Equality between Women and Men, and the General Law on Women’s Right to a Violencefree Life, Ms. Garcia has made the National Institute for Women the nation’s leading agency on gender. She currently maintains its leadership on gender perspective issues in budget negotiations, joining efforts with the Legislators of all of Mexico’s political parties.

An example of the results of her clear focus on this objective is the more than 50% budget increase granted to the National Institute for Women for fiscal year 2008. In addition, a total of more than 7 billion pesos (about 670 million dollars) has been allocated to all Federal Government agencies to implement both laws.

The effort she has devoted to institutionalizing a government-wide policy focused on gender has led to recognition of the National Institute for Women as the leading agency for creating the means for achieving a new institutional culture of equality between women and men.

Her outstanding presence and active participation in intergovernmental, international and regional forums are also worthy of mention. She is promoting the gender agenda with, among others:

• The Organization of American States’ Inter-American Commission on Women. As a Lead Delegate, she made changes to the OAS’ legal instruments that strengthened the role of regional women’s organizations, making them the lead agencies on gender issues. She has played a primary role in advocating that all OAS member states contribute to maintaining the Monitoring Mechanism for the Belém do Pará Accord.
• The Council of Ministers of Women’s Affairs in Central America (COMMCA). As an observer country, Mexico is committed to promoting and strengthening cabinet-level cooperation among Central American countries. This has taken the form of opportunities to exchange experiences and best practices, technical assistance and advising.
• The UN Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). Ms. Garcia did an outstanding job of heading the Mexican delegation that participated in the Tenth Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, which took place in Ecuador in August 2007. As a result of her leadership, the Mexican delegation was one of the most diverse and representative at the Conference, and included representatives of the federal government, state women’s agencies, and civil society and legislative organizations. She played a decisive role in negotiating and securing approval of the Quito Consensus. Her proactive leadership contributed to Mexico occupying one of the vice presidencies on the Board of Directors for the 2007-2010 period. 

In the United Nations, she has also proactively participated in the Commission on the Commission on the Status of Women, where Mexico’s outstanding progress in meeting the commitments made in the Beijing Platform of Action has been recognized and she has been head of the Mexican Delegation at the 51st, 52nd and 53rd Session of the Comission. During the 53rd Session, she was invited by UNIFEM and ECLAC to share on the framework of the parallel events, the Mexico’s experience and, as representative of the women of the American continent, during the Commemorative event on the International Women’s Day, she accompanied Mr. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Interested on the development and empowerment of women she promoted, jointly with ECLAC, UNIFEM and INSTRAW, the International Expert Meeting on the “Analysis of the Economic and Financial Crisis from a Gender Perspective: Understanding the Impact on Women’s Poverty and Work”, to be realized in México City in 2009.

Her unwavering commitment to the gender agenda in the region also contributed to creation of Gender Issues Groups at the meetings of Mexico’s Bilateral Commissions with El Salvador and Costa Rica held in 2008. Her efforts have also led to changes in the format of future meetings, as well as the way that bilateral relations between Mexico and those countries are considered.

Thus, her political and administrative career has focused primarily on promoting public policies that enable women to develop by taking advantage of the same opportunities as those available to men.