UN Committee Finds Mexico’s Pretrial Detention Violates Women’s Rights

CEDAW called on Mexico to provide comprehensive reparations, including financial compensation for the 22 victims.

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has ruled that Mexico violated the rights of 22 women detainees through the mandatory and prolonged use of pretrial detention, highlighting systemic discrimination within the country’s criminal justice system.

In a decision released today, the Committee found that the women—held at Federal Social Rehabilitation Centre No. 16 (CEFERESO 16), Mexico’s only federal prison exclusively for women—were subjected to excessively long pretrial detention, inadequate healthcare and separation from their families, amounting to violations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

Women detained for years without meaningful hearings

The case was brought by 22 women charged with organized crime offences, which under Mexico’s Constitution automatically trigger mandatory pretrial detention at the charging stage.

However, the Committee found that many of the women remained detained for years without meaningful judicial review, with some held since 2009.

Despite the lengthy detention, most legal proceedings had not advanced significantly, and several women had not received substantive hearings in federal courts.

Three of the detainees were eventually acquitted in 2023 and 2024, more than a decade after their arrest.

“These women were kept in pretrial detention for an excessively prolonged period, some of them for over 15 years, without proper review of the detention measure,” said CEDAW Committee member Erika Schläppi.

Gender discrimination in detention policies

CEDAW concluded that Mexico’s mandatory pretrial detention framework fails to assess individual circumstances, violating the legal principle of proportionality and disproportionately affecting women.

The Committee also warned that constitutional reforms adopted in 2024 and 2025 have worsened the problem by expanding the list of offences requiring automatic pretrial detention and limiting meaningful judicial review.

The Committee said such policies “unjustifiably excluded” women from alternative measures, including non-custodial options that could consider caregiving responsibilities or family circumstances.

Rising number of women in pretrial detention

Data submitted to the Committee showed that women in Mexico are increasingly affected by pretrial detention policies.

• The number of women in pretrial detention rose by 10.3% in the first half of 2020, compared with 1.9% for men.

• In 2020, 51.7% of women detainees in federal prisons were in pretrial detention, compared with 41.34% of men.

CEDAW said the disproportionate impact on women highlights structural discrimination within Mexico’s justice system.

Lack of healthcare and family contact

The Committee also raised serious concerns about conditions at CEFERESO 16, particularly the lack of gender-specific healthcare.

Despite being the country’s only federal women’s prison, the facility reportedly lacks permanent medical personnel, including:

• General practitioners

• Gynaecologists

• Psychiatrists

• Paediatricians

Such services are considered essential for women detainees and those caring for children.

The prison’s remote location also prevents many detainees from maintaining family connections. Many women receive few or no visits due to distance and financial constraints.

In 2023, 12 women died by suicide at the facility, prompting Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission to issue a recommendation citing inadequate healthcare and support systems.

Personal testimonies highlight human cost

The Committee reviewed written testimonies from the 22 plaintiffs, revealing the personal consequences of prolonged detention and inadequate care.

Patricia Melo Tapia, arrested in June 2011, suffered from gastritis and colitis and repeatedly requested a transfer closer to her daughter. Her requests were denied. Despite repeated appeals by her lawyer for medical treatment, she died in prison in 2020 from untreated septic shock, acute liver failure and suspected ovarian cancer.

Another detainee, Ivonne Hernández Carbajal, arrested in September 2012, alleged she and her teenage children were tortured during arrest. Her children were later placed in institutional care, and she reported receiving no family visits for eight years while suffering untreated allergies and insomnia.

UN calls for compensation and legal reform

CEDAW called on Mexico to provide comprehensive reparations, including financial compensation for the 22 victims.

The Committee also urged urgent measures to improve detainees’ conditions, including:

• Immediate access to specialized medical and psychological care

• Transfers to facilities closer to families

• Gender-sensitive review of detention decisions

In line with a ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in García Rodríguez et al. v Mexico, the Committee also called on Mexico to abolish mandatory pretrial detention laws that disproportionately affect women.

Authorities were urged to review the complainants’ detention measures through a gender-sensitive lens, considering caregiving responsibilities and replacing detention with non-custodial alternatives where possible.

“These women in detention face structural discrimination,” Schläppi said, stressing the need for gender-sensitive justice reforms to prevent similar violations in the future.