The Judicial Branch announces three months of paid paternity for its workers

The president of the Supreme Court of Justice, Arturo Zaldívar, during a press conference this Wednesday in Mexico City.José Méndez / EFE

A day after the Supreme Court issued the momentous ruling to decriminalize abortion throughout Mexico, the president of the Judiciary, Arturo Zaldívar, announced this Wednesday that justice workers will have "very soon" access to paternity leave paid for three months in the first nine after the birth or adoption of a child. All of this is part of the gender agenda with which the country's highest legal representative has said he feels committed. They are the first paternity leave that will exist in Mexico, which places it "at the forefront in the American continent in the protectionism of real equality." This measure, "revolutionary in the judiciary" will try to bridge the wage gap and labor inequality between men and women, according to Zaldívar."I hope it serves as an example for other public and private institutions."

More information

• Abortion in Mexico: laws, sentences and difficulties

• Mexico decriminalizes abortion after historic court decision

At a press conference, the President of the Court delivered a high-voltage feminist speech where there was no lack of arguments against those who oppose abortion or human rights justifications for those who decide to exercise it. In addition, Zaldívar has mentioned the progress that the Judiciary has experienced in combating harassment that women workers in this area have experienced for decades. During this term, three judges have been suspended from their functions for this reason, two of them had been "raping women" for decades, the presiding minister assured. "It was an ingrained custom, a culture that we want to combat." The workers of the Judicial Power have an anonymous mailbox where they can present their complaints, in addition to the ordinary channels. The minister president has also ruled on parity,shared care in the domestic sphere and the violence suffered by women in the streets and at home.

A good part of the intervention before the press has been focused on the decriminalization of abortion, a sentence that has been received with hope outside the borders of Mexico. Zaldívar has reminded all judges that they are obliged to respect the right of women to terminate their pregnancy. "We are in favor of life and that of women be free, with rights, without violence, torture or prison." He has emphasized that in his opinion the abortion ban “penalizes the poorest and most discriminated against, who are those in prisons. Rich girls have always had an abortion, but they did not go to prison ”. The Ombudsman Institute will be at the disposal of all those who need it to begin their process of release from prison."And an agreement has also been reached to defend the families who are victims of femicide." "The challenge is to reach the entire country with lawyers who defend the people," said Zaldívar.

The sentence “is not a merit of the Supreme Court, but of thousands of women who have fought for years, of those who are no longer here and of the young women of the green tide who come out to shout that their sexual and reproductive rights be respected. It is also a tribute to all those who have died from clandestine abortions, those who have endured unjust prisons and those who are still in jail for exercising their rights. It is an honor to have been, together with my colleagues from the Court, the instrument for this struggle of so many years to have crystallized ”. Indeed, the decriminalization of abortion does not come in Mexico through federal legislation but by following the path already taken in other countries, that of jurisprudence issued from the highest judicial instance.Asked about the support for the resolution expressed by the President of the Government, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Zaldívar thanked him. "The Judiciary will continue to do its part," he said a little earlier.

The position of the President of the Court is that abortion definitively leaves the Penal Code to frame its regulation in political administrations. But that is an extreme that has not yet been achieved. "A constitutional right cannot be a crime at the same time," he insisted. And he has been conciliatory, but blunt with the parties and organizations opposed to the interruption of pregnancy, to whom he has reminded that beliefs and faith correspond to the private sphere, not to the administration of a secular country. “Beliefs cannot take precedence over rights. To those who do not share the right to decide on pregnancy, I say that this sentence does not oblige to abort, it only eliminates criminalization ". Zaldívar has declared himself a fervent defender of equality for years.“I have been on the side of unpopular causes when it was very difficult to defend them. In some of them they burned me with green firewood, but today no one doubts the great step that women have taken in Mexico. Societies advance and this fight [in favor of abortion] has the legal and ethical reason ”, he assured. "I only owe myself to the Constitution, human rights and my conscience."

On the deep-rooted harassment that women have experienced in the Judiciary, he has had harsh words.

“Gender harassment did not look bad in the Judiciary, women could be touched, hugged and they supported them so as not to lose their job.

Zero tolerance with that, so I will continue until the last day.

Although he has not given data, he has assured that these abuses have decreased and that the trend continues to be downward.

In another vein, the president of the Mexican Supreme Court has also referred to corruption, the close relationships that some famous law firms had with the judicial authorities, a network that "has dismantled."

"They had taken the Judicial Power" has settled.

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