Major new art project about Mexico's abused Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights premieres in London
A new project by visual artist Tamsyn Challenger featuring nearly 200 exceptional artists including Tracey Emin, Paula Rego, Swoon, Maggi Hambling and Humphrey Ocean will be unveiled at a London exhibition on 11 November.
Through captivating portrait images, 400 Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights illustrates the staggeringly high rate of killings and rape of Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico. Although each image contained within the exhibition represents a woman killed or missing in Juárez, the project is set to represent violence against Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights around the world where one in every three will be raped, beaten, sexually coerced, trafficked or otherwise abused in her lifetime.
The level of violence against Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights in the state of Chihuahua is extreme. According to local human rights organisations, approximately 300 Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights were murdered between January and October this year alone. Even in a city where violent crime has soared, this shocking figure compares to nearly 400 Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights murdered in an entire decade – between 1993 and 2003. Yet in spite of this dramatic increase, the situation has not been well reported
Artist and creator of the project, Tamsyn Challenger said:
“The project 400 Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights is made to remind the world of violence towards Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights and girls in the region of Ciudad Juárez and across the globe. The situation has intensified in this border region of Mexico but it is simply not getting the level of coverage it deserves.
Curator Ellen Mara De Wachter said:
“By bringing together the faces of so many Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights maimed and murdered in Ciudad Juárez, 400 Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights offers a collective portrait of a troubling situation and confirms the solidarity of artists worldwide. The project reveals the extraordinary capacity of the visual arts to process grief, represent the unimaginable and ultimately, effect change. Its aim is to transform the issue it addresses into a thing of the past.”
Amnesty International has long documented the pattern of violence against Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights in Chihuahua state, and the systematic failure of the authorities to effectively prevent and punish these crimes.
In recent years, the local government in Chihuahua has taken some measures to improve investigations, but many perpetrators have not been brought to justice and those responsible for the systematic failure of investigations have not been held to account. In November 2009 at the Inter- American Court of Human Rights found the Mexican government responsible for failing to protect the life of three Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights murdered in a cotton field in 2001 and for failing to effectively investigate their murder. The relatives and human rights organisation that campaigned for justice in this and many other cases are still waiting for the government to implement to binding sentence of the court.
Amnesty International’s Mexico Researcher Rupert Knox said:
“High levels of violence against Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights in Chihuahua state continue largely unnoticed. The failure to act to comprehensively implement the sentence of an Inter American Court shows that the authorities are still not taking this sufficiently seriously.
We’re delighted to be supporting 400 Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights as this project throws into sharp relief the devastating reality of the level of abuse against Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights in the Chihuahua region.
“Justice is a word which remains elusive for most families whose daughter, sister, wife or mother has been murdered or abducted in Juárez. Many families have been waiting for years to find out what happened to their loved one or for the perpetrators to be held to account.
“Amnesty continues to urge the authorities to fully investigate every case of murdered or missing Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights or girls. Ending impunity for these crimes is the only means of ensuring that violence against Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights ceases in Ciudad Juarez and Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights and girls can live their lives free from violence.”
The exhibition will open with a private viewing on 11 November where the artists and special guests will attend.
The exhibition will run until 28 November at Shoreditch Town Hall Basement and across 25 November – Global Day for the Eradication of Violence against Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights. Amnesty International is working in conjunction with 400 Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights