International Day of Women Judges

  In the judiciary system , the women play a very special role. It is not about the equality only, it goes beyond that. In all judiciaries, at national and international courts, judges interpret the law, they decide about others. To be a good judge, it is never sufficient enough to know the law well. In fact, excellent knowledge of the law is an obvious prerequisite for a solid judicial performance . However, we judges should be endowed with something else as well, something that we call a sense for justice, a sense for fairness . We all may define this sense in a slightly different way. Understanding this sense reflects our education, our career and life experience. It also reflects our perspective. It is one of the most important features that brings an essential balance to the judicial decision-making processes .

Judicial decisions impact the most intimate details of everyday life, and they also shape the identity of the judiciary. Judicial decisions thus play a major role in defining the character of a democratic nation and in giving meaning to the rule of law. Thus, the Office of the President of the Supreme Court of Mexico aims to promote jurisprudential practices that uphold the principle of the right to equality. Such an effort requires generating tools that can help jurists to adjudicate cases with a gender perspective. The goal of this Protocol for Judicial Decision-Making with a Gender Perspective is to address and remedy certain problems identified by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in three recent cases against Mexico: the ‘Cotton Field” Case (Campo Algodonero), the Ines Fernandez Ortega Case, and the Valentina Rosendo Cantú Case. In those cases, the Inter-American Court made clear that Mexican courts must apply, as binding law, the international human rights treaties...