The following information is additional to that already found in MEX29195.FEX of 11 May 1998.

In the opinion of the coordinator of the Women, Children and Family Program (Programa de la Mujer, el Niño y la Familia) at the National Commission for Human Rights (Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos) in Mexico City, police officers would generally grant more importance to cases involving violence between a woman and her ex-husband than to cases of domestic violence because the former is considered another category of violent crime (11 Jan. 1999). Domestic violence is generally perceived by police as a private matter between spouses and police will often bring battered women back to their husbands. In cases of violent crime involving a woman and her ex-husband, the co-ordinator stated that such cases are more likely to be investigated and brought to prosecution. However, the coordinator added that most women, married or divorced, still do not denounce sexual assault.

The director general of the Mexico City Assistance Program for Women (Programa de Atención a las Victimas), a program which includes the services offered by the Family Violence Assistance Centre (Centro de Atención contra la Violencia Intrafamiliar), stated that women, whether married or divorced, had the same recourse to the law and the same rights under the law. For example, the Federal District's Family Violence Assistance and Prevention Act (Ley de Asistencia y Prevención a la Violencia Intrafamiliar) aims to protect all women who are the victims of sexual assault at the hands of present or former spouses or partners. The director general added that violent cases involving women and their ex-husbands or ex-boyfriends are very common, but could not generalize on whether police protection would be made more available to divorced women than married women.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos, Mexico City. 11 January 1999. Telephone interview with the coordinator of the Women, Children and Family Program.

Assistance Program for Women, Mexico City. 11 January 1999. Telephone interview with the director general.