From the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to the Belém do Pará Convention

This essay describes and analyzes the scopes of the Interamerican Convention to prevent, penalize and eradicate violence against women, adopted in Belém do Pará, Brazil in 1994. It is the first international instrument that deals with and gives content to the right to a violencefree life; it recognizes that acts of violence against women violate their human rights and their fundamental freedoms. The author refers in particular, to the serious problem of interfamily violence, frequent in all countries and at all social levels. In Mexico’s case, she points out the challenges society faces in overcoming it, both in the public sphere—the procuring and imparting of justice (jurisdictional capacity respectively, of the executive and judicial branches), adequate laws and standards (responsibility of the legislative branch)—and in the private.