Mexico City, December 7.—The Senate unanimously approved reforms to the Federal Penal Code so that women victims of violence who kill their attacker in self-defense are judged with a gender perspective and are not imprisoned.
The presidents of the Justice Committee, Olga Sánchez Cordero, and the Gender Equality Committee, Malú Micher (both from Morena), emphasized in the plenary session that this reform strengthens the right to self-defense with a pro-victim and gender-based approach.
The General Law on Women's Access to a Life Free of Violence is also amended, and Article 6 specifies that "the Public Prosecutor's Office shall act with broad criteria to determine the admissibility or inadmissibility of self-defense when the attack occurs in a gender-based context, encompassing physical, psychological, sexual, and femicidal violence, which are already regulated in this article." Furthermore, it establishes that damages must be proportional to the circumstances of the attack that gave rise to self-defense.
Likewise, it establishes that self-defense will not be considered an excess of self-defense when, at the time of its implementation, circumstances occur in which the person attacked suffers fear or terror that affects their ability to determine the appropriate limits of their response or the rationality of the means employed. This concept of self-defense, with a pro-victim and gender-based approach, extends the scope of protection to women, girls, and adolescents who defend themselves against physical, psychological, sexual, or femicide attacks.
