Lines in the sand

Leon is a small city in the state of Guanajuato, located in the geographical centre of Mexico. It is best known for its shoe making and leather tanning but it is also one of the most conservative cities in the whole of Mexico. An interesting place to hold the World Youth Conference!

What do I mean when I say conservative? Let me give you an example:

In the state of Guanajuato, access to a safe abortion is illegal as in the rest of Mexico. However, in Guanajuato, the penalty is particularly harsh, 25+ years imprisonment is standard and 73 women have already been arrested in the state this year for allegedly having an abortion. I say allegedly as a recent review of the women who are currently serving time in jail for having an abortion has highlighted that at least 6 women have been imprisoned for simply having a miscarriage! There has been a lot of advocacy by human rights groups over the past year on this issue but these have met with a lot of opposition, some of which has been violent. Why do I mention this here?

The main issues that have been discussed in the Mexican newspapers in the run up to the World Youth Conference have concerned the sexual and reproductive health and rights of young people. A large number of people in the ‘Conservative’ camp have therefore come to Leon to attend the conference and today an estimated 3000 of them marched through the streets for the ‘protection of family values’. Amongst other things they argue that condoms promote promiscuity, emergency contraception is abortion, homosexuality is a clinical/mental disorder. In other words, they are clearly against the rights of women, LGBT and young people.

All the progressive Mexicans we have spoken to have warned that the numbers of conservative people are going to far outweigh the numbers of progressive young people at the Conference. However, all is not lost. The progressive youth met together this weekend to carefully strategise for the week ahead as there are going to be a lot of people at the Conference who have not yet made their minds up as to where they stand on these issues. What is going to win, conservative rhetoric or evidence-based human-rights?

The lines in the sand have been drawn. Let the Conference commence.