Femicide: the hidden effect of the EU agenda

It is widely known that when women suffer abuse it is more likely to be at the hands of a partner, relative or someone known to them. But increasingly in central America, women are being deliberately and brutally killed by men who are strangers.

The killing of women by men, a form of gender-based violence known as femicide, has in recent years suddenly reached epidemic proportions in parts of Honduras, Mexico and Guatemala.

In 1993 the mutilated bodies of raped and tortured women were discovered in the waste grounds of Ciudad Juarez on the Mexico-US border.

Since then, femicide in Ciudad Juarez‚ a tax-free home to a large number of European-funded maquiladoras (assembly plants), has escalated into 1,000 murders a year. The city has now been dubbed the femicide capital of the world.

Such vicious killings have become widespread throughout central America.

In Honduras alone, cases of femicide increased by 194 per cent from 2002 to 2005 and in Guatemala two women are killed every day by men.

This escalation has been caused by the continuation of violence after years of civil war, men becoming disenchanted with their ever-impoverished surroundings and seeking to reassert their masculinity, the growth in drug and people-trafficking provoked by US foreign policy, traditional patriarchal societies where both sexes see violence against women as socially acceptable and the reluctance of authorities to investigate the murders.

But last month a series of events held in London by the Central American Women's Network highlighted another cause of gender inequalities - the European Union.

The extensive deregulation of central American economies has already greatly benefited European interests.

The majority of EU investment has been used to buy existing assets in the service sector - assets that have been made available by years of "structural adjustment" of the public sector - privatisation by any other name.

Far from creating new jobs or companies, EU investment has brought less secure jobs and higher prices for basic services.

This has pushed women into even more informal and unprotected jobs as street vendors, domestic servants, prostitutes and drug mules.

The EU has also invested in the maquiladores, which recruit mainly women for their "nimble fingers" and aptitude for work.

While the job opportunities have empowered women to an extent, the short-term nature of the work and appalling conditions which breach International Labour Organisation standards have increased their vulnerability.

In an article on femicide, academics Marina Prieto-Carron, Marilyn Thomson and Mandy MacDonald explain how working in maquiladoras puts women in direct danger of being killed. "Several factors put maquila workers at high risk of violent assault - they are often migrants and the nature of their work obliges them to do overtime, which often means walking long distances at night, even if they are scared to do so.

"They are more vulnerable if they are heads of households, as they are often forced to work longer hours to support their families.

"Raquel, a Nicaraguan maquila worker, explained how 'some women workers have to walk through dangerous areas. There have been rapes and assaults.'

"Another worker, Elsa, said she preferred not to do any overtime and lose valuable income rather than risk her life, because she would have to walk at home late at night on her own."

As factory workers at the bottom of the hierarchy in the global economy, society looks upon them as sexual objects lacking value. They are seen as worthless, temporary and disposable.

As a result the authorities often regard their violent deaths as not worth investigating. Men are openly free to carry out these crimes with impunity.

The EU association agreement currently being negotiated with central America sets the fight against poverty, inequality and for the Millennium Development Goals as a paramount objective.

The European Commission has stated that "the objective of poverty alleviation is at the heart of the commission's aid and co-operation policy for the period 2007 to 2013."

But this co-operation policy is conditional upon states further opening up trade and reducing the high tariffs central America charges for certain industrial goods.

Neither does the agreement make any specific mention of gender equity or the profound inequalities between men and women in central America.

Despite the European Parliament officially condemning femicide in the region, the agreement's failure to recognise women's productive economic contributions, their role in the caregiving economy and their central role in the reproduction of the labour force highlights the EU's failure to provide real mechanisms for advancing the status of women.

Europe's treatment of its own women exemplifies how official lip service to gender-based violence does not translate into this crime being taken seriously enough to be addressed.

Across Europe violence in the home is the main cause of death and injury for women aged 16 to 44, and in England a woman is killed every three days by a man.

Honduras provides a harsh example of how leaders more favourable to European and north American interests also tend to be in favour of suppressing women's interests.

Since the Honduran coup - tacitly favoured by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said 14 years ago that "women's rights are human rights" - the morning-after pill has been banned, violating women's sexual health and reproductive rights.

Under this regime which purports to be a "defender of freedom" there have been reports of women being attacked by men who strike their victim's reproductive organs, breasts and hips.

There have also been allegations that groups of police are gang raping women to "punish" them for taking part in anti-coup demonstrations.

And the situation across these central American countries is just the tip of the iceberg for women who have endured the oppressive effects of neoliberalism for years.