Mexico guarantees equal resources for women to participate in politics: UN

Carolina Gomez Mena

La Jornada Newspaper
Monday, January 13, 2025, p. 7

Mexico is the country in the region that has regulations that guarantee the greatest conditions of equality regarding public resources allocated to women’s candidates, since at least 50 percent of the funds are channeled to that aspect, establishes the study Towards the Democratization of the Financing of Political Parties and Electoral Campaigns in Latin America, prepared by UN Women Latin America.

She notes that for parity in Latin America and the Caribbean to be a reality, it is essential that countries have an adequate provision of resources that promotes the political participation of women.

The document states that three nations, including Mexico, have had the greatest advances in the area and adds that only 10 of the 18 countries in the region analyzed have included in their legislation the provision of allocating public funds labeled by gender aimed at strengthening the participation of women within political parties or organizations.

In the prologue of the analysis, María Noel Vaeza, regional director of UN Women for the Americas and the Caribbean, raises the need for political financing to not continue to be a barrier and limitation that unlevels electoral competition for women.

Warns about the need to strengthen electoral and party regulations to guarantee parity and consider that financing is not only a mandate of international and regional human rights frameworks, but a commitment to the democratization of institutions that must be more representative and inclusive.

Direct financing granted to parties labeled by gender is only provided for in the legislation of three countries: Mexico, Chile and Brazil. In them, the regulations provide for assigning specific and differentiated resources for the candidacies of men and women during electoral campaigns.says the analysis.