Indigenous Peoples, Gender Justice and Legal Pluralism in the United States, Mexico and Guatemala

Session Submission Type: LASA Section Presentation

Abstract

This panel shares a comparative analysis of the experiences of indigenous women in contexts of legal pluralism in the United States, Mexico and Guatemala. Indigenous women, because of societal biases around race, gender, and class, are often the most vulnerable to oppression, and also the most disadvantaged when seeking redress. Funded through a Ford LASA Special Projects grant, our comparative research explores a variety of new justice venues at the local, national and international level that have emerged or become increasingly available to indigenous women to constitute an increasingly complex context of legal pluralism. We focus on the implications of multiple justice systems for indigenous women in the context of alternative venues. At a larger level we illuminate how women are engaging with state and non-state judicial systems, and what the effects of these engagements are on their lives. Understanding their experience increases our knowledge of the complexities of legal pluralism and the impact of distinct legal and quasi-legal systems on the most marginalized and oppressed in society.

Sub Track

• Section Presentation

Session Organizer

• Lynn M Stephen, University of Oregon

Chair

• Shannon Speed, UCLA

Individual Presentations

• State/Transborder Justice: Mam and Akateco Women Seeking Asylum in the U.S. in the Context of Transborder (Guatemala, Mexico, U.S.) Gendered Violence - Lynn M Stephen, University of Oregon

• International/Local Justice: “Ndé Women as Drivers of New Justice Spaces” El Calaboz Ranchería on the Texas-Mexico border. - Margo Tamez, University of British Columbia Okanagan

• Local and State Justice: “Reframing rights and justice in the current context of violence in Mexico: Indigenous women and social reproduction in Guerrero, Mexico” Tlapa de Comonfort, Guerrero. - Mariana Mora, CIESAS/México

• “Gender Justice, Violence and Rights Claims. Indigenous Women of the Community Police of Guerrero” Costa-Montaña of Guerrero. - María Teresa Sierra Camacho, CIESAS

Discussant

• Rosalva Aída Hernández Castillo, CIESAS-Mexico