situated in mexico, there are increasing numbers of women and girls attempting to migrate as well. women and girls are at risk of being victims of sexual violence and sexual assault when they make their journey north. a report by amnesty international estimates that 6 out of every 10 women migrating through mexico may be a victim of sexual assault. migrant women are at risk of sexual violence by gangs, human traffickers, other migrants, and corrupt officers. the risk of sexual assault and rape is so high for migrant women that smugglers, or coyotes, require them to get contraceptive injections before leaving their home country. it is hard for researchers to get statistics on violence against migrant women because these women are unable to report their assault cases out of fear of being deported. in addition, the existing stigma behind sexual violence may cause many of these sexual assaults to go unreported. effects of covid-19 on violence against women on march 23, 2020 mexico's stay at home orders went into full effect, disabling some women from escaping their abusive households. the following month of april became the deadliest reported month in the last five years in mexico as 267 women were murdered. it is reported that more women died by murder in april than of covid-19 (100 deaths). during the first four months of 2020, a total of 987 women were killed, and 308 of those cases were classified as femicides according to mexico's secretary of security and citizen protection. compared to the femicide rate in 2019, it was reported to have increased by 7.7% after the covid-19 lock down was initiated. additionally, reports of domestic violence increased in mexico. un secretary-general, antonio guterres stated, "one negative repercussion of this isolation period has been the horrifying global surge in domestic violence". over 260,000 domestic violence related calls were made to the mexican police in 2020 compared to the 198,000 made in 2019. linea de la mujer, a domestic violence hotline in mexico, also reported a 97% increase in calls received compared to the year before. lastly, the number of women and children admitted to the 69 national network of shelter locations in mexico, increased by 50% during the pandemic. government response on may 15, 2020, mexican president andres manual lopez obrador stated that 90% of calls made to domestic violence hotlines during the stay at home orders were false. later that same month, the government previewed an anti domestic violence commercial, urging spouses to count to ten and to wave the "white flag of peace" when frustrated. after receiving criticism from the mexican population, which urged the government to provide tangible resources for domestic violence victims, the collection of videos were removed from television commercials. in july 2020 andres manuel lopez obrador announced that the federal women's institute would receive a budget cut of 75%, an estimated 151 million pesos (us$7,537,752.92) after the pandemic crisis. politics of gender-based violence in mexico international agreements and legislation the mexican government is part of various international efforts and agreements that aim to enhance the living standards of women and lower gender inequality within the country. first and foremost, they signed in favor of the universal declaration of human rights (udhr) in 1948 which guarantees the fundamental rights of men and women equally. the mexican state also became a part of the united nations general assembly (unga) convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women in 1979. in 1993 mexico signed the first international document recognizing ‘gender violence’ as a type of violence, by the united nations ‘the declaration on the elimination of violence against women’. followed by the bélem do pará convention agreement, signed in 1994 and promoted by the inter-american commission of women (cim), which criminalizes violence against women with an emphasis on sexual violence. convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women 2012 the 2012 convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women showed its concern with the raising levels of insecurity and gender-based violence in the country:“it is deeply concerned that the public security strategy to combat organized crime, combined with persistent impunity and corruption, have contributed to the intensification of already existing patterns of widespread discrimination and violence against women in the state party, rooted in patriarchal attitudes, and to the minimization and invisibility of this phenomenon. the committee is concerned that women and girls have been subjected to increasing levels and different types of gender-based violence, such as domestic violence, forced disappearances, torture and murders, especially femicide, by state actors, including law enforcement officials and the security forces, as well as by non-state actors, such as organized crime groups.”the committee encouraged the mexican state to prosecute and punish perpetrators of violence towards women. in addition, they urged mexico to increase efforts and resources to improve public security, by providing a systematic training on gender-based violence to law enforcing actors and all other public security forces. they emphasized that the legislative inconsistencies at the state and municipal level should be tackled, including impunity and every other discriminatory penal and legal driven action or non-action. more over, they argued that appropriate monitoring and sanctions should be carried out to all law enforcing actors and judiciaries who acts against the interest of women's protection. lastly, they stated that it was strictly necessary to collect consistent and veridical information on violence against women and to make gender-based violence a state primary issue. general law on women's access to a life free of violence (2007) the general law on women's access to a life free of violence(glwalfv) was introduced the february 1, 2007 with the aim to prevent and eradicate gender-based violence, by combining the efforts among the federation, federal entities and municipalities. it established the regulations to guarantee mexican women a life without violence, according to the constitutional principles of equality and justice. as well as to enforce a democracy to strengthen the sovereignty of the state and its laws. this law recognizes all the international treaties on human rights and gender-based violence that the mexican state ratified. the glwalfv in point iv, article 5 in chapter i defines 'violence against women' as: any act or omission, based on their gender, that causes them psychological, physical, patrimonial, economic, sexual damage, suffering or death, in the private and the public matter. it recognizes 6 types of violence: psychological violence, physical violence, patrimonial violence, economic violence, sexual violence and any other analogous forms that harm the integrity or freedom of women. furthermore, article 21 of chapter v recognizes 'femicide violence' as: the extreme form of gender violence against women, produced by the violation of their human rights in the public and private spheres, produced by misogynistic behaviors that can lead to social and state impunity which can culminate in homicide and other forms of violent death of women. reports by amnesty international have shown that this law has not been very effective due to poor implementation and a minimal change in police investigations following reports of different kinds of violence. gender violence alert mechanism one policy that has been put in place to increase response by local officials is the gender violence alert mechanism (alerta de violencia de género contra las mujeres). in this program, citizens may opt to receive a gender alert when violence against women is increasing in their municipality. this alert is the governments and security forces effort, at eradicating femicide violence in a specific area. it looks to guarantee women's security, lowering violence levels and eliminating inequalities by: establishing an institutional and multi-disciplinary group with a gender perspective that monitors the situation. implement preventive, security and justice actions to confront and reduce femicide violence . report on the area and the behavior of the indicators of gender-based violence. allocate the necessary budgetary resources to face the gender violence alert mechanism transparency on the causes that triggered the alert and the security conditions of the area where these measure have to be implemented in the state of mexico, the state with the highest population, the federal government found that its femicide rates were severe enough to issue an alert on gender violence on july 31 in 2015. this was the first time the federal government released an alert. since then, alerts have been released in morelos, michoacán, chiapas, nuevo león, veracruz, sinaloa, colima, san luis potosí, guerrero, quintana roo, and nayarit. this alerting system has been reported as ineffective, since authorities view it as a punishment or a political attack. they choose to hide away from facing any repercussions rather than addressing the problem and making changes in ways to investigate violence against women cases. invisibility, normalization and impunity while there has been legislation over the last few decades attempting to decrease violence against women, they have proven to have had little effect due to a lack of enforcement by authorities and trust in the government. the absence in punishing delinquents is often referred to as "impunity". in 2020, it was reported by the institute for economics & peace that 92.4 percent of crimes in mexico are either not reported to authorities or investigated by them. in 2016, mexico received a 67.42 from a scale of 0–100, 0 being no impunity, placing it at 58th place out of the 59 countries that were examined in the global impunity index. specifically only 7% of crimes against women are further investigated after being reported. however, even after investigations are opened, suspect aggressors are rarely caught and taken before a judge. in 2018, mexico's national statistic and geography institute stated that out of the 1,058,052 cases that were opened for investigation only 58,228 suspects were forced to present themselves in court. one activist, natalia reyes, reported that only 8 percent of femicides in mexico are punished. as a result, many female homicides continue to go unrecognized by authorities, as no action is taken to investigate the women's deaths. with the lack of authoritative force in mexicos' justice system, women and other members of the population have quit reporting cases overall. the national institute of statistics and geography (inegi), revealed that women refuse to report their case to authorities due to their lack of trust in the government, it being a waste of time, not having sufficient evidence, or out of fear of their abuser. furthermore, irene tello arista, executive director of impunidad cero, stated that this underreporting "has a lot to do with discrimination at the time of reporting. women are treated with prejudices and stereotypes, the authorities ask them is they were drunk, if they had a relationship with the aggressor, if they are sure they want to report". with no trust in authorities to bring justice to victims, women have avoided contacting them for help. the mexican government has recognized this underreporting phenomenon as la cifra negra, the black figure. in 2019 the national survey on urban public security (ensu), unveiled that 77% of women reported feeling unsafe in mexico, as an average of 11 women are killed every day. as a result, alejandro gertz manero, attorney general of mexico, recommended in august 2020 that all murders involving women should be investigated as femicides. activism and protest in recent years, feminist groups have become more vocal with their critique towards police organizations and government figures. specifically, these activists claim to be protesting against their ineffectiveness when handling cases of violence against women. as a result, feminist groups have established campaigns that aim to bring awareness to violence against women and femicides in mexico. #ni una más protest the slogan ni una más, not another one, has become widely used to signal that no other woman should be a victim of gender violence. ni una más has appeared in the form of a hashtag on various social media platforms, as well as out in the streets in campaigns and protests. the hashtag #niunamás has served as a place to diffuse information, encourage dialogue, and bring awareness to the assault that women and girls experience in latin america. women decided to organize these hashtags, slogans, and protests as a way to bring awareness to the harm and the issues that have been happening to women and children throughout mexico as an average of 10 women are murdered every day and 4 children go