(Date)
Honorable Minister Javier Bonilla García:
I am writing to express my concern about discrimination against women in the maquiladora industry. Your office has received a copy of the Human Rights Womenµs Rights Project report, ·No Guarantees: Sex Discrimination in Mexicoµs Maquiladora Sector,º which documents a pattern of pregnancy-based sex discrimination against women job applicants and workers in the maquiladora industry.
I urge you to issue an official public statement denouncing pregnancy-based sex discrimination in the maquiladora industry as a violation of Mexican law, to investigate vigorously all allegations of sex-based discriminatory employment practices, and to punish those responsible.
To date, your office has responded to this abuse with silence, ignoring requests to investigate and condemn publicly this widespread form of discrimination, which violates womenµs fundamental human rights, and Mexican and international laws prohibiting sex discrimination.
Authoritative human rights monitoring bodies in Mexico have already investigated and called for an end to pregnancy-based sex discrimination. For example, in 1994 the National Commission for Human Rights did a study that focused on the human rights of women in Mexico. It concluded that one significant impediment to women enjoying their full human rights is the ·requirement made of women of certificates of non-pregnancy at the time of hiring.º In June 1995, the Commission for Human Rights of Mexico City investigated pregnancy testing in the public sector, and issued a finding that condemned pregnancy testing as ·a discriminatory and sexist act that violates the principle of social and legal equality between men and women.º
If Mexico intends to meet its obligations under international and domestic law to investigate and end sex discrimination, your office should make an official public statement denouncing this form of sex discrimination, and investigate and punish sex-based discriminatory practices wherever it occurs, including in the maquiladora sector.
I look forward to receiving your reply, and thank you for your attention to this critical labor and human rights matter.
Sincerely,
(Your name)