In addition to work with the community, Centro Mujeres works for communities in Baja California Sur through advocacy and public policy reform.

Notable Legislative Achievements

  • In 1999 Centro Mujeres worked to establish the Baja California Sur State Women’s Institute.
  • After years of continued advocacy with lawmakers and state personnel, in 2005, State Congress passed comprehensive reforms to the state penal codes. New crimes were declared in the state law, among them were: violence against women, statutory rape, rape within the married couple, and sexual harassment. The law also included a statue that prohibits minors from having to testify or make any type of declaration with the perpetrator present. At the same time the legal interruption of a pregnancy was guaranteed based on four specific legal causes.
  • Centro Mujeres sensitized policymakers about the need for revised discrimination laws and the development of an independent State Council to Prevent and Eradicate all forms of Discrimination. Centro Mujeres proposed that discrimination by gender, sexual identity, and sexual orientation be included in the reform. In 2006 the state law was approved under bill 1658.
  • Centro Mujeres worked with the State Prosecutor for Crimes Against Women and Children and two advisors from the Commission on Gender Equity to write an initiative on Mobbing.
  • A State Assembly Woman presented an initiative to incorporate child prostitution and sexual trafficking as crimes in the state penal codes. Centro Mujeres advocated to ensure that the text penalized perpetrators while protecting the human rights of victims. The bill was passed in 2009.
  • Centro Mujeres’ advocacy and statewide civil liberties campaigns implemented from 2009 to 2014 resulted in halting several attempts to overturn the legal framework (penal codes), that would have blocked free access to contraceptives and access to legal interruption of a pregnancy.
  • Thanks to the advocacy of CM’s Agrupación por los Derechos de la Juventud, seven articles were added to the state youth law in late 2014 that mandates awareness programs to eradicate discriminatory practices, provide free primary health care as well as specialized services for youth health.
  • At the invitation of lawmakers, Centro Mujeres worked to sensitize and inform them on the needs of youth in the area of health. This resulted in reforms to the state health law in June 2014.  The reforms include the obligation of health providers to promote clear, complete, scientific, unbiased, and non-discriminatory information on sexual health to youth. The law also include the obligation of health officials to provide free health care to minors.
  • Centro Mujeres worked to sensitize newly elected lawmakers on the need to institutionalize immediate protection measures throughout the state for women victims of violence and their children. As a result of this work, a legal initiative was developed and passed in April 2016 that reformed the state penal code and penal procedures code, as well as the state general Law on Women’s Access to a Life Free of Violence, guaranteeing  immediate protection orders for women and children victims of violence.