Mexico records more than 900 femicides annually — killings of women classified as gender-motivated under the legal definition introduced in 2007. For most of the subsequent decade, the conviction rate for these killings sat below 5 percent: a figure that reflected not only impunity but a systemic failure of investigation, evidence collection, and prosecution that amounted, in practice, to a legal environment in which killing a woman carried near-zero risk of meaningful consequence.

The 2020 reform mandating specialised femicide prosecution units — separate from general homicide departments, staffed by prosecutors with mandatory gender-violence training, and supported by dedicated forensic teams following a standardised evidence protocol — was implemented with significant variation across states. Mexico City, Jalisco, and Nuevo León invested substantially in unit staffing and training; several southern states created units that existed largely on paper.

The National Audit Commission's five-year review, published in February, provides the most granular assessment yet of what the variation in implementation has produced. In the 12 states classified as "full implementation" — units staffed at or above recommended levels with certified prosecutors and complete forensic protocols — conviction rates reached 67 percent over the review period. In the 8 states classified as "nominal implementation," conviction rates were statistically indistinguishable from pre-reform general homicide courts.

Researchers studying the data note a secondary effect: in full-implementation states, femicide reporting rates have risen sharply, suggesting that families of victims are more willing to engage with a system they believe may deliver accountability.

"Impunity is a policy choice," said National Human Rights Commission director Rosario Piedra Ibarra. "These numbers tell us that the alternative is also a choice. It requires investment and will. Nothing more complicated than that."