Norma Andrade

On 3 February 2012, human rights defender Ms Norma Andrade was attacked by an unknown assailant in the south of Mexico City.

Norma Andrade is the founder of Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa – NHRC (May Our Daughters Return Home). Her human rights work focuses on fighting for justice for the victims of femicide and their families in the State of Chihuahua.

On 3 February 2012, at approximately 9:00 am, Norma Andrade had left the house where she was staying in the Coyoacán neighbourhood in the south of Mexico City to bring her granddaughter to school when she was attacked by an unidentified man. The assailant approached her and slashed her face with a knife before fleeing the scene. The human rights defender went to hospital where she received treatment for a two-inch laceration in her cheek.

Front Line Defenders previously issued an urgent appeal following an attempt on the life of Norma Andrade. On 2 December 2011 she was shot at five times at her home in Ciudad Juárez by an unknown man. According to information received, she was discharged from hospital after a couple of days following death threats directed at the staff treating her. Following this attack, the human rights defender requested protection from the authorities in Chihuahua and she was moved to Mexico City for her safety, where her home location was supposed to be known only to federal and state officials.

Norma Andrade founded NHRC following the abduction, rape, torture and murder of her daughter, Ms Lilia Alejandra Garcia Andrade, in Ciudad Juárez on 14 February 2001. Furthermore, Front Line Defenders issued an urgent appeal concerning another daughter of Norma Andrade, Ms Malú García Andrade, President of NHRC, after she was forced to leave Ciudad Juárez when her home was intentionally set on fire on 16 February 2011.

Front Line Defenders believes that the knife attack against Norma Andrade is directly related to her fight for justice for the murder of her daughter as well as the joint struggle for justice for the killing of women and girls in the State of Chihuahua. Front Line Defenders is seriously concerned for her physical and psychological integrity particularly given that she has been the victim of two violent attacks within two months.