Due Diligence Standards: The Forensic Investigation of Femi[ni]cide

Historically, the recognition of women as persons with fundamental rights has been minimized, and there has been no interest in safeguarding them; this can be evidenced not only through the crime rates but also through the analysis of the responses of the State in the contexts of investigation, prosecution, and prevention. This chapter emphasizes the incorporation of the precept of ‘Due Diligence’ as a human rights standard within a legal conceptual framework and as a standard of minimum operational practice for forensic investigators in contexts Femi[ni]cide. Considering that Due Diligence is an obligation of the State to guarantee access to truth and justice, the chapter also brings comparative approaches from the international experience illustrating standards developed by the United Nations through the “Latin American Model Protocol for the investigation of gender-related killings of women (femicide/feminicide)”, and the “Minnesota Protocol on the Investigation of Potentially Unlawful Death (2016)”, and through the description and comparison of three emblematic cases of Feminicide sentenced in Mexico that have strengthened the minimum standard of due diligence. This chapter sheds light qualitatively on the minimum standard of due diligence for forensic investigation of Femi[ni]cide, which might be considered the first ‘vignette’ on Femi[ni]cide solvability factors.