CDMX.- A huge painting of Benito Juárez looks straight at the minister’s desk Norma Lucía Piña Hernández, the first president in the history of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN), who managed to break what “seemed like an inaccessible glass ceiling”.
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His spacious office on Avenida Pino Suárez, in the Historic Center, is surrounded by heroes of the country, and shines like never before: decorated with flowers that show that the most important space of the Federal Judiciary (PJF) is now occupied. for a woman.
From there, the minister of judicial career “takes the reins” to lead the Judiciary to a “reengineering” at the service of Mexicans, under the principles of judicial independence and unity.
from his office, the president of the high court decides and makes appointments that anticipate that women will have a fundamental role in the SCJN and on the Federal Judicial Council during his four-year presidency.
This was made clear with the appointment of Judge Taissia Cruz Parcero as director of the Federal Institute of Public Defenders (IFDP), and Josefina Cortés Campos as head of the Federal School of Judicial Training (EFFJ).
One month after assuming the presidency of the Court, Piña Hernández will make his official presentation this Sunday before the representatives of the Executive and Legislative powers, within the framework of the commemoration of the 106th anniversary of the Constitution of 1917, in the city of Querétaro.
She doesn’t like the spotlight or self-promotion, she prefers a low profile, because according to her, it’s hard for her to write about her attributes and qualities. He always fights for collegiate decisions.
After three rounds of voting, the full SCJN elected Piña Hernández on January 2.
However, as president of the Judiciary, she has to face a moment of definition in the immediate and long term.
Right at the start of his presidency, He must lead the efforts so that the Highest Court emphasizes the constitutionality of issues as important as the package of reforms in electoral matters promoted by the federal Executive, known as plan B, and which has generated the rejection of the opposition.
As well as the issue of militarization, derived from the increasingly preponderant presence of the Armed Forces in public security and civilian tasks.
After the Covid-19 pandemic, Piña Hernández revived her first profession at UNAM: teaching, who studied by family imitation, since his paternal grandfather, Malaquías Piña Jusué, was a missionary teacher at the time of the former Secretary of Public Education, José Vasconcelos.
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His grandfather established the first federal rural school in Hidalgo, and his father began his teaching career at the age of 15, but left it to go to the then National School of Jurisprudence.
His mother also studied at the Normal School, but was widowed young with three girls.Therefore, her profession as a teacher became the means of subsistence that allowed her to support her family.
Due to the influence of her mother, and because teaching would ensure her a job and a decent life in the future, at the age of 18, Norma Lucía Piña was already a teacher. Her presentation as her teacher was harsh and instructive.
It was difficult for him to exercise authority before a group of fifth graders, made up of students up to 15 years of age, mostly children of workers at the Santa Julia Market, with life experiences linked to extreme poverty.
One of the great influences in his life was his mother, who dedicated himself to teaching.
An unforgettable lesson for a young woman who was just beginning to teach in the evening shift at the Manuel M. Acosta Pedagogical Experimentation School, attached to the Benemérita National School of Teachers.
Her greatest passion as a teacher was teaching reading and writing.. Teaching classes in the afternoon allowed him to start studying Law at UNAM, which is why he went from one passion to another.
She crossed paths in her biography, as in that of her father, Law, through which she managed to become the first female president of the country’s Highest Court. “Both a teacher and a judge perform transformative functions for society”, is one of her mottos.
Recently graduated from the Faculty of Law, she began her career at the UNAM Legal Research Institute, and later joined the PJF as a project secretary at the Third Collegiate Court in Administrative Matters of the First Circuit, with residence in Mexico City, between 1988 and 1992.
With a short time of marriage, Piña Hernández suffered gender-based violence after being asked when she entered the PJF if she planned to get pregnant soon, to which she replied no.
At the beginning of his judicial career, he combined his professional and family work, as he was lucky that his boss left the court early, so he used the afternoons to reconcile his responsibilities.
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She arrived at the SCJN as Study and Account Secretary in the First Chamber, when it was headed by the now retired minister and senator Olga Sánchez Cordero.
At the proposal of former President Enrique Peña Nieto, she was appointed by the Senate as minister of the SCJN in December 2015; Her election defines her as a product of her judicial career, but also because she is a woman, because at that time her term was coming to an end, Sánchez Cordero. “I am a proud quota within the SCJN”.
The minister is one of the jurists who most vigorously appeals for the gender perspective.
An admirer of the Hindu writer and activist Arundhati Roy, the minister believes that violence against women is based on the imposition of the patriarchal system and the supremacy that women have given to the hegemonic masculinity model.
The lawyer graduated from UNAM with a 9.6 GPA has been emphatic in pointing out the need for adequate legislation and public policies to guarantee that women have mechanisms to rise to decision-making positions within the PJF and local judicial powers, as well as as measures that allow them to reconcile their work life with family life.
For the minister, judges are not law enforcement machines, but social beings with diverse ethical profiles, who must be judged, understanding judicial independence as a guarantee of the society they serve.
Days after taking office as head of the SCJN and the Federal Judicial Council, Norma Lucía Piña Hernández promised to work for a united and independent Judiciary.
Under the presentation of Piña Hernández, transcendental criteria in terms of gender perspective have been defined, and she has stood out in her interventions in debates around effective judicial protection; The right to education; the right to free development of personality; freedom of expression, both in relation to hate speech, and also in light of the right of reply; The right to information; filiation, obstetric violence, the rights of children and people with disabilities, of the LGBT+ community.
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The regulation of the right of reply also stands out; respect for the right to identity of minors who come from a process of artificial insemination; the exclusion of the crime of homicide from the military jurisdiction; the recreational use of marijuana; the unconstitutionality of norms that establish differentiated obligations based on gender; the recognition of the figure of the comraternity; the right of gender reassignment in the birth certificate, and compensatory pension in concubinage.
In addition, it established its position regarding institutional obstetric violence, defining, for the first time, that this form of gender violence is expressed through a set of dehumanizing practices.
It should be noted that as part of his contribution in terms of gender perspective has been his rejection of the criminalization of women for abortion.
Various civil society organizations have highlighted the phrase pronounced in their participation: “The anti-abortion rules what they are [también] punishing is the sexual conduct of women”.
