- 80 - [her] being a woman, they told [her] that this was happening because [she] had not stayed home to look after [her] children.” She also described how, while they beat her, they shouted “whore, say I’m a cowboy, say I can ride you or I’ll kill you; go on say it!”312 Also, while they were raping her, they said “You like this, whore, don’t you? How will you not like it if you’re a bitch; as soon as I finish with you, I’m going to kill you, I’m going to fuck your mother and I’ll kill her also!”; at the same time, he encouraged other agents to rape her with expressions such as “Come, shut this whore up, try her, she’ll enjoy it! Whore, of course you enjoy it!” or “Come and feel this whore.” 9. María Cristina Sánchez Hernández stated that, while they assaulted her, the agents said to her “why weren’t you […] at home, damn bitch” and many other strong words. 10. Angélica Patricia Torres Linares recounted how while they beat her, they asked her “what was [she] doing there? that women are only useful for making tortillas; that [she should be at home; that this was happening because [she] was not at home.” 11. Claudia Hernández Martínez, recounted that, when she said where she came from, a police agent yelled, “hey, look, this bitch if from Tepito, let’s warm her up!” On realizing that she was menstruating, he yelled to the others, “look, this bitch is bleeding, let’s dirty her a little more.” Also, during the transfer, when threatening her, the agents said that “if [they] had been at home making tortillas this would not have happened to [them].” 215. The Court notes that, the right of women to live a life free of violence and the other specific rights recognized in the Convention of Belém do Pará result in the correlative obligations of the State to respect and to ensure those rights. The State obligations stipulated in Article 7 of the Convention of Belém do Pará should encompass all the State’s spheres of action, transversally and vertically; that is, all the public powers (legislative, executive and judicial), at both the federal and the state or local level, as well as the private spheres. This calls for the enactment of laws and the design of public policies, institutions and mechanisms aimed at combatting all forms of violence against women, but also requires the adoption and implementation of measures to eradicate prejudices, stereotypes and practices that constitute the fundamental causes of genderbased violence against women.313 216. The Court has already indicated that justifying violence against women and, in some way, attributing them with responsibility owing to their conduct is an inexcusable gender-based stereotype that reveals a discriminatory pattern against women, just for being women. 314 In the instant case, the extremely coarse and sexist ways in which the police addressed the victims, with obscene words, alluding to their imagined sexual life and supposed failure to comply with their household roles, as well as the supposed need for domestication, reveals profoundly macho stereotypes that sought to reduce the women to a sexual or domestic function, where, stepping out of those roles to demonstrate, protest, study or document what was happening in Texcoco and San Salvador de Atenco – in other words, their mere presence and action in the public sphere – was sufficient to punish them with diverse forms of abuse. The Court underscores that, according to the evidence gathered by the SCJN, the testimony exists of at least one other person who indicated that “during the transfer, she heard the voice of a man who said to someone ‘say I’m a cowboy!’” which agrees with what Bárbara described. Cf. SCJN judgment of February 12, 2009 (evidence file, folios 30946 and 30947). 312 The Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has ruled similarly with regard to the general obligations of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Cf. CEDAW, General Recommendation No. 35, para. 26. 313 Cf. Case of Velásquez Paiz et al. v. Guatemala. Preliminary objections, merits, reparations and costs. Judgment of November 19, 2015, para. 183, and Case of López Soto et al. v. Venezuela. Merits, reparations and costs. Judgment of September 26, 2018. Series C No. 362, paras. 235 and 236. 314