Mexico's secretary of state, Alejandro Poire, will unveil the finished memorial for the women slain in Ciudad Juarez Thursday, according to state officials.

The structure has been in the works since the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued a sentence in December 2010 requiring a memorial for the eight girls and young women killed in November 2001. The sentence also required the Mexican government to reopen the investigation into the "cotton-field" slayings, as they have come to be called.

Since 1993, the small border town of Juarez has been overcome by waves of murders, most of which have been attacks against women. Human rights activists estimate the number of slain women is in the thousands.

After surveying 155 killings out of 340 documented between 1993 and 2003, a government committee found that about half involved domestic violence, robbery and gang wars, while one-third of the murders were resulted from sexual assault.

The dedication will take place at Paseo de la Victoria and Ejército Nacional and the governor of the Mexican state of Chihuahua, which encapsulates Juarez, will also be in attendance.

While the memorial is a kind -- albeit required -- gesture for families of the victims, it does not take the place of the ongoing investigation into the murders, Juarez criminologist Oscar Maynez said.

"The authorities are hoping that with more time, people will forget about the murders," Maynez told the El Paso Times. "This event is meant to distract from the serious aspects of the murder cases. We still have pending the allegations that the government wrongfully fabricated two suspects in the 2001 case, among other things."

Murders of girls and young women in Juarez have continued in recent months, as experts say the violence against women in the so-named "Murder Capital of the World" is worse than ever.

"Murders are rarely investigated and only 1 percent are even decided upon," Irma Casas, director of women's rights group Casa Amiga Esther Chavez Cano, told FOX News Latino.

Loading Slideshow...

  • Carrying images of women killed in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, demonstrators march as a woman lies on the ground during a protest marking the International Women's Day in Mexico City, Thursday March 8, 2012. A campaign for justice is waged by relatives of women killed in Ciudad Juarez, where dozens of victims were tortured, raped and killed prompting a women's rights movement that garnered international attention. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

  • Norma Andrade, mother of Liliana Garcia Andrade, one of the women killed in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, carries an image of her daughter during a protest marking the International Women's Day in Mexico City, Thursday March 8, 2012. A campaign for justice is waged by relatives of women killed in Ciudad Juarez, where dozens of victims were tortured, raped and killed prompting a women's rights movement that garnered international attention. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

  • Loclas walk by an altar set up in memory of 10,000 victims of violence in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, at the facade of Annunciation House, a shelter for immigrants and indigent people in the US city of El Paso on April 23, 2012. Annunciation House organized a mournful tribute called Voice of the Voiceless in which more than 10,000 images were screened on the facade of the building. AFP PHOTO/Jesus ALCAZAR (Photo credit should read Jesus Alcazar/AFP/Getty Images)

  • A local walks by a wall with the screened names of some of the 10,000 victims of violence in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, at the facade of Annunciation House --a shelter for immigrants and indigent people-- in the US city of El Paso on April 23, 2012. Annunciation House organized a mournful tribute called Voice of the Voiceless in which more than 10,000 images were screened on the facade of the building. AFP PHOTO/Jesus ALCAZAR (Photo credit should read Jesus Alcazar/AFP/Getty Images)

  • A woman lights a candle in an altar set up in memory of 10,000 victims of violence in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, at the facade of Annunciation House, a shelter for immigrants and indigent people in the US city of El Paso on April 23, 2012. Annunciation House organized a mournful tribute called Voice of the Voiceless in which more than 10,000 images were screened on the facade of the building. AFP PHOTO/Jesus ALCAZAR (Photo credit should read Jesus Alcazar/AFP/Getty Images)

  • A general view of an abandoned neighborhood in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state on March 30, 2012. Violence in Mexican city Ciudad Juarez (Northern Mexico) has changed the lives of its resdients, where anxious mothers look for missing daughters, families cross the border daily to sleep in neighboring US City of Texas or men living alone among abandoned houses. AFP PHOTO/ Jesus ALCAZAR (Photo credit should read Jesus Alcazar/AFP/Getty Images)

  • Relatives of missing girls pray while taking part in a religious event in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state on March 29, 2012. Violence in Mexican city Ciudad Juarez (Northern Mexico) has changed the lives of its resdients, where anxious mothers look for missing daughters, families cross the border daily to sleep in neighboring US City of Texas or men living alone among abandoned houses. AFP PHOTO/ Jesus ALCAZAR (Photo credit should read Jesus Alcazar/AFP/Getty Images)

  • In this Feb. 17, 2012 file photo, soldiers put final touches on a giant "No More Weapons" billboard made with crushed firearms placed near the U.S. border in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico Friday Feb. 17, 2012. Killings by criminal gangs in the drug violence-wracked border city of Ciudad Juarez fell by 42 percent in the first six months of this year from the same period of 2011, Mexico

  • In this April 10, 2009 file photo, a soldier stands guard on the top of a hill as faithful commemorate Good Friday during Holy Week in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Killings by criminal gangs in the drug violence-wracked border city of Ciudad Juarez fell by 42 percent in the first six months of this year from the same period of 2011, Mexicoís army said Wednesday July 11, 2012. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

  • A military asphalt roller spins over a stack of weapons seized to common criminals and drug traffickers to destroy them in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

  • View of bullets at the laboratory of the forensic medical service of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico on May 1, 2012. The laboratory was opened Tuesday for the press for the first time. More than 40,000 people have been killed in rising drug-related violence in Mexico since December 2006, when President Felipe Calderon deployed soldiers and federal police to take on organized crime. AFP PHOTO/JESUS ALCAZAR (Photo credit should read Jesus Alcazar/AFP/GettyImages)

  • A skeleton is seen in the laboratory of the forensic medical service of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico on May 1, 2012. The laboratory was opened Tuesday for the press for the first time. More than 40,000 people have been killed in rising drug-related violence in Mexico since December 2006, when President Felipe Calderon deployed soldiers and federal police to take on organized crime. AFP PHOTO/JESUS ALCAZAR (Photo credit should read Jesus Alcazar/AFP/GettyImages)

  • FILE - In this April 9, 2009 file photo, a skeletal figure representing the folk saint known in Mexico as "Santa Muerte" or "Death Saint," sits in a vendor's stall at a market in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Eight people have been arrested for allegedly killing two boys and a woman in ritual sacrifices by the cult of La Santa Muerte, or Saint Death, according to prosecutors in northern Mexico on Friday March 30, 2012. Jose Larrinaga, spokesman for Sonora state prosecutors, said the first of the three victims was apparently killed in 2009, the second in 2010 and the latest in March 2012. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, File)

Also on HuffPost: