(@EDUCA)
On September 27th, the presentation of the Citizen Report “Under Attack, Human Rights in Oaxaca”, a document prepared by Oaxacan civil organizations in the framework of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), a mechanism for evaluating the progress of the United Nations to which the Mexican Government will be submitted this year, was carried out in the City of Oaxaca. Among the main challenges, civil organizations highlighted that the state is among the first three places in the country for attacks against human rights defenders and journalists, and in first place in the case of women defenders. They also emphasized the systematic use of the criminalization of social protest to silence the voices of resistance.
For the deputy representative in Mexico Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights present at the event, Jesus Peña Palacios, the confrontation of settlers, teachers and elements of the Gendarmerie, on June 19th, 2016, in Nochixtlan, is an emblematic case of this trend, a case that is otherwise “not clarified and far from justice.” He noted that, “everything remains unpunished at both the state and federal levels.”
He stressed that cases like this send a dangerous message: “Impunity in itself is terrible because it denies the right to justice and also sends a message to aggressors to say, threatening, assault, murder comes free.”
It should be recalled that the 2016 operation in Nochixtlan left eight people dead, around 226 civilians injured, of which 84 were by firearm, as indicated by the Citizen Report. “The response of the federal government was to attribute the attack to the protesters themselves; even denying at first that its agents were armed,” the document says.
Jesus Peña, deputy representative of UNHCHR in Mexico, described as essential the contributions of civil society, because they allow the international body to contrast the information provided by the State with serious and first-hand data.
For more information in Spanish:
Oaxaca, caso emblemático de violación a derechos humanos: ONG (Proceso, 28 de septiembre de 2018)
Para la ONU, el caso Nochixtlán que dejó Cué y EPN, sigue en la impunidad (Página 3,mx, 28 de septiembre de 2018)
Nochixtlán, un caso no aclarado: ONU (NVI Noticias, 28 de septiembre de 2018)
Presentan informe a ONU sobre violaciones a derechos humanos en Oaxaca (El Imparcial, 28 de septiembre de 2018)
Organizaciones civiles evidencian ante la ONU agudización de graves violaciones a derechos humanos (Boletín de prensa de OSC, 27 de septiembre de 2018)
For more information from SIPAZ:
Oaxaca: President of Nochixtlan Victims Committee Attacked (April, 12th, 2018)
Oaxaca/National: CNDH Issues Recommendation for Seroius Human Rights Violations during Events in Nochixtlan on June 16th, 2016 (Oct. 28th, 2017)
Oaxaca/Guerrero: Gun Attack on Nochixtlan Victims’ Bus (Aug. 1st, 2017)
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