National: Consultative Council on Mechanism for Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists

On April 4th, on the eve of the official visit of Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, from the 5th to 9th this month, the Consultative Council of the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, requested, “in compliance with the recommendations of both the United Nations System and the Inter-American System, the Mexican authorities respect and revindicate the work of human rights defenders and journalists in our country.” This followed “from different points -even from the highest levels of the executive- that call into question the work of journalists and defenders.” The Consultative Council of the Protection Mechanism affirmed that, “statements that disqualify the exercise of journalism, the promotion and defense of human rights, in addition to delegitimizing it, contribute to sharpening the adverse context that day by day, both defenders and journalists live in.” It recalled that since the entry of the new government, 17 defenders and journalists have been killed in the country.

The Consultative Council raised the need to strengthen the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists in Mexico, “since this is the main official tool to guarantee their protection and exercise the right to freedom of expression, the right to information and the right to defend human rights” and proposed a series of actions in this regard, including the importance of guaranteeing not only economic resources, but also human resources for this purpose.

It concluded that the Protection Mechanism “is not everything, but a tool that can contribute to the construction of a governmental system and/or policy that protects the exercise of these rights, and that without a doubt has to be a State priority.”

For more information in Spanish:

Comunicado completo ( Consejo Consultivo del Mecanismo de Protección a Defensores de Derechos Humanos y Periodistas, 4 de abril de 2019)

Activistas y periodistas en riesgo por críticas gubernamentales (La Jornada, 4 de abril de 2019)

Bachelet debe contribuir a garantizar protección a periodistas y activistas: Mecanismo de Protección (Proceso, 4 de abril de 2019)

Consejo Consultivo del Mecanismo exige respeto a defensores y periodistas (Contralínea, 4 de abril de 2019)

Señalamientos del gobierno contra la prensa y activistas “contribuyen a agudizar el contexto adverso que viven día con día”: Mecanismo de Protección (Desinformemonos, 5 de abril de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National: Mechanism for Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists Reviewed (March 31, 2019)

National/International: UNHCHR Condemns Murders of Defenders and Journalists in Chiapas and Baja California and Questions Efficacy of Government Protection Mechanism (January 31, 2019)

National: 161 Defenders and 40 Journalists Murdered in Last Presidential Term of Office (December 14, 2018)

National: Federal Mechanism for Journalists and Defenders without Funding (October 14, 2018)

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National/International: Centro Pro DH Urges Foreign Ministry to Accept UN Committee on Forced Disappearance

In a statement published on March 19th, the Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center (Centro Pro DH in its Spanish acronym) reported that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE in its Spanish acronym) filed an appeal for review of an injunction ruling in favor of Maria Herrera Magdaleno and Juan Carlos Trujillo Herrera, mother and brother of the disappeared Raul, Salvador, Luis Armando and Gustavo Trujillo Herrera (in 2008 and 2010), the woman who called on the Foreign Ministry to decide on the acceptance of the expansion of the competence of the Committee against Enforced Disappearances of United Nations (CED) in individual cases in a period of 60 calendar days. She declared that this decision would allow “thousands of relatives of victims of disappearance to raise their cases with this international body.”

She said that the Foreign Ministry appealed the sentence stating that “it invades the sphere of competence of the Executive Power and that establishes a right that in its opinion does not exist: access to International Justice, in addition to granting a very short period to conclude the term of acknowledgment of competence of the CED Committee to hear about individual cases.”

The Centro Pro DH considered that this decision “represents a missed opportunity for the government of Mexico to recognize the competence of the CED Committee and to continue to demonstrate its commitment to human rights and international scrutiny.” It filed a motion for review again urging the Foreign Ministry to recognize this competence to hear individual cases in Mexico, “in line with the recognition that this administration has made on the grave humanitarian crisis the country is experiencing.”

It should be recalled that just on March 14th, the Mexican State accepted 262 of the 264 recommendations made in the framework of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), also from the UN. 25 of them are related to the problem of forced disappearances, and one of them being the admission of the competence of the CED Committee to analyze individual cases.

For more information in Spanish:

Poder Judicial resolverá sobre competencia del Comité contra Desapariciones Forzadas de ONU (Comunicado de prensa del Centro de Derechos Humanos Agustín Pro DH, 19 de marzo de 20199

Prodh pide a la SRE aceptar competencia de comité de la ONU ante crisis de desapariciones (Proceso, 19 de marzo de 2019)

Cancillería se niega a reconocer competencia de casos de desaparición forzada ante la ONU (Heraldo de México, 19 de marzo de 2019)

Piden a SRE aceptar competencia de ONU sobre desapariciones en México (Aristegui Noticias, 19 de marzo de 2019)

La SRE no admite la competencia de Naciones Unidas en desapariciones (La Jornada, 20 de marzo de 2019)

Para más información de SIPAZ: 

National/International: Mexico Accepts 262 of 264 UN Recommendations from 2018 Universal Periodic Review (UPR) (March 21, 2019)

Guerrero/National: Commission for Truth and Access to Justice in Ayotzinapa Case Set Up. Federal Judge Orders Investigation into Possible Responsibility of Attorney General Employees for Irregularities (January 22, 2019)

International/National: Mexico’s 2018 Universal Periodic Review (UPR) (November 14, 2018)

National/International: UN Special Rapporteur for Indigenous Peoples Calls on AMLO Government to Comply with International Standards on Indigenous Consultation for Megaprojects in their Territories

Victoria Tauli Corpuz (@UNO)

In her “Technical Note on Consultation and Free, Prior and Informed Consent of Indigenous Peoples in Mexico” published on March 5th, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, called on the government of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to comply with the international standards of the indigenous consultation regarding megaprojects in their territories. Given the “investment projects announced by the Government that could affect the rights of indigenous peoples and in particular, the intention to conduct citizen consultations to gather the opinion of the national population in general on the execution or not of those projects”, she said, “there is a lack of clarity on how the planned consultations will take into account the obligations of the Mexican State to implement specific processes of prior consultation with the potentially affected indigenous peoples in order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent.” She stressed that “the processes of citizen consultation designed for the national population in general do not guarantee the safeguards of the rights of the indigenous peoples enshrined in the international standards of rights of the indigenous peoples”; specific rights “that derive from the distinct nature of the cultural models and histories of indigenous peoples, and because current democratic processes are usually not enough to address the particular concerns of peoples, who are generally marginalized in the political sphere.”

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz added that “through the publication of the technical note, I would like to contribute to the understanding and due implementation, by representatives of the State and indigenous peoples, of the international standards of human rights contained in the Declaration of the United Nations on the rights of indigenous peoples, whose adoption in 2007 was decidedly driven by Mexico, Convention No. 169 of the International Labor Organization and other international instruments and jurisprudence regarding the rights of indigenous peoples to consultation and prior informed consent that bind the State of Mexico.”

She said she would visit Mexico from March 11th to 16th, and that she was willing to meet with representatives of the federal government to address the issue.

For more information in Spanish:

Nota técnica sobre la consulta y el consentimiento libre, previo e informado de los pueblos indígenas en México (ONU, 28 de febrero de 2019)

Relatora de la ONU recuerda al gobierno federal que consulta indígena es obligatoria (Desinforménonos, 16 de marzo de 2019)

Consultas ciudadanas de Federación no garantizan derechos de pueblos: ONU (Ángulo 7, 14 de marzo de 2019)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National/International: UN Special Rapporteur on Rights of Indigenous Peoples Presents Report in Mexico City One Year after her Visit (October 22nd, 2018)

National / International: Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of the United Nations presents report on Mexico in Geneva, Switzerland (25/09/2018)

National/International: UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Publishes Report after Visit to Mexico (21/08/2018)

National/International: Visit of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to Mexico Ends (23/11/2017)

National–Mexico: Visit of UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (12/11/2017)

 

National / International: Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of the United Nations presents report on Mexico in Geneva, Switzerland

@CDH Tlachinollan

On September 19, at the 39th session of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations (UN), the special rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of the United Nations, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz presented in Geneva, Switzerland, the Report on her visit to Mexico from November 8 to 17, 2017. It should be remembered thats he visited the states of Guerrero, Chihuahua and Chiapas in the framework of that visit.

The Tlachinollan Human Rights Center participated in the presentation of this Report and underlined in a bulletin that one of the cases taken up in the same is the historical struggle of the Council of Ejidos and Communities Opposed to the La Parota Dam (CECOP). The Rapporteur refers in her report that despite the fact that the community members have expressed their refusal “the state and federal governments maintain their intention to carry it out, even though it would cause displacement and impacts to lands and traditional natural resources of the affected indigenous communities.”

In general, the report warns that the fight against megaprojects, as well as the defense of territories and natural resources have increased the risk of violence and criminalization, which has led several indigenous leaders to be imprisoned “despite judicial sentences that have ordered the suspension of projects or protection measures granted by international organizations “. It states that the preservation and protection of lands, territories and natural resources of indigenous peoples should be a priority issue that requires proper regulation, in accordance with international law.

This topic was resumed the following day in an event entitled “Defending the territory in Mexico” convened by the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center together with the international organizations International Peace Brigades (PBI), the German Coordination for Human Rights in Mexico, the World Organization Against Torture and the National Network of Civil Organizations for Human Rights All Rights for All (RED TDT), an event in which the Rapporteur was also present. “The leaders and indigenous communities who oppose the projects are killed, forcibly displaced, threatened and intimidated and subjected to insidious harassment in the form of criminal accusations that are often imprecise, highly exaggerated or fictitious”, the rapporteur warned.

For more information (in Spanish) :

Relatora de la ONU denuncia uso del sistema penal contra opositores a megaproyectos en México (Animal Político, 21 de septiembre de 2018)

Violan derechos indígenas megaproyectos en el estado, señala relatora de la ONU (El Sur, 20 de septiembre de 2018)

COMUNICADO | Participa Tlachinollan en la presentación del Informe de la Relatora Especial sobre Pueblos Indígenas  Victoria Tauli-Corpuz sobre su visita a México ante Consejo de DH de la ONU (Tlachinollan, 19 de septiembre de 2018)

Tlachinollan atestigua en Ginebra Informe sobre Pueblos Indígenas de la ONU (MVS Noticias, 19 de septiembre)

Los pueblos indígenas de Guerrero en el informe de la relatora (CDH Tlachinollan, 9 de agosto de 2018)

For more information from SIPAZ:

National/International: UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Publishes Report after Visit to Mexico August 21, 2018

National/International: Visit of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to Mexico Ends November 23, 2017

National–Mexico: Visit of UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples November 12, 2017

National: 245 NGO publicly present the “Joint Report for the Third Universal Periodic Review of Mexico”

#COlectivoEPUmx

On September 12, at a press conference, members of 245 civil society organizations, integrated in #ColectivoEPUmx, presented the “Joint Report for the Third Universal Periodic Review of Mexico”, a mechanism that the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) established to monitor progress and challenges that the countries that make it up may have.

In this context, the defenders urged López Obrador to instruct his next chancellor, Marcelo Ebrard Casaubón, to attend the audience in which the member states of the Human Rights Council will analyze the human rights situation in Mexico on November 7, in Geneva, Switzerland.

Zué Valenzuela, legal coordinator of the Network of Civil Organizations of Human Rights All Rights for All (TDT Network) expressed that there is a “preoccupation” that “the observations of the [International] organisms might be considered as issues that correspond to the administration of Enrique Peña Nieto and not issues to be assumed as a State responsibility“, since “until now, there is no clear pronouncement by Ebrard Casaubón about international obligations nor is there a rapprochement with civil society organizations to talk about it”. He stressed that the recommendations resulting from the UPR “will be made known in the first days of December, when the next government has assumed its mandate.”

Fernando Ríos Martínez, executive secretary of the TDT Network, warned that given the “budgetary restriction that the government of López Obrador intends to impose, there might not be enough budget for” human rights policies that have worked fairly well”, such as the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, upon which at the moment the security of 702 people depends.

The defenders also underlined that in the two previous reports of the UPR (2009 and 2013), the States that have participated have made 267 recommendations to Mexico. The majority of them have not been complied with, which is why they consider that the Mexican State has unfulfilled its obligations.

They stressed that the situation of violence and violation of human rights in the country remains “critical” and suggested some recommendations that could help reverse it: “an integral system of citizen security, an adequate model of attention to victims, an autonomous prosecutor’s office, effective attention to the victims, the abrogation of the internal security law and a follow-up mechanism to international recommendations as a minimum to demonstrate real commitment to solve the serious structural human rights violations “.

For more information (in Spanish):

Informe completo « Tercer Examen Periódico Universal de México por organizaciones de la sociedad civil mexicanas » (OSC, agosto de 2018)

ONG emplazan a López Obrador a aceptar las recomendaciones en derechos humanos (Proceso, 12 de septiembre de 2018)

Piden apertura a Ebrard en tema de DDHH (El Sur, 12 de septiembre de 2018)

México vive una triple crisis de violencia, corrupción e impunidad, al incumplir con recomendaciones emitidas en administraciones de Calderón y Peña Nieto: Informe (Revolución 3,0, 12 de septiembre de 2018)

México reprobó examen de la ONU en derechos humanos: ONG (La Jornada, 13 de septiembre de 2018)

Piden ONG’s a AMLO que acepte las recomendaciones en tema de derechos humanos (MX.Politico, 13 de septiembre de 2018)