• Human Rights in Mexico

    Mexican security forces have committed widespread human rights violations in efforts to combat powerful organized crime groups, including extrajudicial killings, disappearances, and torture. Almost none of these abuses are adequately investigated, exacerbating a climate of violence and impunity in many parts of the country. Criminal groups as well as members of security forces continue to threaten or attack human rights defenders and journalists. Although Mexico’s Supreme Court found the use of military jurisdiction to prosecute human rights violations was unconstitutional, virtually all alleged abuses by military personnel continue to be prosecuted in military courts.

  • A woman carries a banner bearing photographs of missing persons in a march by mothers of the disappeared in Mexico City, May 10, 2012.
    © 2012 Getty Images
    Mexico: Crisis of Enforced Disappearances

    Mexico’s security forces have participated in widespread enforced disappearances, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Virtually none of the victims have been found or those responsible brought to justice, exacerbating the suffering of families of the disappeared, Human Rights Watch found. 

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Mexico

  • Obama: Address Human Rights Failures of Joint Counternarcotics Strategy
    Apr 29, 2013

     

    I am writing to you to express our concern regarding the negative impact that the public security approach pursued in recent years in Mexico has had upon human rights. When you meet with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto this week in Mexico, public security will be one of the main issues on the agenda. The visit offers a critically important opportunity to evaluate the public security crisis that continues to afflict Mexico, with extremely powerful cartels, endemic corruption of police forces, and virtually zero accountability for those who commit crimes. 

  • Mexico: Abolish “Arraigo” Detention from Constitution
    Apr 25, 2013
    Mexico’s congress should reject a proposed constitutional change on preventive detention, Human Rights Watch said today. The proposed change, which would reduce the maximum preventive detention period from 80 days to 40, would not meet international human rights standards. Instead, Mexico’s Congress should move to eliminate the practice, known as “arraigo,” Human Rights Watch said.
  • Mexico: Crisis of Enforced Disappearances
    Feb 20, 2013

    Mexico’s security forces have participated in widespread enforced disappearances, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Virtually none of the victims have been found or those responsible brought to justice, exacerbating the suffering of families of the disappeared, Human Rights Watch found. 

  • Global: HRW Submission to the CEDAW Committee
    Feb 1, 2013
  • Nothing to celebrate in Mexico
    Jan 25, 2013

    On first read, it might have been a hoax. On International Human Rights Day last month, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Anthony Wayne, “celebrated” Mexico’s human rights achievements. “The United States recognizes the Mexican government, including officials and institutions,” he wrote in the newspaper El Universal, “for its efforts to promote the defense of human rights in Mexico.”

  • Barack Obama: Dump These 8 Unsavory Allies
    Jan 2, 2013
    If Obama wants to bolster his legacy in his second term, he can and should get tough on some of the United States' most unsavory friends and allies. Here are eight leaders to start with.
  • Mexico: Letter to President Peña Nieto
    Dec 11, 2012

    On behalf of Human Rights Watch, I wish to congratulate you on your inauguration as president. You have assumed leadership of a country whose recent human rights record is appalling. Addressing the abuses committed during the tenure of your predecessor and preventing them in the future will require immediate attention at the highest levels of your administration. I write to urge you to rapidly set out a concrete, detailed plan to address these serious problems.

  • Mexico: Letter to Nuevo León Congress on Criminalizing Enforced Disappearances
    Oct 26, 2012

    On behalf of Human Rights Watch, I am writing to offer recommendations regarding the potential reform of Nuevo León’s criminal code to include the crime of enforced disappearance. We understand that the newly inaugurated state congress intends to undertake this reform before the end of the year, and we support efforts to address this serious problem.

  • US: Don’t Recommend Immunity for Mexico Ex-President Ernesto Zedillo
    Sep 6, 2012
    The US State Department should not issue a recommendation to grant the former president of Mexico, Ernesto Zedillo, immunity in a civil suit, Human Rights Watch said. The State Department is expected to notify a US district court judge in Connecticut on or before September 7, 2012 of its recommendation regarding whether Zedillo, who served from 1994 to 2000, should be granted immunity in a lawsuit alleging his responsibility for a massacre carried out when he was president.
  • Awards for Rights Activists from Congo, Libya
    Aug 14, 2012
    Abbé Benoît Kinalegu from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Salah Marghani from Libya have been selected as recipients of the prestigious Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism. Recipients of this award are leading voices for justice in their countries, working relentlessly to protect the rights and dignity of others.
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