• Obama: Address Human Rights Failures of Joint Counternarcotics Strategy
    Letter
    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
    Press release
    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
    Press release
    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
    Written statement
    Feb 1, 2013
  • Nothing to celebrate in Mexico
    Commentary
    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
    Commentary
    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.