Mexico: International Recommendations Disregarded, Thousands of Victims Suffer
Scarce progress was made by Mexico since the Committee on Enforced Disappearances issued its recommendations in 2015.
Time passes and relatives of disappeared persons cannot count on effective mechanisms to establish the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones. In February 2015, the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) formulated a list of recommendations to tackle what it defined “a situation of widespread disappearances in much of the State”. As of today, the level of implementation is far from satisfying.
The CED identified as priorities the establishment of a unified national register of disappeared persons; the establishment of an effective transnational mechanism to prevent and eradicate the disappearance of migrants; the adoption of adequate measures to search for, locate and release disappeared persons; and in the event of death, locate, respect and return their mortal remains to their families.
One year later, TRIAL International and its partners had already raised the alarm on the lack of implementation of CED recommendations. Following its findings, the CED considered Mexico’s action to fight enforced disappearances insufficient.
Two years on, little has changed
On 15 February 2017, TRIAL International and two Mexican NGOs submitted an updated follow-up report to the CED. The conclusions are grim and mirror last year’s findings: no updated unified national register of disappeared persons has been set up yet; the mechanisms created to deal with the disappearance of migrants struggle with practical obstacles; and the search of disappeared persons remains flawed and extremely slow.
There is little chance that Mexico will address the existing crisis soon, its lack of political will being evident. The onus also lies on the CED: in the face of Mexico’s inertia, it should look into innovative means to prompt the government into action – a country visit or a referral to the UN General Assembly, for instance.
Read the full follow-up report (in Spanish)
Read the executive summary (in English)
