![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/back.dplf.org\/sites\/default\/files\/niega-tortura_1.png?resize=450%2C214&ssl=1\")
March 31st, 2015<\/p>\nMarch 31st, 2015<\/p>\n
ENRIQUE PE\u00d1A NIETO<\/strong> Mr. President, the Mexican and international civil society organizations that sign this letter do so in order to express our rejection and concern at recent statements by representatives of the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs concerning the reports of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, and the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances.<\/p>\n Particularly, we find the position of Ambassador Juan Manuel G\u00f3mez Robledo, Undersecretary for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights, who stated that the Report of the Rapporteur on Torture is “unprofessional and unethical”, to be profoundly indignant in the context of the current human rights situation in Mexico. This was aggravated by the declaration made by the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Jos\u00e9 Antonio Meade, supporting the Ambassador\u2019s position.<\/p>\n It is unacceptable that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs denies that torture is widespread in Mexico without substantiating their claims and without explaining, not only the alarming increase in the number of complaints of torture and ill-treatment registered by the National Human Rights Commission and State Human Rights Commissions since 2006, as well as the increase of pretrial investigations initiated by the Attorney General’s Office for this crime; but the fact that many documented cases account for patterns that are repeated daily in the country.<\/p>\n On the other hand, the troubling and unfortunate position of the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs of not wanting to \u201ctrabajar m\u00e1s con el Relator de tortura\u201d (work with the Rapporteur of torture anymore) not only goes against the working methods of the United Nations Human Rights Council of which Mexico is part of, which are geared to a genuine dialogue to further discussions of monitoring recommendations and their implementation, as well as substantive interaction with special procedures and mechanisms, but shows intolerance and ignorance for serious violations that are committed daily throughout our country.<\/p>\n In addition, expressions such as those emitted in February and March of this year by the Secretariat of the Interior and the National Security Commissioner, respectively, in relation to the concluding observations of the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances after its first assessment of the situation in Mexico, as well as the declarations recently issued disqualifying the generalized nature of torture documented by the UN Special Rapporteur, clearly show a negative change in foreign policy, which had been characterized by openness to international scrutiny and collaboration with human rights mechanisms of the United Nations. Moreover, these expressions add to the confidence crisis the Mexican State is currently facing.<\/p>\n Organizations, members of academia, activists, advocates and human rights defenders who document serious human rights violations committed in the context of a failed security strategy and accompany victims and relatives of torture and ill-treatment, enforced disappearances, forced internal displacement, extrajudicial killings, intimidation and threats for defending their rights, their land and territory, or exercising independent and impartial journalism, have experienced first hand the weakness of institutional safeguards that should prevent and protect against these crimes across the country.<\/p>\n The lack of recognition of Mexico\u2019s real situation and the challenges we are facing regarding human rights, reflected in an increasing and alarming denial of observations of international human rights mechanisms by the federal administration, represents a setback for the consolidation of a democratic rule of law. A foreign policy that is based on disregarding international mechanisms, to which the State itself has helped build and strengthen, weakens the legitimacy of the commitment to move forward for the respect, protection and realization of human rights.<\/p>\n Mr. President, in difficult times like these that define the situation of Mexico today, we call for consistency in its foreign policy on human rights. The open and standing invitation Mexico sustains to international human rights mechanisms is diluted by the disregard of the observations emanated from these mechanisms, observations made by experts and internationally renowned people, who on the basis of objective and reliable information, and guided by the principles of integrity, transparency and impartiality, contribute to the promotion and protection of human rights.<\/p>\n Complacency and the lack of will to address what is really happening in our country, does not contribute to the actions necessary to address the human rights crisis. Accordingly, we request that you rectify the Mexican State responses to the concluding observations of the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances and the Report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment, and address the recommendations presented in separate reports urgently.<\/p>\n We strongly hope that you will take these requests and considerations into account.<\/p>\n Sincerely,<\/strong><\/p>\n Action des Chr\u00e9tiens pour L\u2019Abolition de la Torture, ACAT France March 31st, 2015 ENRIQUE PE\u00d1A NIETO PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF MEXICO Mr. President, the Mexican and international civil society organizations that sign this letter do so in order to express our rejection and concern at recent statements by representatives of the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs concerning the reports of the United Nations Special […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[681],"tags":[],"country":[887,884],"issue":[860],"program":[872],"resource":[849],"class_list":["post-21446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","country-mexico","country-america-del-norte","issue-other-issues","program-judicial-independence","resource-letters"],"acf":{"boton_1":"","url_boton_1\u00ba":"","boton_2":"","url_boton_2":"","boton_3":"","url_boton_3":"","boton_4":"","url_boton_4":"","boton_5":"","url_boton_5":"","boton_6":"","url_boton_6":"","boton_7":"","url_boton_7":"","boton_8":"","url_boton_8":"","boton_9":"","url_boton_9":"","boton_10":"","url_boton_10":""},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dplf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21446"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dplf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dplf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dplf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dplf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21446"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dplf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22922,"href":"https:\/\/dplf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21446\/revisions\/22922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dplf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dplf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dplf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21446"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dplf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=21446"},{"taxonomy":"issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dplf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue?post=21446"},{"taxonomy":"program","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dplf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program?post=21446"},{"taxonomy":"resource","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dplf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource?post=21446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nPRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF MEXICO<\/p>\n
\nARTICLE 19. Oficina para M\u00e9xico y Centroam\u00e9rica
\nAsistencia Legal por los Derechos Humanos A.C. (ASILEGAL)
\nCentro de Derechos Humanos de las Mujeres, A.C. (CEDEHM)
\nCentro de Derechos Humanos Fr. Francisco de Vitoria O.P., A.C.
\nCentro de Derechos Humanos Fray Mat\u00edas de C\u00f3rdova A.C.
\nCentro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agust\u00edn Pro Ju\u00e1rez (Centro Prodh)
\nCentro de Derechos Humanos Paso del Norte, A.C.
\nCentro de Estudios Sociales y Culturales Antonio de Montesinos A.C.
\nCentro de Justicia para la Paz y el Desarrollo, A.C. (CEPAD)
\nCentro Diocesano para los Derechos Humanos Fray Juan de Larios AC
\nCiudadanos en Apoyo a los Derechos Humanos, A.C. (CADHAC)
\nColectivo Contra la Tortura y la Impunidad
\nComisi\u00f3n Colombiana de Juristas
\nComisi\u00f3n Ciudadana de Derechos Humanos del Noroeste, A.C. (CCDH)
\nComisi\u00f3n Mexicana de Defensa y Promoci\u00f3n de los Derechos Humanos (CMDPDH)
\nComit\u00e9 de Defensa Integral de Derechos Humanos Gobixha A.C.
\nConsultor\u00eda Especializada en Justiciabilidad de Derechos Econ\u00f3micos, Sociales y Ambientales (CEJUDESC)
\nDECA Equipo Pueblo, A.C.
\nEspacio de Coordinaci\u00f3n de Organizaciones Civiles sobre Derechos Econ\u00f3micos, Sociales y Culturales (Espacio DESC)
\nFreedom House M\u00e9xico
\nFundaci\u00f3n para el Debido Proceso Legal (DPLF)
\nGrupo de Informaci\u00f3n en Reproducci\u00f3n Elegida (GIRE)
\nIDHEAS Litigio Estrat\u00e9gico A.C
\nInstituto Mexicano de Derechos Humanos y Democracia, A.C. (IMDHD)
\nInstituto Mexicano Para el Desarrollo Comunitario, A.C. (IMDEC)
\nInstituto para la Seguridad y la Democracia, Insyde A.C.
\nJASS (Asociadas por lo Justo)
\nPropuesta C\u00edvica
\nRed Nacional de Organismos Civiles de Derechos Humanos \u201cTodos los Derechos para Todas y Todos\u201d (composed of 75 organizations in 21 states of the Mexican Republic)
\nServicios y Asesor\u00eda para la Paz, A.C (SERAPAZ)
\nWashington Office on Latin America (WOLA)
\nWorld Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"