On 13 July 2017, the first roundtable discussions with regard to the Contingency Plan took place at the Chihuahua State Governor´s Office. The Plan is part of the early warning system for human rights defenders and journalists.
Don't miss our July Newsletter
Mexico, CDMX; July 2017.-Topics include: Concern regarding Surveillance of HRDs; UN-WG B&HRs shares results of its visit to Mexico; One year since violent events in Nochixtlan; Contingency plan for HRDs in Chihuahua and Latin American meeting on strategies of protection for the defence of the territory; amongst others.
For the English version of our Newsletter: bit.ly/News1707
//
The UN Working Group on Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and other Business enterprises presented the report on their 2016 Mission to Mexico to the UN Human Rights Council (HRC).
On 6 July, in the context of the 163rd period of sessions of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Peru, members of the Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center (PRODH) and the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center, as well as families and representatives of the 43 students of the Normal School of Ayotzinapa who disappeared in September 2014, participated in a session about the special mechanism to monitor the case.
The International Federation of Human Rights (Fidh) and the Fray Juan de Larios Human Rights Center (FJdL) – an organization accompanied by PBI – delivered a report to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on 6 July in which they requested an investigation for crimes against humanity committed in the state of Coahuila between 2009 and 2016.
PBI Mexico's Annual Report 2016 brings details of the project's work with human rights defenders in Mexico, as well as our activities at the international level.
You can download it at: bit.ly/PBI2015AR
26 June was the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, which was created to commemorate the implementation of the UN Convention against torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment. It is important to remember that in Mexico, at the federal level, the General Law to Prevent, Investigate and Sanction Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading treatment, was approved in the recent legislative period and came into effect on 26 June.
19 June marked the one year anniversary of the “Oaxaca Operation,” carried out by the State and Federal Police in Nochixtlan and four other municipalities. According to different organizations, a series of violent events occurred that led to eight deaths and hundreds of injuries, in addition to psychological damage to dozens of civilians, including children.
According to an investigation by Citizen Lab, human rights defenders, high profile journalists and anti-corruption activists in Mexico may have been affected by “Pegasus”, a software which infiltrates mobile devices in order to monitor the movements of someone through their cell phone.
On 15 and 16 June the 4th annual Statewide Meeting of Women Activists and Human Rights Defenders took place in Oaxaca. The event was organized by Consorcio Oaxaca, an organization that receives PBI accompaniment and attended by 70 human rights defenders from different regions of the state of Oaxaca and Natalia Barreto – an Advisor for Human Rights Cooperation and Culture of the European Union Delegation in Mexico.