Chihuahua

Photo: Tom Pierce for The Guardian

From the 17th til the 23rd of July this year, three human rights defenders from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras left their homes and headed North of the contient in order to participate in a speaker tour organised by PBI in Washington DC.  The tours we organise to the United States are always aimed at shedding light on the security situation for human rights defenders before key actors who can advocate in some way to improve their protection on the ground.

Chihuahua is one of the most dangerous areas of Mexico for the defense of human rights and journalism.  According to the National Network of Civilian Human Rights Organisms “All Rights for All” (Red TDT), Chihuahua is the state with the highest number of human rights defenders killed and the state with the second highest number of journalists killed.  Considering these attacks, a high percentage of human rights defenders count on precautionary protection measures given by the Inter-American Commi

From the 9th til 13th April, a delegation of lawyers from Spain visited the North of Mexico and Mexico City in order to hear first-hand accounts and to draw attention to the situation that lawyers who defend human rights find themselves in, they also wished to understand the state of implementation of the general laws of torture and forced disappearance as well as the strategies that the organisations and defenders use against the Internal Security Law.

As part of our accompaniment of Centro de Derechos Humanos Paso del Norte (PdN), at the end of 2017 PBI travelled to Ciudad Juárez, in the state of Chihuahua. The organization is dedicated to the promotion of human rights and provides psychological and legal accompaniment in cases of enforced disappearance and torture in Ciudad Juárez and in the north of the state.

On 13 September the Paso del Norte Human Rights Center, an organization that is accompanied by PBI, provided information in a press release about the release of Mr. J. Valdez, one of the people that they accompanied in legal proceedings.

On 11 August in Chihuahua City, a discussion took place about the “exercise of the right to Tribunal Consultation.” The event was organized by the Sierra Madre Alliance A.C. (ASMAC), with the participation of the Community Technical Consultation (CONTEC) and the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA).

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.

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.