Human rights legislation and policy

According to the CNDH, in recent years the flow of migrants that transit through Mexico have increased, and migration patterns have become more complex. To respond to the needs of undocumented migrants that pass through the municipality of Chahuites, in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, in 2014 the priest Alejandro Solalinde Guerra founded the Center for Attention and Humanitarian Aid for Migrants as an extension of the Brothers on the Path Migrant Shelter, in Ixtepec.

In a recent opinion column, Jan Jarab, representative of the OHCHR in Mexico, analysed the security situation of journalists and HRDs in Mexico and characterized the first four months of 2017 as “chilling”, due to the murder of at least five journalists, two HRDs, and two guards assigned to protect beneficiaries of the National Protection Mechanism.

In a communique published in May, Services for an Alternative Education (EDUCA) denounced that in the first half of the year, the civil society organization suffered defamation, aggressions and criminalization due to their work in defense and promotion of human rights.

During the month of April, during the first period of ordinary sessions of Congress, legislative advances were made with regard to the General Law to Prevent, Investigate and Sanction Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading treatment and the General Law on Forced Disappearance and Disappearance Committed by Individuals.

In April, PBI travelled to Saltillo and Torreon, Coahuila in order to meet with members of the Juan Gerardi Human Rights Center, an organization that has received PBI accompaniment since 2013. On 26 April the organization celebrated 18 years of work promoting a human rights culture through the Jesús Torres Migrant Day Center and the collective of relatives United Forces for our Disappeared in Coahuila – Mexico (FUUNDEC-M).

On 17 March, the Saltillo Migrant House participated in a thematic hearing requested by several human rights organizations entitled “Mexico: Applicants for Asylum and Refugee Status” convened by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in Washington DC. During this hearing, representatives of Mexican civil society and the Federal Government discussed the current human rights situation of people who requested asylum and refugee status in the country.

The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) asked the Treasury and Congress to designate extraordinary resources to the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists. In a statement, the CNDH said that the Mechanism did not receive funding in the 2017 budget, and as a result is using funds from previous years which could run out before the end of 2017.