Land, Territory and Enviromental Defenders

On 27 July the Focal Group on Businesses and Human Rights made a statement and held a press conference to announce that they were stepping away from the process of creating the National Program for Businesses and Human Rights (PNEDH) because the proposal from the Mexican government did not meet the international standards established by the United Nations Guiding Principles.

In the context of the Global Day of Action Against Open-Pit Mining and the State Day of Rebellion Against Mining, civil society organizations commemorated their fight for their land and territory. Inhabitants of the communities of the Ejutla Valley and Ocotlán, Oaxaca, demanded that state and federal governments put a stop to the exploration and expansion on their land by the Canadian company Fortuna Silver Mines – this will be due to a lack of consultation with them and the risk faced by land and territory in the state of Oaxaca.

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 9 June, the Governor of the State of Chihuahua, Javier Corral, and the Under Secretary of Human Rights from the Secretary of the Interior, Roberto Campa Cifrian, signed the Contingency Plan which was created from the early warning system for the protection of human rights defenders and journalists in Chihuahua.

On May 30, 31 and June 1, in Mexico City, the Latin American Meeting “Strategies of Protection for the defence of territory” was held. With the support of ProtectDefenders.eu, this event was organised by a group of international, regional and local organisations that support processes for the protection of human rights defenders, especially those who work in the defence of land and territory.

Civil Society Organizations in Chihauhua salute the passage of an integral reform of the Chihuhua State Prosecutor’s Office by the State Congress, which will include the creation of a Special Prosecutor for the Investigation of Human Rights Violations in the state.

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.

According to a recent communique from ProDESC, on 17 March the Sixth District Judge located in Salina Cruz in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, ruled that the appeal by the Popular Assembly of the Juchiteco People (APPJ), which was filed on 19 August 2015, was denied.

In a Resolution dated 25 March 2017, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) made a statement about the application for provisional measures for the Choreachi community in the Sierra Tarahumara in Chihuahua state. In it, they ordered the Mexican State to adopt urgent protection measures for the Choreachi community.