Oaxaca de Juarez, 26 June 2015.- Coinciding with the United Nations' International Day in support of Victims of Torture, Código-DH and the Collective against Torture and Impunity (CCTI, for its initials in Spanish) presented a joint report titled “Investigation of Torture in Mexico”. The report comments upon the difficulties inherent in investigating and adequately documenting incidents of torture as well as providing a series of recommendations as to how Mexico can better utilise the Istanbul Protocol which establishes the guidelines for documenting torture and its consequences.
During the public presentation of the report, which volunteers of PBI Mexico attended, members of both Codigo-DH and the CCTI emphasised that there is almost no prosecution of acts of torture in Mexico. According to data obtained from the Federal Attorney General of Mexico:
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Between 2006 and 2014, 4055 preliminary inquiries into incidents of torture were recorded.
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In the same period only 1884 of the 4055 incidents were investigated.
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Between 2006 and 2013, the Federal Attorney General of Mexico made 472 medical/psychological rulings detailing possible cases of torture and/or mistreatment before concluding there was sufficient evidence in only 57.
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At a federal level, only 7 torture sentences were handed down between 2006 and 2013.
Various national and international Human Rights organisations demonstrated their concern for the situation in Mexico on 26 June. Between them, Amnesty International documented the widespread occurrence of torture in Mexico and that the fight against impunity for acts of this kind remains in a state far from the road to justice. Continuing in this vein, the Mexican National Human Rights Commission expressed its solidarity with victims of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment, reiterating that torture is an inadmissible and outrageous scourge that represents a serious regression in the rule of law.
