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.

Failure to provide extraordinary resources could mean that journalists and human rights defenders who are beneficiaries of the Mechanism might not get protection measures that have already been approved to protect their security and their lives.

During his first official visit to Mexico in February 2017, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights Defenders, Mr. Michel Forst, and the Governing Board of the Mechanism highlighted the importance of continuing to strengthen the Mechanism and ensuring that it has sufficient financial and human resources for 2017.

For this reason, they called on authorities to participate in assigning resources and adopting the national budget for 2018 in order to guarantee adequate funding for the Mechanism, especially for prevention and protection measures.

In May 2016, PBI together with the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA ) published a Report on the Protection Mechanism which highlighted several challenges it faces.

These include insufficient staffing and, in several cases analyzed in the report, inadequate implementation of protection measures.

In addition, a gap was identified between the risks faced by human rights defenders and journalists and the protection measures that are assigned to them.