"Mexico should assure the rights of association, reunion, protest and liberty of expression of Alejandro Cerezo, in every way possible, including diplomatic activities, especially in the cases recognised as criminalisation of defence, as is the that of the Comité Cerezo Mexico."
"México debe asegurar los derechos de asociación, reunión, protesta y libertad de expresión de Alejandro Cerezo, por todos los medios disponibles, incluidas las gestiones diplomáticas, especialmente en casos reconocidos de criminalización de la defensa, como es el del Comité Cerezo México."
2018 has been a challenging year for human rights across the world. Many of those defending human rights have been threatened, attacked and undermined, despite the celebration of 20 years of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. PBI remains committed to protecting the space in which human rights defenders continue their arduous work in steadfast conviction that only when this protection is truly guaranteed will peaceful and democratic societies advance across the world.
There are brave and extraordinary women throughout the world, fighting against the patriarchy that in many countries has women silenced, marginalised, threatened and harassed. PBI has the priviledge of accompanying women human rights defenders that fight for a fairer world, a world where rights are the same for everyone and a world where social justice is a reality.
In the State of Coahuila in the North of Mexico, for years hundreds of families have organised themselves in order to search for their loved ones who have been forcefully disappeared. According to the official statistics in Coahuila, between 1995 and 2018, 1,779 cases have been registered.
The mountainous region of the State of Guerrero is an unstoppable source of resistance. Abel Barrera Hernández, director and founder of the Human Rights Center of the Mountain Tlachinollan, expressed this on the 24th anniversary of the organisations, celebrated on the 6th October in the municipality of
On 30th August 2018 families and organisations, together with the Human Rights Centre Paso del Norte, took part in a memorial event for the victims of forced disappearance, in the centre of Ciudad Juárez (Chihuahua). Members of PBI Mexico were at their side, ensuring the human rights defeners of Paso del Norte were protected and to shed light on the topic of forced disappearance in the North of Mexico and the risk that the struggle for justice brings with it.
Photo: "The industrialisation of the countryside", mural by Grace Greenwood in the Abelardo Rodriguez market, Mexico City
This was declared by more than 30 rural indigenous communities from the Central Valleys of Oaxaca, accompanied by organisations and collectives from the State, in the framework of the Conference of Communities from the Central Valleys Against Mining, "Here we say Yes to Life and No to Mining", an event accompanied by PBI that was held on 22nd June, the State day of rebellion against mining, in the municipality of San Antonio Castillo Velasco, district of Ocotlán.
