NGOs create International Human Rights Observatory on Mexico

A dozen of human rights Non-governmental organizations (NGO's) in the United States, Latin America, and Europe announced yesterday in Costa Rica that they would create an International Observatory on Mexico to monitor and document “the country's deteriorating human rights situation” after the approval of the Law on Internal Security which, according to the NGO's is a “turning point for a country already reeling from unprecedented levels of violence and widespread human rights violations.”

The coalition is calling for Mexican President, Enrique Peña Nieto, to veto the bill, claiming the International Observatory on Mexico, in addition of monitoring the situation, also aims to draw international attention to the “regression” on human rights in Mexico and remind Mexican authorities of their obligations under international law.

The founders of the Observatory on Mexico include Amnesty International (UK), The World Organization against Torture (Switzerland), the Center for Justice and International Law (Costa Rica, Argentina, and the United States), the German Network for Human Rights in Mexico, the Due Process of Law Foundation, Latin American Working Group, the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), the Open Society Justice Initiative, Peace Brigades International, and the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. In their statement, the organizations declared they expect others to join them in the future.

“As Mexico moves further away from its democratic foundations, the world is watching,” the organizations concluded on their joint statement.

The Internal Security Law, according to the organizations, “enshrines the role of the armed forces” in Mexico's law enforcement,” a matter of particular concern as they consider it provides “ unfettered military action against everyone in the country.”

“This militarized strategy has terrorized Mexico's population for over a decade through well-documented cases of extrajudicial execution, enforced disappearance, torture, including sexual violence, amongst other human rights violations.”

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