UPDATE:
Click here to read Stephanie Brewer’s translated remarks.
Click here to read Daniel Joloy’s translated remarks.
Click here to read Cristina Hardaga Fernández’s translated remarks.
The Latin America Working Group Education Fund, the Washington Office on Latin America and the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights invite you to a discussion on
Human Rights Challenges in Mexico
Featuring
Stephanie Brewer
Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center (Centro Prodh)
Cristina Hardaga Fernández
Tlachinollan Human Rights Center, Guerrero
Daniel Joloy
Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (CMDPDH)
Ana Luna Serrano
Citizens in Support of Human Rights, Nuevo León
Other speakers to be confirmed.
Friday, March 15, 2013
9:00 a.m.-10:30am
Washington Office on Latin America
1666 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 400
Since 2006, the deterioration of Mexico’s security situation due to the Mexican government’s “war on organized crime” has made international headlines. The violence has affected tens of thousands of citizens and exacerbated long-standing issues of corruption and institutional weakness. During the administration of former President Felipe Calderón, Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission (Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos, CNDH) saw a five-fold increase in complaints of human rights violations by Mexican soldiers and federal police, including torture, rape, extrajudicial execution, arbitrary detention, and enforced disappearance. At the same time, human rights defenders have found it increasingly difficult to carry out their work due to threats to their safety.
Recently elected president Enrique Peña Nieto has firmly expressed his commitment to making sure that “rights established on paper become reality,” but his government has yet to make concrete changes that would reflect this commitment.
Join us for a discussion with representatives of some of the leading human rights organizations in Mexico to discuss the steps the new Mexican government should take to dramatically improve the human rights situation in the country and ensure the security of human rights defenders. Please note that this event will be held in Spanish.
