Human Rights in Mexico have been an issue for years. The problems include torture, extrajudicial killings and summary executions, police repression, sexual murder, and, more recently, news reporter assassinations.
Issues
Freedom of the press
Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists and among the ones with the highest levels of unsolved crimes against the press. Though the exact figures of those killed are often conflicting, press freedom organizations around the world agree through general consensus that Mexico is among the most dangerous countries on the planet to exercise journalism as a profession.
Nearly 100 media workers have been killed or disappeared since 2000, and most of these crimes remained unsolved, improperly investigated, and with few perpetrators arrested and convicted.
Occurrences of physical violence and threats against journalists covering sensitive issues have been frequent across Mexico's regions. To protect themselves, journalists must practice self-censorship.
Massacres
Massacres have occurred in Mexican history. In recent years they've been related to the Mexican drug war, but also include prison riots, political motivated massacres, and conflicts in regional areas.
Corruption
Corruption plagues the various levels of police and government institutions, and is frequently difficult to track down and prosecute since police officers and government officials may be protected by district attorneys, other members of the judiciary, or even businessmen. The problem is especially pronounced in northern border areas such as Tijuana, where police are engaged by drug traffickers to protect and enforce their illicit interests.
The Mexican police force often do not investigate crimes, and will either victimize the victims and harass them so they don't pursue legal action, or generally randomly select someone to be the guilty party (chivo expiatorio, scapegoat) then fabricate the evidence. This issue is a major problem throughout Mexico as many of the actual police force are the ones involved in the crimes or are trying to cover up their poor police work.
Domestic violence
The rate of domestic violence against women in Mexican marital relationships varies at between 30 and 60 percent of relationships.
As of 2014, Mexico has the 16th highest rate of homicides committed against women in the world. This rate has been on the rise since 2007.
Gender violence is more prevalent in regions along the Mexico-US border and in areas of high drug trading activity and drug violence.
According to the 2013 Human Rights Watch, many women do not seek out legal redress after being victims of domestic violence and sexual assault because "the severity of punishments for some sexual offenses contingent on the "chastity" of the victim" and "those who do report them are generally met with suspicion, apathy, and disrespect."
In September 2014, several Mexican human rights groups and International Federation for Human Rights, had filed a complaint with the office of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, asking it to investigate the “systematic and widespread†abuse of thousands of civilians by the army and the police in their fight against organized crime.
Child labor
According to the updated version of the U.S. Department of Labor's List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor issued in December 2014, child labor contributes to the production of a total of 11 goods in Mexico, 10 of which are agricultural goods (including coffee, tobacco and sugarcane) and the remaining item is pornography. Among the list's 74 countries where significant instances of indentured labor have been observed, 7 countries were reported to resort to child labor in the pornography industry and Mexico was one of them.
LGBT rights
Same-sex sexual acts are legal in Mexico, but LGBT people have been prosecuted through the use of legal codes that regulate obscene or lurid behavior (atentados a la moral y las buenas costumbres). Over the past twenty years, there have been reports of violence against gay men, including the murders of openly gay men in Mexico City and of transvestites in the southern state of Chiapas.
Local activists believe that these cases often remain unsolved, blaming the police for a lack of interest in investigating them and for assuming that gays are somehow responsible for attacks against them.
Intersex rights
Intersex children in Mexico face significant human rights violations, starting from birth. There are no protections from non-consensual cosmetic medical interventions and no legislative protection from discrimination. Intersex persons may have difficulties in obtaining necessary health care.
Human rights advocacy
- National Human Rights Commission (Mexico), Mexican government entity.
- Lydia Cacho, human rights activist.
Attacks on human rights advocates
- Digna Ochoa was a human rights lawyer who was murdered in 2001.
- On 26 April 2010, several human rights activists on their way to San Juan Copala, subject to a paramilitary blockade established since January, were ambushed by Ubisort-militia. Two were killed, and twelve are missing.
See also
- 2006 civil unrest in San Salvador Atenco
- International child abduction in Mexico
- Internet in Mexico#Internet censorship
- Crime in Mexico
- Law of Mexico
- Law enforcement in Mexico
- List of journalists and media workers killed in Mexico
References
External links
- Review of Mexico by the United Nations Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review, February 10, 2009
- Human Rights - Mexico - Amnesty International - Mexico Concerns
- Freedom of expression in Mexico - IFEX
- CNDH - National Human Rights Commission (Mexico)
