MEXICO CITY (Mexico Tribune).- United Nations Special Envoy Cristof Heyns told Mexican legislators that there is still an alarming rate of human rights violations and impunity in Mexico.
Mr Heyns congratulated the government for implementing reforms to protect human rights of those most vulnerable, but he reiterated that despite new laws there are profound deficiencies in the Mexican judicial system.
He said Mexican authorities are still very deficient and even lack the will to carry out investigative police work.
The UN official said that during his visit to Mexico last year April 22 to May 2 he compiled a report that reveals an increase in extrajudicial executions, arbitrary killings, an increase in organized crime and drug trafficking.
“There is also a great lack of information being produced by police authorities, which contributes to a very alarming rate of impunity and human rights violations on an individual level, but also at a systemic level,” he said.
The document that Mr Heyns sent to Congress through the office of the Human Rights High Commission of the United Nations suggests the urgent need to implement federal and state legislation that is awaiting approval.
The report says it is also necessary to put a rush on establishing the new system of federal and state penal law that introduces oral and accusatory trials.
Mr Heyns proposed that the Federal Attorney General (PGR, by its Spanish acronym) become completely independent from the government and he also proposed the creation of a national institute of forensic services.
“A data base should also be created to include all homicides by state, county and city and also by sex and age, and other criteria,” he said. “It should also include all extrajudicial executions and massacres committed during the ‘Dirty War’ (Guerra Sucia from the end of the sixties to the end of seventies, including the Tlatelolco student movement repression and disappearance of leaders and political activists).”
The UN report reveals that Mexican authorities do not respect the scene of the crime and that it is continuously tampered with. It also says that the Mexican Code of Military Justice should be modified so that all human right violations committed by armed forces personnel be investigated and tried in a civilian court.
It expressed opposition to the military in police activities and to the urgent need to train and educated police officials on human rights.
The UN official accused the Mexican government of complicity with criminals that have power in jails and urged that this be changed immediately, because it observed that many prisoners have fire arms and that can only happen with the help of the authorities.
MexTrib/oab
UN revealed a report that accuses the Mexican government of complicity in the criminal governance of jails
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