Medellin, Colombia – Hundreds of Mexican human rights groups submitted an open letter to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Monday urging action to combat enforced disappearances.
The letter was signed by more than 100 organizations representing missing persons groups in Mexico and Central America, families of more than 300 missing persons, and various civil society organizations, shelters, and individuals.
More than 132,000 people are classified as missing in Mexico, according to the NGO Foundation for Justice, Democracy and Rule of Law (FJEDD), one of the signatories of the open letter.
“Mexico needs an independent mechanism under the auspices of the United Nations to establish the truth, find missing people, conduct serious investigations and fight impunity,” FJEDD said after its meeting with Turkey.
They also urged the High Commissioner to raise the issue in a meeting with President Claudia Sheinbaum and urge the Mexican government to help affected families “achieve truth, justice and reparations.”
The letter also asked Turkey to support the recent decision by the United Nations Commission on Enforced Disappearances (CED) to refer the crisis to the organization’s highest body, the General Assembly.
The CED took the “exceptional step” of requesting that the situation be referred to the General Assembly on April 2, saying the discovery of 72,000 unidentified remains in 4,500 secret graves suggested the crisis was likely to lead to crimes against humanity, a claim Mexico vehemently rejected.
“The scale and pattern of the attacks and the fact that they target civilians substantiate the view that this crisis meets the definition of a crime against humanity,” said CED President Juan Albán-Alencastro.
Mexico’s Foreign Ministry denied the decision in a press release, claiming the United Nations was unaware of recent developments on the issue. President Sheinbaum also dismissed CED’s claims, arguing that the data used was estimated and did not represent the current situation in Mexico.
Looking forward to meeting with Turkey this Wednesday, Sheinbaum said the official had come “to learn about Mexico’s human rights system as well as the issue of disappearances.”
Featured image: Maritza Ríos / Mexico City Cultural Secretariat.
