BackThe National Commission of Human Rights (CNDH) requests the Secretariats of the Interior (SEGOB), and Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) to implement measures to avoid the disprotection, motivated by the lack of resources, of 727 beneficiaries secured by the Mechanism for the Protection of Rights Defenders Humans and Journalists (MPPDDHP).
By means of two letters that will be sent to those dependencies, this National Organism emphasizes that these administrative and economic measures have as aim to avoid the irreparable consummation of human rights violations or the production of damages of difficult or impossible repair.
Upon learning from various news media that SEGOB and the SHCP have so far failed to comply with their commitment to allocate 75 million pesos to the Mechanism to maintain protection measures for the rest of this year, the CNDH has not had any evidence to the contrary and considers that the elements of seriousness, urgency and imminent irreparable damage are fulfilled, by enabling the fundamental rights of the beneficiaries to be violated and in some cases also of their relatives. The CNDH called on the mentioned instances to honor the public commitment that in that sense they did last September 19.
Previously, the CNDH spoke on several occasions on the situation faced by the MPPDDHP, whose trust had sufficient resources for the first months of this year, a situation before which the national Ombudsperson, Luis Raúl González Pérez, requested by letter on August 28 to the Secretary of Finance and Public Credit, José Antonio González Anaya, to allocate the necessary resources for the Mechanism to be able to protect its beneficiaries during 2018, and the budget for 2019 to be scheduled in a timely manner.
On September 19, in an extraordinary session of the Governing Board of the Mechanism, the Undersecretary of Human Rights of the Ministry of the Interior, Rafael Avante Juárez, and the Undersecretary for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Miguel Ruiz Cabañas, publicly stated that the federal government promised to deposit, before the end of September, the amount of 75 million pesos to the trust of the Mechanism to cover with the protection obligations during the rest of the year.
Despite this, the National Executive Coordination of the Mechanism, attached to the Ministry of the Interior, has informed the other members of the Governing Board, including the CNDH, that no appropriation has been received in the trust, so that of this month of October it will not be possible to pay to the supplier company the measures that provides day after day to protect 727 beneficiaries, between journalists and defenders, who in many cases depend on them to carry out their activities.
For this National Commission it is regrettable that, despite the situation of risk faced by journalists and defenders in the country, which has been reported by this National Organization, and that is established in the law, the federal government does not assume with total seriousness and commitment the task of protecting those who make up both groups, and upon whose work the society depends for having sufficient information on different issues or constituting the voice of various groups and themes that seek to claim and guarantee the rights of all in the country.
The request for precautionary measures of the CNDH is based on the provisions of articles 3, 6, section II and 40 of the Law of the National Commission of Human Rights, and 116, 117 and 118 of its Internal Regulations.
The National Commission of Human Rights will carefully observe the actions of the SHCP in order to comply with the provisions of the law
Source: National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), Mexico
