04/26/14 (written by callison) — On an invitation from Mexico’s federal government, United Nations Special Investigator on Torture Juan Méndez is currently investigating the increase in allegations of torture in Mexico as part of a review of the country’s protocols and protection mechanisms for human rights. Méndez will spend ten days in Mexico, from April 21 to May 2, partaking in over 100 meetings with officials and representatives at the local, state, and federal level. Méndez’s assessment and evaluations will assist in developing plans to prevent, investigate, and sanction the practices of torture and cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment.
Many attribute the exacerbation of Mexico’s torture figures in recent years to the militarization of public safety. The Mexican military assumed a larger public security role under former President Felipe Calderón’s anti-drug policy strategy, which has continued under current President Enrique Peña Nieto. According to the Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center (Centro de Derechos Humanos Agustín Pro Juárez), torture under both administrations is “a terrible everyday practice,” and a practice that Méndez hopes to mitigate in the months to come. Under Calderón (2006-2012), Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission (Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos, CNDH) registered a 500% increase in the number of cases of torture and cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment reported, with a total of 7,253 such incidents. CNDH also reported that 11,000 persons were held under arraigo during the six-year term. Arraigo is a form of preventative detention upheld by Mexico’s constitution that is criticized for resulting in human rights abuses, including torture, which allegedly occur while suspects are held in custody for up to 40 days as authorities build their cases. Of those 11,000 arraigo cases, only 3.2% led to a conviction. (Read more about in Justice in Mexico’s 2012 report, “Armed With Impunity: Curbing Military Human Rights Abuses in Mexico.”)
After concluding his visit, Méndez plans to establish and recommend a comprehensive reform strategy, particularly for the Mexican judiciary, to better address cases of torture. As detailed in an Informador article, according to Supreme Court Judge Juan Silva Meza, with whom U.N. Representative Méndez has met during his visit, that process is already under way. For one, Supreme Court judges have been comparing the court’s activities and decisions on torture cases with related regulations and articles as established both in Mexico’s constitution and in the internationally recognized Istanbul Protocol. Federal judges have also participated in six workshops supported by the U.N.’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the International Bar Association (Barra Internacional de Abogados) on how to conduct proper investigations into torture, and how to respect the gravity of such cases. For his part, Mexico’s Federal Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam, with whom Méndez also has met, committed to ensuring proper training of the Istanbul Protocol to all state-level attorney generals, and doctors and psychologists in the criminal justice field so that they can better detect when torture has occurred in their patients.
U.N. representative Méndez also met with Mexico’s civil society and non-governmental organizations, during which he was presented with a “panoramic view of the [human rights] situation” to detail the NGO’s “principal concerns related to the persistent practice of torture in Mexico.” Among many other concerns and recommendations, the NGOs urged Méndez to push for further implementation of the Istanbul Protocol, specifically calling for a concerted effort to train personnel within the Attorney General’s Office (Procuraduría General de la República, PGR) to conduct independent investigations into cases of torture. Judges would be expected to give equal respect to the independent investigatory body, reports Proceso, as they would to any other agency or official amidst torture allegations. They also raised concerns about the elevation of arraigo as a constitutional practice; “the disproportionate use of preventative and arbitrary detentions;” “the excessive use of force against journalists during their coverage of events;” and “the militarized public security strategy, which has provoked an increase in cases of torture, at the same time as the continued use of military courts [fuero militar] prohibit those responsible from being processed under civilian law.” The NGOs present at the meeting with Méndez included the Network of Civil Society Organizations on Human Rights (Red de Organizaciones Civilies de Derechos Humanos), Amnesty International, and Artículo 19, among others.
Méndez’s visit and forthcoming results from his review are efforts to prevent future cases of torture. His evaluation on Mexico’s progress towards addressing the practice, however, will likely find critiques of the government for not only failing to decrease the number of torture cases that reportedly occur, but also for the ongoing high levels of impunity that surround such cases. As translated by Mexico Voices, Mexico’s Tlachinollan Center for Human Rights of the Mountain Region of Guerrero summarizes in a report for its recent meeting with Méndez that “…torture in Mexico has not been eradicated. On the contrary, ‘it has intensified.’” The document continues, “Mechanisms like the supposed application of the Istanbul Protocol and the intervention of the human rights ombudsman system, [the CNDH], have not impacted one of the principal incentives for torture: ‘impunity.’”
For a daily update on Méndez’s visit, check out the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law’s Anti-Torture Initiative.
Sources
“La SCJN se réune con relator de ONU sobre tortura.” Informador. April 21, 2014.
