MEXICO ACTION - UPR follow-up
19 January 2010
In February 2009, Mexico's human rights record came under scrutiny by the United Nations under the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) for the first time. Numerous member states took the opportunity to express concern about the shocking levels of violence and impunity faced by journalists in the country: 20 print journalists murdered between 2004 and 2008 and five others disappeared, none of these crimes solved. The Mexican state took the international community's recommendations on board, promising to guarantee journalists' safety, tackle the impunity surrounding crimes against journalists, and to ensure that the investigation and prosecution of such crimes would become a federal rather than a state matter.
Yet a year on little has changed. Since the UPR session a year ago, eight more print journalists have been murdered in Mexico and another has disappeared. A number of these journalists had been threatened prior to their murder or disappearance and yet apparently none had been offered police protection or other measures to ensure their safety. In none of these cases have the perpetrators been brought to justice. The same remains true of the murders and disappearances committed between 2004 and 2008. This shocking impunity sends a clear message to those who kill and attack journalists in Mexico that they will not be punished.
Let's call the Mexican state to account for the 34 Mexican writers who have been permanently silenced since 2004.
PEN Centres and other interested parties are asked to undertake at least one of the following actions by 10 February 2010:
1. Embassy visits
PEN members are asked to write to their nearest Mexican Embassy to request a meeting with the Ambassador to raise PEN's concerns about violence and impunity against journalists in Mexico, as outlined above and in PEN's letter to the Mexican Interior Minister. Contact details for some Mexican Embassies can be found here: http://www.sre.gob.mx/acerca/directorio/embajadas/dirembajadas.htm or http://www.embassyworld.com/embassy/mexico1.html
If you are successful in obtaining a meeting, you may wish to refer to the recommendations listed in the Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review for Mexico. These recommendations are summarized above and in PEN's letter, but if you wish to refer to the full UN report, see http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session4/MX/A_HRC_11_27_MEX_E.pdf (the full documentation associated with the UPR of Mexico can be seen here: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/PAGES/MXSession4.aspx)
For more information on the situation for writers in Mexico, including case summaries and photos, click here.
Note: The meeting does not need to take place before 10 February, but please send your letter or email requesting the meeting before that date.
2. Write an article
In a recent article on the dangers of being a journalist in Mexico, the award-winning investigative journalist and activist Lydia Cacho criticized the Mexican mainstream media for failing to reflect the true reality of the country, leaving the international community uninformed. Cacho calls on foreign journalists to fill this gap by writing about the violence faced by their Mexican counterparts, "because talking about us protects our life and allows us to go on investigating and reporting" (to read the article in Spanish, click here)
PEN Centres are therefore asked to use the anniversary of the UN's first review of Mexico's human rights record under the Universal Periodic Review on 10 February as an opportunity to publicize unsolved journalist murders and disappearances in Mexico in their national and local press. The WiPC calls on each of the 37 PEN Centres involved in the Freedom to Write in the Americas campaign to follow Cacho's recommendation by pledging to publish at least one article about the situation for print journalists in Mexico in their national press or in the international media by the end of the campaign.
3. Appeals
PEN members are asked to send appeals to the Mexican Interior Minister Fernando Francisco Gómez-Mont Urueta expressing PEN's concerns about violence and impunity against journalists in Mexico via your nearest diplomatic representative of Mexico (for a list of some Mexican embassies, see http://www.sre.gob.mx/acerca/directorio/embajadas/dirembajadas.htm or http://www.embassyworld.com/embassy/mexico1.html). You may wish to use PEN's letter as a guide
In addition, or alternatively, you may like to send copies of the WiPC's postcard on journalist killings and disappearances in Mexico between 2004 and 2008, with a cover letter updating the figures for 2009-2010. The postcard can be downloaded here (English or Spanish), or if you would like the WiPC to send you some printed copies of the postcard by post, please contact Tamsin Mitchell at tamsin.mitchell@internationalpen.org.uk as soon as possible.
For further information please contact WiPC Americas researcher Tamsin Mitchell at International PEN Writers in Prison Committee, Brownlow House, 50/51 High Holborn, London WC1V 6ER, Tel.+ 44 (0) 20 7405 0338, Fax: +44 (0) 20 7405 0339, email: tamsin.mitchell@internationalpen.org.uk