The Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center (Center Prodh) was founded in 1988 by the Society of Jesus in Mexico.Our purpose is to defend, promote, and improve respect for human rights in Mexico, with a focus on the most marginalized and vulnerable social groups in the country, such as women, indigenous communities, migrants, workers, and victims of social repression.Center Prodh seeks to contribute to structural change toward a society in which all people are able to enjoy and exercise all human rights in conditions of equality.  Our core value is the respect for human dignity.Since September 2001 we have enjoyed Consultative Status before the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.  We are also an Accredited Organization before the Organization of American States.

Center Prodh has received diverse awards such as the Human Rights Watch award and the Roque Dalton medal.  We have also been recognized by the Defensor de Pueblo of Spain and the University of Alcalá for our work.

Since its creation, Center Prodh has focused on the defense and promotion of civil and political rights; that is, human rights relating to life, physical integrity, and personal security.  This focus grew out of the climate of state repression in the late 1980s and 1990s against social activists, church leaders, political dissidents, and communities and organizations protesting for their rights. 

In 2002, Center Prodh incorporated into its activities the promotion and defense of economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights through paradigmatic cases of rights violations.

Our daily activities include:

a) Monitoring, systematization, and analysis of the human rights situation in Mexico.

b) Assessment and documentation of cases of violations against victims of social repression, women, migrants, and indigenous groups.

c) National and international litigation before diverse governmental and intergovernmental organs, such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

d) Education and training of civil society groups and organizations in the defense of human rights.

e) Promotion of human rights through publication of case information and general thematic analysis in numerous media sources, both national and international, as well as the provision of information to institutions, groups, and individuals concerned about the human rights situation in Mexico. 

We currently have fifteen full-time staff members.  Our multidisciplinary staff is composed of professionals specializing in, among other areas, human rights law, public policy, graphic design, education, accounting, and communication.  To ensure that we respond to the current reality in Mexico in an informed and effective manner, we undertake regular staff trainings. 

Current Projects 

Drawing on years of experience, we have focused and defined specific areas of emphasis in our work.  We have recently taken an active role in the documentation, defense, and publication of matters of great importance in the current national context, such as the social repression in San Salvador Atenco and Oaxaca. In December 2006, we finalized our strategic plan for 2007-2009.  This plan formalizes the current mission and activities of Center Prodh.  These fall into three overall programs composed of various projects: 

Programs 

Transitional Justice: addresses the problem of impunity and the obstacles to obtaining the right to truth for crimes of the past (that is, crimes committed during Mexico’s dirty war of the 1970s and 1980s). 

Citizen Security and Human Rights: proposes reforms to the public security system and defends the rights to physical and psychological integrity. 

Criminal Justice: through the defense of paradigmatic cases, seeks reforms to the legal framework in criminal justice to harmonize this framework with international standards, to guarantee swift and efficient justice, without cost, to individuals in Mexico.

Access to Information: seeks to promote the exercise of the right of access to information as part of the social and political life of Mexico’s residents. 

The Human Right to Water: documents and raises awareness of violations to the human rights to water in relation to other human rights.

Education: strengthens diverse civil society actors in the defense and promotion of human rights in their regions. 

Communication and Analysis: generates strategies for media advocacy and reporting that inform and raise awareness of the human rights obligations of the Mexican State. 

Integral Defense: generates strategies for the vindication of victims’ rights, as well as those of their families, and looks to generate institutional changes to improve the situation of human rights in Mexico through the defense of paradigmatic cases.

International Relations: denounces, raises awareness, and provides informed analysis to the international community about the grave human rights violations occurring in Mexico, while looking to support the implementation of international standards within the country.