Today, men and women from all over Mexico are organizing to use their knowledge and the law to defend their land against destruction by so-called mega-development projects, including the extraction of mineral resources foreseen in Mexico’s energy reform. As land takeovers tear the social fabric of Mexico’s communities, the violation of the right to [...]
As our readers know, Mexico’s crisis of violence and serious human rights violations takes place against a backdrop of territorial disputes between rival criminal organizations. The government’s official position is that it fights against these organizations in a “war against crime” whose different parties are perfectly distinguishable. The reality, exemplified in cases such as [...]
Over twenty-six years ago, a group of Jesuits founded the Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center (Center Prodh) to respond to a reality in which human dignity was ignored and trampled. Following what they called “the signs of the times,” the Jesuits recognized with keen foresight that as the 1980s neared their close, it was time for [...]
This special edition of Focus is dedicated to one of the gravest human rights violations in our world: torture. We especially dedicate this edition to all survivors of torture. Torture is by definition an intentional act committed by those who have power. This crime seeks to control and annul the human personality or erode [...]
This spring edition of Focus brings updates on several cases in which survivors and families continue to fight against impunity, first by exhausting all possibilities of access to justice in Mexico and then by bringing their cases to international bodies. An example is the case of the 65 miners who lost their lives in [...]
In this issue of Focus, covering fall and winter 2013-2014, we examine several topics that are crucial to understanding the human rights situation in Mexico today. Among these is the right to protest, which is increasingly under attack not only in numerous states but also in Mexico City (The Federal District), where a local [...]
Despite the international community’s recent focus on the human rights crisis in Mexico under the National Action Party (PAN), which held the presidency during the last 12 years, it is crucial to recall that during the preceding 71 years the Institutional Revolution Party (PRI) was in power, and these decades were also marked with human rights abuses. In short, Mexico during the past century has been characterized by [...]
As 2013 begins, we reflect on the human rights situation in Mexico during the past twelve years, under the presidential administrations of Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón of the National Action Party (PAN). These marked the only two terms in approximately the last 80 years in which the presidency was held by a party [...]
Mexico is currently facing a change that will mark the country, at least for the next six years. As readers may know, presidential elections took place last July 1st and the announced winner is Enrique Peña Nieto, candidate of the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party). In a context where none of the presidential candidates defined [...]
After 24 years, Center Prodh continues to work to bring about structural reforms and access to justice for victims of human rights violations, in a context that seems more desperate every day. Looking back over the passed two and a half decades, we can say that recent years have witnessed some of the most [...]
