Tag: "human rights"
Human rights hit the big screen in second film festival
Mexico’s second annual human rights film festival, supported by a number of organizations here including the Mexico branch of Amnesty International, the Ambulante documentary film project and Mexico City’s Human Rights Commission, opens at the end of the week.
Latin America promotes but doesn't respect human rights
Latin American countries such as Brazil and Mexico have been strong on promoting human rights internationally and in supporting the UN human rights machinery during 2007.
But unless the gap between their policies internationally and their performance at home is closed their credibility as human rights champions will be challenged, according to this week’s report from Amnesty International on human rights around the world.
You can access the report here and click on the links at the top for specific country reports.
Severe human rights problems persist in Mexico: US State Department
The headline might be stating the obvious, but for the record, according to the 2007 country report from the US State department, released this week:
‘The [Mexican] government generally respected and promoted human rights at the national level by investigating, prosecuting, and sentencing public officials and members of the security forces. However, impunity and corruption remained problems, particularly at the state and local level. The following human rights problems were reported: unlawful killings by security forces; kidnappings, including by police; physical abuse; poor and overcrowded prison conditions; arbitrary arrests and detention; corruption, inefficiency, and lack of transparency in the judicial system; confessions coerced through physical abuse permitted as evidence in trials; criminal intimidation of journalists leading to self-censorship; corruption at all levels of government; domestic violence against women, often perpetrated with impunity; violence, including killings, against women; trafficking in persons, sometimes allegedly with official involvement; social and economic discrimination against indigenous people; and child labor.
Rights group attacks impunity in Mexico
The limited attempts of the Mexican Government to tackle the high levels of violence against journalists testifies ‘to the inability or unwillingness of the Mexican authorities to make the fight against impunity,’ according to Article19, the freedom of expression NGO.
Dr. Agnes Callamard, executive director of the group, said in a statement that the impunity enjoyed by those responsible for violence against journalists is ‘one of the most alarming characteristics of the overall human rights situation in Mexico’.
Mexico is still the deadliest country in the Americas for journalists, according to Reporters Without Borders.
Mexican Human Rights Commission is ineffective, says report
Human Rights Watch released a damning report today, calling Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission ‘ineffective’ and ‘disappointing’.
‘When it comes to actually securing remedies and promoting reforms to improve Mexico’s dismal human rights record, the CNDH’s performance has been disappointing,’ reads the report, which also points out that the Commission’s failures hasn’t been due to a lack of funding.
Despite the violence, Mexican authorities stay silent
Despite the murder of three journalists last week, the developing trend of self-censorship amongst the media and the fleeing of one journalist from the country to save his life, both the Mexican Administration and the country’s national Human Rights Commission have remained silent on the issue of press freedom and violence against journalists.
New Year, Old Problems for Journalists in Mexico
Although one hates to be a pessimist, the coming year is still looking grim for journalists in Mexico.
Despite the fact that the numbers of murdered journalists declined last year, levels of violence against them are on the rise and the Government is showing no increase in willingness to investigate cases of murder, violence and intimidation against members of the profession.
Supreme Court Decides Cacho's Rights Not Violated Enough
The fight for press freedom in Mexico was dealt a serious blow this week after the country’s Supreme Court found that the rights of journalist Lydia Cacho were not violated enough by the state governor of Puebla, Mario Marin, for action to be taken against him.
The Court rejected a report by its own Commission on Tuesday that found that Marin and 29 of his officials had conspired to violate Cacho’s rights. Its ten judges voted 6-4 yesterday that although there was evidence of criminal acts, and some rights violations did take place, they did not meet the ‘standards necessary’ for the court to recommend action to be taken.
Mexican court sentences four for violence against journalists
Four people have been sentenced to terms ranging from three to nine years in prison by a judge in a northern Mexican state after being found guilty of the assault and robbery of three journalists from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua.
Jaime Murrieta Briones, a photographer for “El Diario” newspaper, and Aurelio Suárez Núñez and Eugenia Cícero Rivera, reporters for the “PM” evening newspaper, were fired upon after having photographed individuals presumed to be agents of a government ministry drinking and disturbing the peace on the street, along with other individuals on the 5th of September this year, according to a report issued today from the Centre for Journalism and Public Ethics in Mexico.
People Profile: Straight Shooter Dario Ramirez
Darío Ramírez is no naïve idealist. The 35-year-old head of Article 19’s Mexico chapter – an organization that defends and promotes freedom of expression — has been a human rights activist for more than a decade. He bluntly describes the United Nations as a “slow elephant,” Mexico’s NGO sector as ”unprofessional at times” and the country’s Access to Information Law – the “Ley Federal de Acceso a la Información Pública” – as limited at best.
Oaxaca Remembers Brad Will
As many as 20,000 people gathered in Oaxaca City on Saturday this weekend to remember Brad Will, the American journalist shot dead a year ago.
The marchers also walked in memory of the Oaxacan teacher Alonso Fabian who was shot dead the same day during clashes between teachers and members of the APPO, and municipal police and government forces.
'Mexican Government is main perpetrator of violence against journalists in Mexico', says human rights expert
‘The Mexican Government is one of the main perpetrators of violence against journalists in the country and complicit in its continuance,’ according to one of the country’s leading freedom of expression organisations.
Mexico 'consistently fails' to protect the human rights of its citizens.
[bliptv Dbonello-MexicoHasACultureOfImpunity802] (This is a transcript of Kahn’s words, as the sound is a little weak.) So my friends, we have been talking already around the table and now we’re joined by the media who’d like to hear from us our experiences and impressions of the human rights situation in Mexico. I’d like to begin [...]
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