Human rights activists in Mexico under attack

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Amnesty International

Human rights activists in Mexico under attack
21 January 2010


The Mexican authorities are failing in their duty to protect human rights activists from killings and life-threatening harassment and attacks, Amnesty International warned on Thursday in a new report.

The report Standing up for justice and dignity: Human Rights defenders in Mexico describes more than 15 cases of defenders who have suffered killings, attacks, harassment, threats and imprisonment on fabricated charges between 2007 and 2009 to prevent them from doing their work.

"Defending human rights in Mexico is life-threatening and the government is not doing enough to tackle the problem," said Nancy Tapias-Torrado, researcher on human rights defenders at Amnesty International. "When one human rights defender is attacked, threatened or killed, it sends a dangerous message to many others and denies hope to all those on whose behalf the defender is working".

Amnesty International said it believes there are dozens of such cases, very few of which are effectively investigated and even fewer brought to justice. In none of the cases included in the report has a full investigation been carried out and in only two of them suspects are in detention.

Human rights defenders take action to protect and promote human rights. States have a responsibility to protect these people and ensure they can carry out their work.

Activists working to protect the rights of communities living in poverty, those who defend the rights of Indigenous peoples or work to protect the environment are at particular risk of attack. Their work is seen as interfering with powerful political or economic interests. Too often they are treated as trouble-makers not as human rights defenders working for a better society where respect for human rights can be a reality.




Read more: http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGNAU2010012115067&lang=e