U.S. Statement at the Universal Periodic Review of Mexico
31st Session
Geneva, November 7, 2018
As delivered by Jason Mack
The United States welcomes the Mexican delegation.
We appreciate the priority Mexico assigns to the promotion of democracy abroad but encourages stronger efforts to end gross human rights violations and abuses at home.
We recommend that Mexico:
- Create the national DNA database and stand up mechanisms such as commissions and special prosecutors required by the 2017 laws on enforced disappearance and torture, in coordination with victims’ families, and with full funding and political support;
- Identify and hold criminally accountable those who are responsible for the disappearances in the Iguala/Ayotzinapa case, as well as those who ordered and carried out torture and obstruction of justice in the investigation of the case;
- Establish the politically independent career prosecutor’s office envisioned in the 2014 constitutional reform.
Significant corruption continues to facilitate impunity in serious crime cases, particularly disappearances and torture. As many as 37,000 Mexicans are reported missing but the government has failed to implement most provisions of a 2017 disappearances law. Their families deserve answers and justice. Torture remains prevalent in the criminal justice system and rarely prosecuted. Those who committed atrocities at Iguala and Tlatlaya four years ago retain their impunity.