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Archived Urgent Action
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It is with immense sadness and indignation that KAIROS learned of the assassination of Mexican human rights lawyer Digna Ochoa y Plácido at her office in Mexico City on Friday, October 19, 2001. |
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Introduction |
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It is with immense sadness and indignation that KAIROS learned of the assassination of Mexican human rights lawyer Digna Ochoa y Plácido at her office in Mexico City on Friday, October 19, 2001.
Digna Ochoa, internationally recognized for her work in the defence and promotion of human rights, was a long-time partner of the Canadian churches. Staff of the former Inter-Church Committee on Human Rights in Latin America (ICCHRLA) worked closely with Digna and her colleagues at the Miguel Agustín Pro Human Rights Centre (PRODH) for many years. Since 1995, representatives of the Canadian ecumenical community, wrote to the Mexican government on numerous occasions regarding a series of threats and attacks against Digna Ochoa and the staff of the PRODH.
Indeed, this is an assassination that could have been prevented had the Mexican government taken appropriate action to ensure exhaustive and independent investigations into these incidents. Despite repeated calls by national and international human rights organizations, including the Inter-American Human Rights Commission of the OAS, investigations by the Mexican Offices (state and federal) of the Attorney General concerning earlier aggression and abuses against Digna Ochoa and PRODH staff, were unduly slow and cumbersome. Although the authorities provided police protection for Digna Ochoa and members of the PRODH, they failed in their responsibility to bring the perpetrators to justice and to send a clear message that such attacks on those who defend human rights would not be tolerated by the Mexican government and the international community.
It is of particular concern that under the current administration of President Vicente Fox, provisional measures designed to provide protection to Digna Ochoa and PRODH staff -- ordered by the Inter-American Court in November 1999 -- were lifted in July 2001 at the request of the Mexican government which argued that in recent months new threats had not occurred.
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Background Information |
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President Fox was elected in July 2001 as the first non-PRI (Mexico’s traditional ruling party) president in over 70 years. His election was heralded at the time by the Canadian government as a breakthrough for democracy for our NAFTA trading partner. In April of this year, President Fox met with representatives of Canadian civil society organizations in Ottawa, among them, members of an ecumenical church leaders’ delegation to Mexico organized by the former ICCHRLA. At that meeting President Fox reiterated the commitment highlighted at his inauguration to make the defence and promotion of human rights a cornerstone of his administration.
That commitment was again laid out in a letter dated September 24, 2001, to Canadian development NGOs by Mexican Foreign Minister, Jorge Castañeda. In it he states, “Mexico wishes to reflect a new image of an honest, democratic and secure country. For this, it will work to strengthen mechanisms of attention, dialogue and the solution of cases and situations of human rights violations, seeking for congruence between what is said outside [the country] and what is done in house. Only in this way can Mexico be a legitimate leader of the world movement for the protection of human rights.”
The assassination of Digna Ochoa is the first of a prominent human rights advocate since the former ICCHRLA began monitoring the human rights situation in Mexico in 1990. Together with threats against the staff of the PRODH, and the ongoing harassment of other leading human rights advocates in Mexico, including Marina Jiménez, Director of the Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de las Casas (Chiapas), the assassination strongly challenges the Fox administration’s stated commitments to defend and promote human rights.
Digna Ochoa and members of the PRODH had worked on cases of serious human rights violations in which public officials have been implicated, including members of the Offices of the Attorney General and the military. A written threat against PRODH staff, left by Digna Ochoa’s killers allows no room for doubt that she was killed because of her human rights work. Her killing is the act of those seeking to evade prosecution by silencing human rights defenders who expose the perpetrators of human rights violations and insist that the authorities ensure they are brought to justice.
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Recommended Action |
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Please write to President Fox calling on him to undertake the following actions:
1. Issue a public pronouncement condemning the assassination of Digna Ochoa and the ongoing threats against human rights workers in Mexico
2. Issue an immediate and public report about the investigation of the pattern of threats and harassment of Digna Ochoa and the staff of the Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro that have occurred in recent years;
3. Order an impartial and expeditious investigation into the assassination of Digna Ochoa by the Attorney General of the Federal District, that in accordance with Mexico’s international obligations brings those responsible to justice;
4. Order comprehensive and timely protection for Mexican human rights defenders, especially for Digna Ochoa’s colleagues and their family members at the PRODH;
5. Comply with recommendations formulated by national, international and inter-governmental human rights organizations regarding the protection of human rights defenders in Mexico, including the implementation of the UN Declaration of Human Rights Defenders that Mexico has signed.
Lic. Vicente Fox Quesada
Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos
Residencia Oficial de “Los Pinos”
Col. San Miguel Chapultepec
México D.F., C.P. 11850
MÉXICO
Fax: 011-525-522-4117 or 011-525-516-9537
Please also send copies of you messages to Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Manley at:
Hon. John Manley,
Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
125 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0G2
Fax: 613-996-3443
E-mail: manley.j@parl.gc.ca
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