Impunity / Mexico

WHEREAS In spite of the passing of the constitutional reform of Article 73 that federalizes crimes committed against freedom of expression, the publication of the regulatory laws that would permit the application of the modification has been delayed, and there are no clear signs on the part of the Executive that such enabling legislation will be issued shortly; WHEREAS In February the Senate of the Republic established, for the fourth time in a legislature, the Special Commission for Follow up of Aggression Against Journalists and Communications Media, which is under the direction of Senator Marco Blásquez of the state of Baja California; WHEREAS This new government in Mexico could strengthen the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Attention on Crimes Against Freedom of Expression; providing it with personnel, equipment, and the economic resources sufficient to be able to carry out thorough investigations that would put a stop to impunity and take to prison those responsible for violent crimes, abductions and the disappearance of communicators, considering that 95% of cases of journalists murdered haven’t been solved, having in count that 95 per cent of the murders of journalist in the last 10 years are cases that remain unresolved; WHEREAS Almost ten years ago a mechanism of protection of journalists was created to allow handling serious threats on the basis of the Law for the Protection of Defenders of Human Rights and Journalists, but in reality its hasn’t taken enough measures to face the displacement of journalists, threats, and attention to families; WHEREAS Principle 4 of the Declaration of Chapultepec states: “Freedom of expression and of the press are severely limited by murder, terrorism, kidnapping, intimidation, the unjust imprisonment of journalists, the destruction of facilities, violence of any kind and impunity for perpetrators. Such acts must be investigated promptly and punished harshly.” THE ASSEMBLY OF THE IAPA RESOLVES To exhort the Mexican government, with no further delay, to fulfill its promise to issue regulatory legislation for constitutional Article 73 that will allow applying the modification that federalizes crimes against freedom of expression, including in such rules international standards on the matter and the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation in protecting Human Rights; To exhort the members of the Special Commission for Follow-up of Aggression Against Journalists and Communications Media of the Senate of the Republic, so that it may carry out an effective and committed job to improve, in an integral manner, the laws that allow sanctioning attacks on journalists, questioning authorities that do not fulfill their duty and providing sufficient resources to the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Attention on Crimes against Freedom of Expression; To demand that the General Prosecutor of the Republic strengthen the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Attention on Crimes against Freedom of Expression with equipment, personnel, and economic resources sufficient to handle the majority of cases committed in the past 26 years against freedom of expression; To urge President Enrique Peña Nieto to have the Secretariat of Governance and External Relations handle in a serious and profound way IACHR resolutions on crimes against journalists, and that the mechanism for protection of journalists be fully implemented with complete will on the part of the government; To exhort President Enrique Peña Nieto so that, within the framework of the Pact for Mexico, and within the actions and programs that it has designed and implemented to prevent violence and fight insecurity, protection of freedom of expression be included as an essential right of democracy, and protection of journalists, by implementing necessary public policies and specifically to combat impunity, solving crimes and disappearances of journalists committed over the past 25 years.