Francisco Javier Ramirez Acuña
Secretario de Gobernación
Bucareli No. 99, Edificio Cobián, 1er piso, Col. Juárez
Del. Cuauhtémoc, Mexico D.F. 06600
MEXICO

12/12/2007

Dear Secretario de Gobernación

On behalf of the Human Rights Institute of the International Bar Association (IBAHRI) we are writing to express our concern about an increasing number of reported incidents of arbitrary and unlawful arrest and detention of lawyers and human rights advocates in the course of carrying out their professional duties in Mexico.

In its role as a dual membership organisation, comprising 30,000 individual lawyers and over 195 Bar Associations and Law Societies, the IBA influences the development of international law reform and shapes the future of the legal profession. Its Member Organizations cover all continents. The Human Rights Institute works across the association, helping to promote, protect and enforce human rights under a just rule of law, and to preserve the independence of the judiciary and the legal profession worldwide.

The IBAHRI has received reports that a number of lawyers have been harassed and threatened as in the course of carrying out their professional duties. In April 2007 it is alleged that Mr. Isaac Torres Carmona of the Mexican League for the Defense of human rights was threatened by police officers in Oaxaca. Mr Carmona was reportedly threatened after attempting to intervene when his client was being attacked by police officers. Furthermore, he was not informed of the whereabouts of his client, or of the reason for his arrest. Members of the human rights organisation Comité de Liberación 25 de Noviembre are also reported to have been detained and beaten by police officers during a protest in Oaxaca in July, 2007.

Further reports received by the IBAHRI indicate that lawyers in the city of Cuidad Juarez in the state of Chihuahua are repeatedly subject to harassment and threats. Both members of the organisation Nuestra Hijas de Regreso a Casa (NHRC), an organisation established to campaign for justice for abducted and murdered women, and lawyers working with them have been subject to repeated death threats if they do not cease these activities.  Despite the fact that these threats have been reported to the Chihuahua State’s Public Prosecutor’s Office there has been a failure to take any action.

The IBAHRI is similarly concerned about the treatment of Manuel Olivares Hernández, the director of Guerrero State’s José María Morelos y Pavón Regional Human Rights Centre. Mr Hernández is alleged to have been arbitrarily arrested and detained along with 15 other individuals following the dispersal by municipal police of a peaceful protest held by the Chilapa Citizens' Committee in November, 2007. We understand that excessive force was used by municipal police in the dispersal of the protestors and that teargas and batons were used. Mr Hernández was reportedly present at the protest in his capacity as a human rights observer and was arrested when it was considered by a senior municipal police officer that his documentation of the arrests and beatings of members of the Chilapa Citizens’ Committee was causing problems for the police.  Mr Hernández and the 15 detained protesters have allegedly been falsely charged with attacks on public roads, criminal association and rioting.

Unfortunately, we understand that these are not isolated incidents but evidence of a pattern of action taken against lawyers and human rights organisations. The IBAHRI is aware that Mexico has, in recent years, made significant progress and taken many positive steps to further enshrine its commitment to protecting human rights. We welcome both Mexico’s ratification in April 2005 of the UN Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and its declaration in March of the same year of its recognition of the UN Committee against Torture’s competence to receive individual complaints relating to cases of torture. We also welcome the fact that Mexico has incorporated the Istanbul Protocol into Mexican federal law, thereby recognising international guidelines for the documentation of instances of torture.

We would, however, like to remind the government of certain international standards and obligations to which it should adhere, as well as some of the rights and freedoms enshrined in its own constitution.

We should first like to draw your attention to Article 16 of the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, which provides that 'governments shall ensure that lawyers (a) are able to perform all of their professional functions without intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference; and (c) shall not suffer, or be threatened with, prosecution or administrative, economic or other sanctions for any action taken in accordance with recognised professional duties, standards and ethics'.

The IBAHRI would also like to bring to your attention the UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials, which by virtue of Article 3 expressly limits the use of force by police to situations in which it is ‘strictly necessary and to the extent required for the performance of their duty’. Although the code is not binding under international law, it constitutes authoritative guidance for states in interpreting international human rights law regarding policing.

The IBAHRI has expressed further concern about the potential for ill-treatment of some of the detainees mentioned above. We understand that although Mexico is a state party to the UN Convention against Torture, and is thus obliged under Article 4 ensure that all acts of torture are offences under its criminal law, and that although torture constitutes a criminal offence under federal law, the definition of torture as a crime under state law varies from state to state. For instance, torture is not mentioned at all in the Penal Code of the State of Guerrero.

Furthermore, Article 9 of Mexico’s 1917 Constitution ensures that ‘the right to assemble or associate peaceably for any lawful purpose cannot be restricted’ and that ‘no meeting or assembly shall be deemed unlawful which has for its object the petitioning of any authority or the presentation of a protest against any act’. This right to peaceful assembly is also enshrined in both Article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political rights and Article 15 of the American Convention on Human Rights.  Mexico is a party to both instruments.

The IBAHRI urges the State of Mexico to ensure that full, transparent and impartial investigations are undertaken in response to serious allegations of excessive and arbitrary force used by police. We also request that the necessary steps are taken to ensure that lawyers are able to practice without intimidation. We seek further assurance that the constitutional rights of Mexican citizens to engage in peaceful protest be respected and that those who elect to assert this right be permitted to so without fear of arbitrary arrest or detention. Finally, we remind the government that those who are arrested and detained should be treated in accordance with Mexico’s national and international obligations and that laws regarding the criminalisation of torture in Mexico are harmonized.

The IBAHRI would be grateful to receive the assurances of the State of Mexico that our concerns will be addressed as a matter of urgency.

Yours sincerely,

Ambassador Emilio Càrdenas                         
Justice Richard Goldstone
Human Rights Institute Council Co-Chairs

CC:  Francisco Javier Ramirez Acuña, Secretario de Gobernación;
       Lic. Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, Gobernador del Estado de Oaxaca;
       His Excellency Emilio Goicoechea Luna, Mexican Ambassador to Britain;
       Barra Mexicana Colegio de Abogados;
       Asociacion Mexicana de Abogados.