2024-04-04 17:30:00
Baja California, Mexico. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Office in Mexico of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN-DH) recognize that lThe new Law on disappearance and search for persons for the state of Baja California represents an important advance for the legal protection of missing persons and their relatives at the state level. Both organizations emphasize that, to ensure its effective implementation, it is necessary to guarantee an adequate budget and the right to participation of the families of missing persons.
The ICRC and the UN-DH highlight the tireless work of the families of missing persons in the construction of this legal framework through working groups convened for the design of the law, actions to highlight its importance and proposals to nourish its content. Subsequently, after an extensive drafting process in the state Congress, this legislation was approved on Sunday, March 31. We encourage its prompt promulgation and publication.
Both organizations promoted information and consultation spaces with groups of families in search of their loved ones and provided technical advice to the state Congress; Likewise, they participated in the open parliament exercise for the construction of the law. The ICRC and the UN-DH emphasized the need to guarantee the right to joint participation of families in all stages of the legislative processsince it is their experiences that must constitute the central axis of any law on disappearances, so that it fully responds to their needs.
The ICRC and the UN-DH highlight as an achievement that the Baja California law is the first at the state level to include a specific chapter on human identification, which recognizes the right of every person to be identified and establishes the obligation of the authorities to collaborate in scientific identification processes. Likewise, it contemplates the minimum elements that identification protocols must have, so that the competent authorities have approved standards.
Furthermore, this regulatory framework establishes the organization and operation of the Local Search Commission and its coordination with the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office in matters of Forced Disappearance and Disappearance Committed by Individuals.
It will be essential that in its application the authorities comply with their powers in the recovery of bodies of deceased people and ensure adequate traceability that allows them to be followed, in accordance with national and international regulations.
The important advance that this legal framework represents for strengthening the search and identification of people in Baja California must be consolidated through the allocation of the necessary resources – economic, human and infrastructure materials – that guarantee its effective implementation.
Both organizations also recommend the creation of operating guidelines for the state registries regarding missing persons, unidentified deceased persons and the state genetic bank, in order to determine the responsibilities of the corresponding authorities for their feeding and management, since The approved legal framework does not specify it.
Furthermore, based on the fact that the law contains a chapter establishing the powers and responsibilities of city councils, the organizations suggest the creation of municipal search cells as entities responsible for searches at the local level and auxiliaries to the Local People Search Commission. .
Finally, the ICRC and the UN-DH call for transparently defining the public consultation requirements for the selection of the head of the Local Search Commission, and underline the importance of carrying out this process and implementing the law. in accordance with the pro-person principle, respecting and effectively guaranteeing the active participation of families in all stages of the process of searching, locating and identifying their loved ones.
The ICRC and the UN-DH recall that Mexico and other countries have responsibilities under international law to prevent the disappearance of people, to address the needs of relatives seeking to know the whereabouts of their loved ones, to punish those responsible and to make full reparation. to the victims.
As part of its neutral and impartial humanitarian work, since 2017 the ICRC has developed a humanitarian dialogue in Baja California with state authorities and has accompanied families of missing people in the processes of recognition of their rights. Likewise, it has provided technical advice to the authorities to promote dignified treatment towards family members searching for a loved one and to raise the standards of practices during the process of searching and identifying missing persons in the entity.
As part of its work in favor of the defense and protection of human rights, the UN-DH has accompanied authorities, family groups and civil society organizations in Baja California in strengthening capacities aimed at protecting all people against forced disappearances under the framework of the international commitments adopted by the Mexican state and the recommendations made on the matter, favoring at all times respect for the rights of the victims and their families.
For more information and press requests:
ICRC: Ana Olivia Langner Leyva, public communications officer: Cel: +52 5537176427/ [email protected]
ONU-DH: Sandra Martínez, Tel: +5255 5061 6377, cel. +52 1 55 5438 1729 / [email protected]
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