| Parliamentary Assembly Assembl�e parlementaire |
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Disappearance and murder of a great number of women and girls in Mexico
Doc. 10088 revised
(English only)
18 February 2004
Motion for a recommendation
presented by Mrs Agudo and others
This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only the members who have signed it
During the last ten years, more precisely from December 1993 to January 2003, 4,476 (four thousand four hundred and seventy-six) women and girls have disappeared in several Mexican cities – namely Ciudad Ju�rez, Tijuana and Chihuahua – and more than 320 (three hundred and twenty) bodies of women and girls have been found. The age of the missing persons average between 14 and 16 years, but some of them were hardly ten-years old when they were raped and murdered. These data are at variance, let it be said, with those furnished by the Mexican judiciary authorities. The Prosecutor’s office does acknowledge the disappearances and is officially investigating 73 (seventy-three) cases, but none of these has been clarified let alone concluded. Since October 2002, i.e. from the hearing of the Inter-American Human Rights Committee (CIDH in the Spanish initials) rapporteur, little more than a dozen of bodies of murdered women have been found.
We cannot rule out the possibility of the aim of these disappearances having some connection with the traffic of women, sexual exploitation, even with pornographic purposes, or the trading of organs, i.e. with matters to which the Council of Europe as a body for the guarantee of human rights is particularly sensitive, as shown by the numerous reports adopted and the amount of work performed by the Committee of Equal Opportunities for Women and Men.
As Mexico has Observer Status in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Mexican Government and its administration are under a particular obligation to make available for the fact-finding investigation all necessary means and to take all relevant preventive and sanctioning measures.
The lack of efficiency of investigation by the Mexican authorities adds to the helplessness of these women, who have suffered the worst violation of their fundamental rights. This is also a case of non-compliance with the recommendations and Action Plan of the United Nations IV Women’s World Conference and the obligations arising from the UN Convention for the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women.
Many civic groups and associations ranging from the victims’ relatives (such as the Movement for the Return Home of our Daughters) to women’s human rights, trade unionists and lawyers’ associations are already organising opinion-making campaigns, and laid complaints before the aforesaid UN Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). At the European Parliament, in response to questions tabled by the Spanish members Mrs. VALENCIANO and Mrs. SAUQUILLO, the Council has expressed in October 2003 its concern that in spite of the Government’s well-meaning intentions… no tangible results have been reached as yet and it went on to say that “the recent decision by the National Human Rights Committee to cancel the Ombudsman’s proposal, which had been funded by the European Human Rights Initiative, has aroused a great anxiety…” “Mexican authorities must therefore reiterate their commitment to make progress in the field of human rights in cooperation with all international partners, including the very important programme of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Mexico”.
Political parties and national Parliaments have expressed their interest for this grave situation. The Spanish Parliament adopted unanimously at the end of 2003 a motion urging the Spanish Government to convey to the Mexican Government its concern and the need to carry out international guidelines and to guarantee the human rights of women and girls. In March 2003 Mrs. Marta ALTOAGUIRRE, Special Rapporteur for Women’s Rights of the above mentioned Inter American Human Rights Committee, stated in her report (which has been already published) that although the Mexican Government is aware of the gravity of the problem, it has not yet taken the necessary measures nor obtained effective results on the scale of these violations of human rights, namely by investigating the facts, prosecuting, taking to court and punishing the guilty persons and protecting the young girls and giving assistance to the victims’ relatives.
Therefore, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe invites the Committee of Ministers to convey to the Government of Mexico as an observer country in the Council of Europe:
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its concern about the situation arising from the disappearance of women and girls in Mexico;
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the necessity to comply with the guidelines of UN’s World Women’s Conference and of the Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women, in order to guarantee the human rights of women and girls;
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the imperative need to ensure adequate investigation procedures, proper description of the facts in the submission of complaints, the independence and professional capacity of the public agencies entrusted with the investigation and the provision of all necessary resources to carry out their task, and finally the commitment to request international cooperation whenever it is called for.
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the obligation, which it also shares, to punish the guilty parties, to ensure compensation for damages ant do grant its protection and assistance to victims and their families.
Signed
[1]:
Agudo, Spain, SOC
L�pez Gonz�lez, Spain, SOC
Agramunt, Spain, EPP/CD
Ahlqvist, Sweden, SOC
Aliyev B., Azerbaijan, SOC
Anttila, Finlande, LDR
Ates, Turkey, SOC
Azevedo, Portugal, EPP/CD
Bartumeu Cassany, Andorra, SOC
Bilgehan, Turkey, SOC
Bousakla, Belgium, SOC
Braun, Hungary, EPP/CD
Cilevics, Latvia, SOC
Davis, United Kingdom, SOC
de Puig, Spain, SOC
Durrieu, France, SOC
Elo, Finland, SOC
E�rsi, Hungary, LDR
Etherington, United Kingdom, SOC
Feric-Vac, Croatia, SOC
Gedei, Hungary, SOC
Gross, Switzerland, SOC
Guardans, Spain, LDR
Hagberg, Sweden, SOC
Herczog, Hungary, SOC
Hooper, United Kingdom, EDG
Hurskainen, Finland, SOC
Ilascu, Romania, NR
Judd, United Kingdom, SOC
Jurgens, Netherlands, SOC
Kirilov, Bulgaria, SOC
Krohn, Finland, SOC
Legendre, France, EPP/CD
Meale, United Kingdom, SOC
Mikutiene, Lithuania, LDR
Nasufi, �the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia�, EDG
Nessa, Italy, EPP/CD
Ohlsson, Sweden, SOC
Piscitello, Italy, LDR
Poty, Belgium, SOC
Rivolta, Italy, EPP
Schicker, Austria , SOC
Severin, Romania, SOC
Seyidov, Azerbaijan, EDG
Shakhtakhtinskaya, Azerbaijan, EDG
Shybko, Ukraine, SOC
Takkula, Finland, LDR
Timmermans J., Belgium, SOC
Tk�c, Slovakia, EDG
Varela i Serra, Spain, LDR
Velikov, Bulgaria, LDR
Vermot-Mangold, Switzerland, SOC
Y��ez-Barnuevo, Spain, SOC
Zapfl-Helbling, Switzerland, EPP/CD
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SOC |
Socialist Group |