Who defends human rights defenders?

December 10^th2008

Chilpancingo, Guerrero, Mexico, on 10th December 2008. 60 years after the Mexican State signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and 10 years after it signed up to the Declaration of Human Rights Defenders before the Unite Nations (UN), in our country and in our state we are facing a serious crisis in the justice system and mechanisms for protecting human rights. The government of Guerrero has not taken on its responsibility as guardian of the human rights of the mainly poor population, nor has it committed to respecting the international norms that guide truly democratic states.

The work of defenders has not only been vilified, but is also censured and criminalised by the state Executive branch, which has worked hard to systematically discredit the social struggle and the legitimate right to protest.

The current government has not only failed to fulfil the promises of change that it offered, it has also undertaken the criminalisation of human rights defenders, demonstrated in a series of patterns such as; undermining their movements, bringing them into disrepute, persecuting those that use normative systems, fabricating crimes and failing to take action in the face of abuses suffered by human rights defenders.

In Guerrero the movement of peoples and social organisations for the defence of human rights has grown as a clear manifestation of the development of our participatory democracy. However, the state authorities have been the primary obstacle that impedes the full exercise of their rights and fundamental freedoms.

The historical trajectory of social activists in Guerrero state contrasts abysmally with the antidemocratic governments trapped in corruption and impunity. Sadly, in our state the authorities do not have the political stature to recognise in the social movement the strength that the government needs to be able to carry out the necessary transformations; to banish the fear of violence and despotic and arbitrary acts that violate human rights.

We are facing a serious deterioration in democratic institutions and an unpunished subjugation of human rights that has left human rights defenders in a high-risk situation; because the guarantees they need to carry out their work in safety do not exist. At the Guerrero Network of Civil Human Rights Organisations we have documented various patterns of criminalisation and harassment by the government of Zeferino Torreblanca, which are outlined in the following figures:

These figures illustrate the criminalisation that human rights defenders have suffered between 2005 and 2008. On 22nd October the Guerrero Network presented the issue of criminalisation before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which demonstrated its concern for this problem that is being experienced in Guerrero and called upon the Mexican authorities to establish a dialogue with social and civil organisations.

In turn the Mexican State has failed to establish any dialogue mechanism that guarantees the serious and responsible consideration of the ideas set out by human rights defenders in Guerrero.

The alarming statistics regarding the criminalisation of protest respond to a pattern of behaviour by the state authorities, characterised by fabricating crimes by the defenders. This has happened in the cases of Felipe Arriaga, the five indigenous Me’phaa men belonging the Organisation of Indigenous Me’phaa People (la Organización del Pueblo Indígena Me’phaa, OPIM) who are currently imprisoned in Ayutla jail, the campesinos opposed to the construction of the La Parota dam, the Amuzgo indigenous people of Xochistlahuaca and the Naua indigenous people of Chilapa Citizens’ Council.

Another pattern of criminalisation is the persistent criticism and defamation of the work of human rights defenders who exercise their right to protest, in light of the inflexibility demonstrated by the state Executive when it comes to dialogue with protest movements. Another method that has been used on repeated occasions by a government produced by a left-wing party, is the recourse to police repression, such as in the cases of the students from the Rural Teacher-Training College in Ayotzinapa, the Chilapa Citizens’ Council and the recent attack on reporters and photographers covering the legislative source.

In the last two months the case of criminalisation against human rights defenders have increased and far from heeding the recommendations by the Rapporteurs on Human Rights Defenders and Freedom of Expression, the police forces are still being used as the most effective way to subjugate the defenders who protest. Torture is also carried out, justified by the claim that those concerned are members of organised crime, as a crude way of defaming social activism. This delicate situation results in the following figures:

This dark panorama of violence and the policy of criminalisation of social protest, we begin to see a repressive government that rejects dialogue in order to ignore the legitimate demands of the peoples and organisations that mobilise to demand the fulfilment of constitutional obligations, related to the right to health, housing, education, work and food. Police repression has been merciless against the students, indigenous people and campesinos with the aim of demobilising the peoples and silencing their leaders. As far as the state government is concerned there is an attempt to equate social activists with criminals; resorting to the fabrication of crimes and the use of torture as methods of investigation.

The state authorities are obliged to respect the free exercise of fundamental freedoms and recognise that social protest is part of strengthening our democracy. They mustn’t forget that the few advances that have been made in our state in terms of human rights have been thanks to the generous effort of social movements and men and women who have devoted themselves to the cause of justice and democracy for all.

As human rights defenders we demand that the state government:

• Respect and guarantee our work.
• Stops criminalising social protest.
• Resolves the 215 cases of legal action instated against human rights defenders.
• Stops the persecution and harassment of protest movements.
• Punishes the authorities responsible for violating the population’s human rights.
• And we appeal to the state Executive to establish a space for dialogue, headed by the governor, in order to resolve the cases of criminalisation of human rights defenders and end the persecution and defamation of our work.