PRESS RELEASE
- Indigenous Community of Buena Vista, in Atlixtac, Guerrero, contest constitutional reforms on amparoand human rights
- First Judge of District based in Chilpancingo, Guerrero has admitted the demand
- The Buena Vista Community is an emblematic case of discrimination against indigenous communities from the Montaña region, in access to education
10 July, 2012, Tlapa, Guerrero, Mexico.
In an unprecedented action, the Me’phaa Indigenous Community of Buena Vista, in the Municipality of Atlixtac, in Guerrero, filed an amparo lawsuit to demand access to basic education for their children. This has been admitted by the First Judge of District in Guerrero, under the file number 893/2012.
The conditions in the Buena Vista Community reflects the situation of the Montaña region with higher educational backwardness of the country. The children have to walk more than 6 kilometers a day to the neighboring community to go to preschool, violating the right to basic education of 27 children of 3 to 6 years old.
Over nearly 10 years the Buena Vista Community unsuccessfully submitted multiple requests to the Ministry of Education of Guerrero to demand the foundation of an Indigenous Preschool Centre; however, this Ministry has ignored these requests even though the community already has the land on which the preschool could be established, and despite, the community has built with their own resources and community work a place where classes could be taught.
Due to the omissions of the educational authorities of Guerrero, the Buena Vista community decided to judicially demand the right to education through an amparo lawsuit, filed on 21 June 2012, accompanied by the Human Rights Centre Tlachinollan. In a historical event, on 29 June 2012, the First Judge of District, based in Chilpancingo, Guerrero admitted the amparo demand, initiating an amparo trial under number 893/2012.
The lawsuit filed by the Buena Vista Community is of great importance, not only because it is the ultimate legal remedy for the children of the Community to access education but because it challenges the recent reforms on amparo and human rights to judicially demand social rights of indigenous communities in Mexico.
The case of Buena Vista is also emblematic of the recurrent violation of the right to education in the Montaña region of Guerrero where, as remarked by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education in its most recent visit to Mexico: “poor people end up receiving a poor education.”
In the judicial process to demand the right to education, the First Judge of District has a historic opportunity to issue a milestone decision on the protection of the right to education. Given the importance of the case, the Buena Vista Community and Tlachinollan will report regularly on the progress of the judicial process and the actions accompanying it.