Mexico Congress Dawdles Over Legislation on Forced Disappearance and Torture Jose Antonio Roman - La Jornada
go to original March 26, 2016

The adoption of general laws on enforced disappearance and against torture in the current session of Congress, which ends at the end of April, is getting more and more complicated. Lawmakers seem not to be clear about the content of both bills, and the political parties do not have them as priorities on their respective agendas. Added to this, there isn't even a precise timetable for the legislative process.

Various organizations and human rights experts in the field have warned of the risk that the approval of both initiatives may be delayed until the next regular session in September. The two laws should have been ready the first of January, when the 180 days established for their approval were completed, so the lawmakers are now violating their own rules.

Abel Barrera, of the Tlachinollan Mountain Center for Human Rights; Edgar Cortez, a researcher at the Mexican Institute for Human Rights and Democracy; Jose Antonio Lara Duque, of the Zeferino Ladrillero Center for Human Rights , and Nadin Reyes, of the Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared Until We Find Them, expressed, with various nuances, their doubts about the approval, because time has almost run out, without being certain at what stage the process is.

Abel Barrera said that not only have the time limits been exceeded, but also the legislators have "worked with their backs" to the families of the victims, without taking them into account or the proposals they have presented to the Senate since September 2015, regarding what the two laws should contain.

"We have serious and well-founded fears that they cannot be completed and will get stuck. It is a great test for legislators and the government to show how far their commitment to society and the victims of violence goes. We see it as difficult; it is a great challenge for Congress," said the activist from the Mountain Region of Guerrero.

Read the rest at Mexico Voices

Related: Mexcian Migrants are Leaving Their Home States Because of Violence (The Fulano Forum)

Mexico Voices is a blogging endeavor aimed at raising the awareness of U.S. citizens regarding the destructive impact of the U.S. economic policy and the War on Drugs on Mexico — on its people, their economic and physical security and their human rights, on the nation’s dysfunctional justice system, and on the rule of law and Mexico’s fragile democracy. Visit the website at MexicoVoices.blogspot.mx

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