A/HRC/7/2 page 52 regarding outstanding cases. The communication dated 18 October 2007 could not be translated by the United Nations translation services in time for consideration by the Working Group for inclusion in the present report. Information from sources 210. No information was received from sources regarding outstanding cases. Meetings 211. During the eighty-first session, the Working Group met with the Mexican National Human Rights Institution to discuss outstanding cases of disappearances in Mexico. General allegation 212. Information was submitted by NGOs to the Working Group concerning obstacles reportedly encountered in the implementation of the Declaration by the Government of Mexico. This information was transmitted to the Government. 213. Reportedly, in 1990, the Special Programme on the Presumed Disappeared (PREDES) of the National Commission for Human Rights released a report on the presumed enforced disappearances of 532 persons, the majority of cases dating from the 1970s. On 27 November 2001, the President of Mexico published in the Official Gazette an agreement to establish measures to seek justice for crimes committed against people linked to social and political movements from the past. Through this agreement the Government created the “Special Prosecutor’s Office on federal crimes committed directly or indirectly by public servants against persons from social and political movements of the past”. The Working Group has been informed of the closing of the Office of Mexico’s Special Prosecutor for Social and Political Movements of the Past. It is reported that despite the lack of results from the Special Prosecutor’s Office, this was the only institutional mechanism to investigate past human rights violations. 214. No reply was received from the Government regarding this general allegation. Total cases transmitted, clarified and outstanding 215. In previous years and during the year under review, the Working Group has transmitted 379 cases to the Government; of those, 22 cases have been clarified on the basis of information provided by the source, 133 cases have been clarified on the basis of information provided by the Government, 16 cases were discontinued and 208 cases remain outstanding. Observations 216. The Working Group encourages the Government to provide information on the fate or whereabouts of the victims that could lead to the clarification of the 208 outstanding cases. 217. The Working Group is concerned about the closure of the Special Prosecutor’s Office and believes that a measure of that nature may be contrary to article 16, paragraph 3, of the Declaration.

Select target paragraph3

Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents