Mexico responds to forced disappearances to the UN; Ask for confidentiality

Jared Laureles

La Jornada newspaper
Sunday, October 5, 2025, p. 8

Mexico responded to the request for information that the Committee against Forced Disappearance (CDF) of the United Nations Organization (UN) required about the indications that in the country this practice is widespread or systematic. However, the State requested that its report be confidential, according to the database of said agency.

Within the framework of the 29th Session of the Committee, the Delegation of the Mexican State reiterated its position that in our country there is no generalized or systematic practice of forced disappearance and assured that it will continue to collaborate with the body of independent experts.

“We recognize the magnitude of the problem and do not deny its challenges, but we also firmly affirm that the Mexican State does not consent, does not allow, or order forced disappearances and that it will continue to redouble efforts to eradicate them,” said Jennifer Feller Enriquez, director of Human Rights and Democracy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE).

In public hearing and on behalf of the State, he said that there has been a “punctual and detailed” response to the request for information required and stressed that the legal, institutional and forensic advances, as well as the policies of search and attention to victims, “accredit the State’s commitment to face this crime with determination”.

The severity of the problem of disappearances in Mexico, with more than 133 thousand cases, according to official figures, led the committee to be invoked last April 34 of the International Convention on the matter, which establishes that if the CDF receives information that in its opinion, it contains “well -founded indications” that the forced disappearance is practiced in a generalized or systematic way in the territory under the jurisdiction of a state, it may take the issue to the State. UN General.

Juan Carlos Gutiérrez, legal director of the Idheas organization, pointed out that the confidentiality application of the State Party, in this case Mexico, is based on the internal regulations of the Committee.

He mentioned that there is no history of a similar request by a country that delivers a report to the CDF, although in cases of “urgent actions” it can be established that it is not made public “the name of the victim or the responses granted so that the investigation or search is not put at risk in a case,” he said.

In an interview, he considered that the position of the Mexican government is “little self -criticism”, because the forced disappearances in the country continue to occur, in addition to the request “reflects an attitude that prevents constructive dialogue.”

Within the framework of the committee sessions, various organizations and groups of relatives of missing persons made public a report that had previously delivered to the Committee, in which they warn that in Mexico “they have been committed against civil victims forced disappearances in a massive or generalized way, both by organizations (criminals), and by agents of the state of the three levels of government”.

According to the Foundation for Justice, from this there was a meeting with SRE authorities and will soon do so with the Government. The organization indicated that the following steps of the procedure of article 34 will be communicated to the parties, and the determination will be made public when appropriate.