Jared Laureles
La Jornada newspaper
Sunday, September 14, 2025, p. 4
Given the process that initiated the Committee against Forced Disappearance (CED) of the United Nations Organization (UN), given the indications that in Mexico this practice is widespread or systematic, the State must have “political will” and abide by the 85 recommendations made by said instance in 2022 to promote a national preventive and eradication policy of the phenomenon, experts said.
After in April the CED invoked article 34 of the International Convention for the Protection of all people against forced disappearances, Mexico must now provide the necessary information on the existing indications around the forced disappearance in the country; The deadline is September 18, according to the request.
María Clara Galvis, former member of the UN Committee against the Disappearances, considered that these would be some of the most appropriate proposals of the Mexican State to the request for information made by the Committee last June, which will have to be evaluated, in order to prevent the matter from reaching the UN General Assembly.
The Government, he added, must be opened to dialogue, recognize the “serious crisis” and propose alternative mechanisms of “restorative justice” to reach the truth and solve this problem, which has left more than 133 thousand missing people, according to official figures.
In a conversation, Santiago Corcuera, former president of the CED, agreed that to “deter” his intention to the committee, the information presented by the State must attend four fundamental aspects, including expressing their intention to implement prevention policies, investigating the disappearances and accountability of those responsible, that there is no impunity.
“That information has to be powerful, so that the committee says that there is political will to solve the problem, and not deny it,” he said.
Article 34 of the International Convention indicates that if the CED 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 Party, it may present the issue “with an urgent character” to the General Assembly.
This, he added, did not begin last April, but 13 years ago, when the CED began the collection of information on the crisis of disappearances in Mexico, as well as the deficiencies in prevention, search of people, forensic identification, procurement and delivery of justice in the recent four federal administrations.
The first “urgent actions” on Mexico date from 2012. During their visit to the national territory in 2015, the UN Committee concluded that a generalized context persists in the country, and three years later the balance was the same, but warned that the cases continued to grow, Corcuera mentioned.
In November 2021, in a new assistance, the CED reiterated that the practice is “massive and extended”, which the following year resulted in a report with 85 recommendations, in which it also highlights its exhortation that the “State Party eradicate all the structural causes of impunity.”
Experts pointed out that it is important that the government understands that when activating article 34, the CED intends to collaborate with the State to protect people, and it is the last resort that the international community offers when a State does not respond to a humanitarian crisis.
