Mexico’s 100,000 ‘disappeared’ is a tragedy, says UN rights chief Bachelet
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The news that more than 100,000 people in Mexico are now officially registered as “disappeared” is a tragedy, UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said on Tuesday, in a call for action to tackle the country’s longstanding problem.
The international community “should not be neutral” on enforced disappearance, independent UN human rights experts said on Monday, calling for countries to strengthen cooperation in investigating and prosecuting perpetrators.
Concluding “five intense, interesting and rewarding working days” in Mexico, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Wednesday that the country was going through a “crucial” period where it needed to reckon with “the shadows of the past”, before it can move forward.
A group of UN human rights experts has welcomed the announcement earlier this month by the Spanish Minister of Justice that the Government is paving the way for a Truth Commission to investigate violations that occurred during the civil war and the era of dictatorship under General Francisco Franco that followed.
The practice of enforced disappearance is not decreasing, it’s “morphing”, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has said.
Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein made the remarks in a video message to a High-Level plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly, where he warned about “new and alarming patterns” that are emerging in the context of migration, internal conflict and violent extremism.
The more than 40,000 cases of people worldwide who have been arrested, detained or abducted against their will represent human beings, not numbers, a UN human rights expert has said.
Bernard Duhaime is vice-chair of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.
One of its main tasks is to assist families in determining the fate or whereabouts of their relatives who have disappeared, for example, through action by their governments.
