PBI-Switzerland hosts public forum in Geneva with Mexican human rights defenders
On September 17, Peace Brigades International-Switzerland hosted Maricela Vazquez, a lawyer with the Paso del Norte Human Rights Centre, and Olga Guzmán Vergara, Director of Advocacy at the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (CMDPDH), at the Albatros bookstore in Geneva.
Vazquez will also be speaking in Bern on September 19 (with Sara Méndez) and in Brussels on September 24 (Yolanda Pérez).
The Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project has accompanied the Paso del Norte Human Rights Centre since 2013.
PBI-Mexico has previously noted, “The Centre’s main areas of work are a comprehensive defense of rights and the accompaniment of victims of human rights violations, with a focus on cases of torture and enforced disappearances.”
On September 18, Proceso reported that Vazquez read a statement on behalf of civil society organizations to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Vazquez stated, “The serious human rights situation in Mexico requires the urgent attention of the Human Rights Council.”
The article further notes, “She stressed that 70% percent of enforced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial executions in Mexico have been committed by the armed forces and stressed that ‘the deployment of thousands of military elements to carry out public security work has encouraged the commission of serious human rights violations.’”
Vázquez also stressed that during the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador 15 journalists and 24 human rights defenders have been killed.
The full Proceso article can be read here.
A video of Vazquez’s 2-minute statement to the Human Rights Council can be seen here starting at the 00:24:01 mark.
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