PBI-Mexico accompanied Espacio OSC highlights Canada’s recommendation on the protection of journalists and human rights defenders

The Civil Society Organization (OSC) Space (Espacio) for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists has highlighted Canada’s recommendation to Mexico on the protection of human rights defenders and journalists during the Universal Periodic Review (examen periódico universal) at the United Nations earlier this year.
They have tweeted: “In the recent #UPR2024,#México accepted the recommendation of #Canada regarding the need to strengthen the intersectional and gender perspective in the protection provided by @Mecanismo_MX [Protection Mechanism] to defenders of #humanrights and #journalists in risk.”
The image at the top says: “Recommendations to Mexico regarding human rights defenders and journalists. Strengthen from an intersectional and gender perspective, the federal mechanism for the protection of human rights defenders and journalists, specifically in the areas of prevention, protection, investigation and reparation.”
At the UN UPR session held on January 24 this year, Canada recommended: “29.32 Strengthen, from an intersectional and gender perspective, the federal Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, specifically in the areas of prevention, protection, investigation, and reparation (Canada).”
Prior to this session, Canada had asked Mexico: “How will the new General law to respect, protect, guarantee, and promote the rights of human rights defenders and journalists address key challenges under the current mechanism, including in achieving results, improving federal-state-municipal cooperation, and promoting prevention of violence against human rights defenders and journalists?”
Notably, the response from Mexico included:
- As of July 2023, a total of 2,130 persons were benefiting from the services of National Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, 157 and 26 federative entities had at least one law or set of specialized regulations providing for their protection.
- In the period 2018-2023, the Mechanism’s budget increased by 138 per cent and, at the end of 2022, its staff had increased by 70 per cent.
The Mechanism
The Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project has noted that a Protection Mechanism was created for journalists in Autumn 2010. Later, the Law for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists was signed into law in June 2012.
That law obliges both federal and state authorities to protect the rights of journalists and human rights defenders.
PBI-Mexico has commented that “the Mechanism continues to demonstrate notable deficiencies and concerning failures.”
The situation in Mexico
In March 2024, Amnesty International and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) produced the report ‘No one guarantees my safety’ and highlighted that “eight journalists have been killed while enrolled in Mexico’s Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists in the last seven years, a figure that highlights the urgent need to strengthen and reform the institution…”
They further noted: “Since [the year 2000], at least 141 journalists and other media workers have been killed, according to CPJ research; at least 61 of those killings were found to be directly related to their work.”
As to why so many journalists have been killed, they responded: “Most threats and attacks are linked to the country’s ongoing struggle with violent criminal groups, the militarization of the so-called ‘war on drugs’ and the failure of law enforcement agencies to keep journalists and the public safe amid alleged corruption.”
The situation in Canada
A survey of journalists and media workers in Canada conducted by the polling firm Ipsos between September 27 and October 13, 2021, found that “72% experienced some form of harassment in the past year” and “just over one in ten of those who have experienced online harassment have received a death threat in the course of their work; nearly as many received threats against their family, were threatened with blackmail, or were threatened with rape or sexual assault.”
In August 2022, CTV reporter Judy Trinh reported: “[The Canadian Association of Journalists/CAJ] says there was an increase in online abuse and hate directed at reporters during the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa [that took place from January 22 to February 23, 2022]. Now that the protests have fizzled, the CAJ says the attacks have morphed into what appears to be a coordinated online campaign directed at women journalists, especially those who are persons of colour.”
In December 2023, Unifor, a union that represents more than 10,000 media workers in Canada, noted: “Unifor conducted a survey in late 2021 to early 2022 to document experiences of harassment journalists faced. Women, journalists of colour and 2SLGBTQIA+ people were disproportionately targeted for harassment.”
The situation for environmental journalists in both countries
On May 2, 2024, the day prior to World Press Freedom Day, The Guardian reported: “At least 749 environmental journalists have faced violence and intimidation in the last 15 years, [the United Nations body UNESCO found]. It said that 44 reporters were murdered between 2009 and 2023 but that resulted in just five convictions.”
In Canada, journalist Brandi Morin was grabbed and threatened with arrest by Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) C-IRG officer Jason Charney on August 15, 2023, while Morin was reporting on an Indigenous-led blockade against the logging of old growth forest at Fairy Creek on Pacheedaht territory in British Columbia.
The online news outlet The Narwhal and photojournalist Amber Bracken have also filed a lawsuit against the RCMP for the violation of their Charter rights when Bracken was arrested and detained while covering the enforcement of an injunction on Wet’suwet’en territory in November 2021. That civil lawsuit against the RCMP is expected to start later this year on October 15 in Vancouver.
And in Mexico, this would include Indigenous Náhuatl environmental activist Samir Flores Soberanes, founder of Community Radio Amiltzinko 100.7 FM and a member of the PBI-Mexico accompanied Peoples’ Front in Defence of Land and Water (FPDTA), who was murdered on February 21, 2019, for his opposition to the PIM megaproject.
PBI-Canada will continue to work with PBI-Mexico and Espacio OSC to highlight the need to protect frontline human rights defenders and journalists who face threats, harassment and being killed due to their work.
Further reading: Turning the Tide on Impunity: Protection and Access to Justice for Journalists and Human Rights Defenders in Mexico (March 2019).
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