IACHR
Press Release
IACHR Welcomes Progress Made by Mexico to Implement Friendly Settlement in the Case of Antonio Jacinto López
October 3, 2019
Washington, D.C. - The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
(IACHR) welcomes compliance by the State of Mexico with
non-repetition measures included in the friendly settlement
concerning the case of Antonio Jacinto López, by creating a protocol
to implement IACHR precautionary measures. The case concerns the
failure to investigate the homicide of Antonio Jacinto López while
he was a beneficiary of this kind of protection measure.
On September 8, 2006, the IACHR received a petition alleging that the
Mexican State had violated the rights enshrined in articles 8 (fair trial),
23 (political rights), 25 (judicial protection), and 26 (progressive
development) of the American Convention on Human Rights against Triqui
indigenous leader Antonio Jacinto López and his family.
In July 2015, the parties started negotiating a friendly settlement that
was eventually signed on September 23, 2015. Through this friendly
settlement agreement, the Mexican State committed—among other measures—to
adopting a Protocol to implement IACHR precautionary measures, in order to
ensure non-repetition.
In accordance with this friendly settlement agreement, an event was held
in Oaxaca’s Government Palace on August 28, 2019 to launch the “Protocol to
Regulate and Implement the Protection Measures Established by the Universal,
Inter-American, and National Human Rights Systems”. IACHR President
Esmeralda Arosemena de Troitiño attended the event, along with several
members of the Mexican government and the Oaxaca Governor’s Office.
Representatives of the victims, who have supported this process since 2006,
were also in attendance.
This Protocol seeks to establish the procedures that need to be monitored
by the Unit for the Defense of Human Rights to address, coordinate,
implement, and monitor requests for information and requests for the
adoption of precautionary and temporary measures granted by institutions in
the Inter-American Human Rights System. The Protocol further develops the
procedure to receive requests for precautionary measures, and to address and
respond to those requests in urgent cases, and also establishes how the
relevant authorities should coordinate and monitor such measures.
“The system to implement and monitor precautionary measures has been
faulty. The IACHR has observed that deficiencies were closely linked to the
lack of a legal–institutional protection framework and to the failure to
coordinate actions among the authorities in charge of providing protection
and those in charge of investigating the events that gave rise to the risks
that have been reported,” Commissioner Arosemena de Troitiño said at the
ceremony where the Protocol was launched, in the state of Oaxaca. “This
Protocol sets an important precedent in our region, concerning the positive
real impact of friendly settlement processes. In this case in particular,
this impact led to a Protocol to implement precautionary measures that seeks
to ensure coordination among State institutions in order to provide better
protection to beneficiaries of these kinds of measures—particularly human
rights defenders—which is good practice as well as a model that can and
should be replicated by other States,” said President Arosemena de Troitiño.
The Commission commends the Mexican State on its efforts to collect valuable concepts and principles concerning the implementation of protection measures and on the fluent dialogue with civil society throughout the process to draft this action guide. The Commission hopes this instrument will enable the Mexican State to provide adequate, effective, efficient, timely, well-coordinated, and transparent assistance to people who are granted protection measures.
A principal, autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), the IACHR derives its mandate from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has a mandate to promote respect for and to defend human rights in the region and acts as a consultative body to the OAS in this area. The Commission is composed of seven independent members who are elected in an individual capacity by the OAS General Assembly and who do not represent their countries of origin or residence.
No. 247/19