He UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination this Monday urged Mexico to accelerate the reform process of the Federal Law to Prevent and Eliminate Discriminationensuring that a definition of discrimination is incorporated that includes all grounds of racial discrimination, in particular grounds of race and ancestry.
Although he highlighted the country’s progress in terms of recognizing the rights of people of African descent, he regretted that both these communities and indigenous peoples continue to face discrimination and social exclusion.
In this sense, he asked Mexico to undertake concrete actions to reduce the high levels of poverty and inequality that affect indigenous peoples and to adopt special measures to eliminate structural discrimination against these people and people of African descent, as well as to protect them from any act of discrimination by state agencies and public officials.
Access without discrimination to the labor market
Mexico must ensure that indigenous people have access to the labor market without discrimination and that they count both in law and in practice, with fair and satisfactory working conditions, that include remuneration that allows them decent living conditions and access to social security, particularly indigenous women domestic workers, the Committee noted in the concluding observations of its most recent periodic report on the country.
Likewise, he called on Mexico to guarantee that indigenous peoples are consulted to obtain their free, prior and informed consent in all economic development projectsindustrial, energy, infrastructure and exploitation of natural resources that affect their territories and natural resources.
Attacks against migrants
The report addressed the issue of the growing number of migrants, recognizing the challenges that Mexico faces due to the large flows of people passing through its territory.
Regarding this issue, he considered that despite the country’s commitments to implement a migration policy based on respect for human rights, migrants, asylum seekers and refugees continue to be victims of acts of discrimination and violations of their rightsincluding torture, ill-treatment, excessive use of force, forced disappearances and murders.
The Committee referred to alleged cases in which people of African descent, indigenous peoples are subjected to racial profiling or with brown or black skin who arrive at the immigration control points operated by agents of the National Immigration Institute and members of the National Guard.
He also expressed concern about illegal deportations and other abuses allegedly occurred in said immigration controls, urging Mexico to promptly and impartially investigate all complaints in this regard, to ensure that the perpetrators are held accountable before justice and to compensate the victims.
He also recommended that the country find alternatives to the detention of asylum seekers and migrants in an irregular situation; adopt the necessary measures so that migratory stays have adequate living conditions in accordance with international standards; continue with the investigations of the fire that occurred at the Ciudad Juárez immigration facility, ensuring that those responsible are prosecuted and duly punished and that the victims have access to fair reparation and guarantees of non-repetition.
Unaccompanied migrant children
Regarding unaccompanied migrant children, the Committee took note of the reforms to the Migration Law regarding the protection of children, as well as the prohibition of detaining migrant children in immigration centers. However, he expressed concern about the application of these provisions, which in some cases has resulted in the return of unaccompanied children to their country of origin, without the possibility of initiating the application procedure for international protection.
To avoid these returns, he asked Mexico to ensure that the refugee status determination procedure pays due attention to the individual situation and best interests of each child, establishing coordination mechanisms with US authorities in order to facilitate unaccompanied migrant children’s access to the asylum and family reunification procedure in both countries.
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