The Mexico Project opened in 1998. Requests for an international presence had initially been received from organisations in Chiapas following the Zapatista uprising in 1994, but PBI began work in the states of Oaxaca and Guerrero, where the presence of international organisations was much more limited.

In Guerrero, we first accompanied “The Voice for Those Without a Voice” Human Rights Committee, which had launched the conversation on human rights issues in Mexico. Since then, we have accompanied numerous organisations in Guerrero and several organisations in Oaxaca and Mexico City.

The conflicts in Mexico are complex and long lasting, and there are profound social and regional inequalities. Many of these conflicts are due to disputes over land and natural resources, often involving multinational companies and state-sponsored businesses.

Over the last few years we have been following cases before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), including those of Inés Fernández Ortega and Valentina Rosendo Cantú, indigenous Me`phaa women who were raped and tortured by Mexican soldiers in 2002.

Before the courts it was argued that these women’s cases demonstrated endemic problems in Mexico, such as the lack of access to justice for female victims of violence, abuses due to the lack of public control over the Mexican army and the systematic persecution of those who organise themselves to defend indigenous rights.

The Mexico project has 13 volunteers accompanying human rights organisations in Guerrero and Oaxaca, and a coordination team in Mexico City.

Visit the Mexico Project's website

 

Who we protect in Mexico

Fighting impunity

  • The “Bartolome Carrasco Briseno” Regional Centre for Human Rights (Barca-DH)
  • Centre for Human Rights and Legal Advice for Indigenous Peoples (Cedhapi)
  • The Cerezo Committee, which campaigns to raise awareness of the situation of political prisoners
  • The Integral Defence Committee for Human Rights “Gobixha” (Codigo-DH)
  • The Organisation of the Indigenous Me’Phaa People (OPIM)
  • Tita Radilla, vice-president of the Mexican Association of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared (AFADDEM)
  • Tlachinollan Human Rights Centre
  • United Forces for Our Disappeared in Coahuila (FUUNDEC)
  • Valentina Rosendo Cantú

Women human rights defenders and defending women's rights

  • Alba Cruz
  • Tita Radilla
  • Valentina Rosendo Cantú
  • The Organisation of Women Ecologists of the Sierra of Petatlán (OMESP)

Defenders of land rights, culture and natural resources

  • The “Bartolome Carrasco Briseño” Regional Centre for Human Rights (Barca-DH)
  • The Centre for Human Rights and Legal Advice for Indigenous Peoples (Cedhapi)
  • The Organisation of the Indigenous Me’Phaa People (OPIM)
  • Tlachinollan Human Rights Centre
  • The Organisation of Women Ecologists of the Sierra of Petatlán (OMESP), which campaigns against the illegal logging of the forest in the Petatlán highlands and exposes abuses of power by civilian and military state officials in the area