Collectives call for Mexico's disappearance crisis to be considered by the UN.

MEXICO CITY (apro) .- A few hours before the end of the 29th session of the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED), groups of relatives of missing persons and searchers, social organizations, activists and academics released the shadow report “Widespread and/or Systematic Disappearances Committed in Mexico,” with the request to the committee to submit the crisis of disappearances in Mexico “for consideration by the United Nations General Assembly,” through Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
On August 12, the groups, organizations, activists and academics sent the report to the CED, prior to the 29th Session in Geneva, Switzerland, held from September 22 to October 2 in Geneva, where the information that Mexico sent based on the application of Article 34 of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances was discussed, which empowers the Committee to analyze the relevance of submitting the situation of disappearances in a member country to the UN General Assembly.
The signatories of the document asked the CED, in a possible report on Mexico to the General Assembly, to "recommend the establishment of a Historical Clarification Commission to identify patterns that allow for the existence of widespread and systematic situations to be established beyond all doubt, and to recommend appropriate actions to address the phenomenon, stop disappearances in the country, identify bodies and human fragments in order to return them with dignity to their families, determine the truth, and bring those responsible to justice."
They also urged the International Criminal Court to "communicate the information gathered by the Committee and the substantiated evidence to apply Article 34 of the Convention in the Mexican case, in order to initiate a preliminary investigation for crimes against humanity in accordance with the Rome Statute."
With more than 133,000 missing people, Mexico has been under scrutiny by international organizations for the violence unleashed after Felipe Calderón declared a "war on drugs" in 2006. Reports have been issued with specific recommendations for addressing the serious human rights crisis.
The signatories recalled reports from organizations such as the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, the 2014 report of the Committee Against Torture (CAT), the CED country reports of 2015 and 2018, as well as the 2021 on-site visit and the subsequent follow-up report of 2023, leading up to the recent pronouncement last April in which the CED decided to implement Article 34 of the Convention, given a worrying context of disappearances.
The CED's decision to apply Article 34 in the case of Mexico drew angry condemnation from President Claudia Sheinbaum, who promoted a "diplomatic note," and from the then president of the Senate's board of directors, Gerardo Fernández Noroña, who spoke of requesting the dismissal of the president of the collegiate treaty body, Olivier de Frouville.
"It is important to mention that this total number of missing persons exceeds the official figure of missing persons resulting from any situation of political violence, dictatorial regime, or armed conflict in Latin America, including the Colombian armed conflict that lasted more than fifty years, which left 82,988 missing persons between 1958 and 2017," the signatories of the document emphasized, recalling that no state in the country is free from cases of disappearances, confirming that it is a widespread crime.
The shadow report warns that although the official narrative considers that forced disappearances carried out by state agents occur "outside official security policies, that they are isolated incidents, and that the institutions responsible for investigating and punishing crimes—at both the state and federal levels—have the capacity and willingness to do so," there are elements that contradict this narrative, including the persistent impunity surrounding disappearances.
To argue that enforced disappearances in Mexico are also systematic, an analysis by the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (CMPDDH) of 255 recommendations by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) on serious violations committed during the first 12 years of the "war on drugs" was cited. 198 of these resolutions were related to enforced disappearances.
"The same authorities are involved in the disappearance of 198 people, and they are undoubtedly perpetrated as a significant state action within the framework of the interim six-year policy to combat criminal organizations in several states across the country. If the corresponding analyses are conducted, it would be possible to discern the channels of command within the various Mexican federal executive branches involved in the atrocities," it states.
When resuming information from the state and federal judicial powers, delivered via Transparency to the media “Animal Político”, it is indicated that between 2017 and January 2025, 373 convictions were handed down for forced disappearance and those committed by individuals, data that compared to a review of the number of missing persons as of March 21, 2025, the Registry of Missing and Unlocated Persons (RNPDNO) totaled 66,389, hence “the number of sentences is equivalent to 0.56% of that total” of alleged victims.
The civil society report recalls the series of reports and documentation by international and national organizations on cases of disappearances in which "the perpetrators of these crimes have been agents of the State—from all three levels of government: federal, such as the Army, Navy, Attorney General's Office (formerly the Attorney General's Office), National Guard (formerly the Federal Police), as well as municipal and state police—in the context of one or more security policies or strategies to combat drug trafficking or organized crime."
In addition, "certain criminal groups—under applicable international law—can be considered organizations, and within the framework of their (illegal) economic and commercial policies, they have controlled territories through violence and have also committed widespread and/or systematic atrocious crimes, including enforced disappearances, against the civilian population."
The document exposes the situation of disappearances in some emblematic states, such as Nuevo León, Guanajuato, Tabasco; Morelos, Baja California, the State of Mexico, Coahuila, Veracruz, Nayarit, and Jalisco, highlighting that in the last four years, local organizations have filed complaints with the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The shadow report provides a differentiated analysis by type of victim, including children and adolescents, a population of whom, according to official records, 17,349 were missing or unaccounted for as of March 14, 2025.
In the case of people in a situation of mobility, it is highlighted that while 265 migrants are registered as missing in the RNPDNO between 2003 and so far this year, civil organizations such as the Missing Migrants Project of the International Organization for Migration (PMDOIM), has recognized that from 2014 to so far in 2025, at least 4,924 migrants have been counted missing and deceased in transit through Mexican territory towards the United States.
Meanwhile, family committees in Honduras have documented 887 cases of migrants who disappeared while in transit through Mexico, while the Association of Relatives of Disappeared Migrants of Guatemala (AFAMIDEG) has documented 40 cases, the Committee of Relatives of Deceased and Disappeared Migrants of El Salvador (COFAMIDE) is aware of 300 cases, and the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF) has documented 2,351 cases of migrants who disappeared in Mexico and the United States between 2010 and February 2025.
Regarding women and girls, the Mexican Institute for Human Rights and Democracy (IMDHD) reported that cases of missing women increased from May 2024 to May 2025 in all 32 states of the country, but nine of them registered increases of between 55% and 21 percent, these being Campeche, Chiapas, Mexico City, Aguascalientes, Puebla, Querétaro, Quintana Roo, Nayarit and Sinaloa, while the age range with the highest number of victims is between 15 and 19 years old.
The shadow report includes data on the disappearances of 31 journalists between 2000 and 2025; 93 environmental and territorial defenders, 62 of whom belonged to an indigenous group, who disappeared between 2006 and 2023; and 27 searchers who disappeared until April 2025.
The groups, organizations, activists, and academics who presented the report highlight the country's forensic crisis, with more than 72,100 unidentified bodies in the country's forensic services. They also warn of the lack of clarity among institutions in disclosing official figures on discoveries of clandestine graves and human remains.
To bring CED members closer to this issue, the signatories of the document report that, based on press releases, civil society has documented that, from January 1, 2006 to September 30, 2024, 3,516 clandestine graves, of which 8,341 bodies and 52,305 human remains have been exhumed, while state prosecutors' offices report 5,152 graves, with 5,718 bodies and 4,901 remains.
"Although prosecutors' offices report a higher number of mass grave finds—it is their obligation to document this phenomenon in its entirety—press releases report a higher number of human remains," it notes.
Insisting on the need for the international community to intervene to stem the crisis of disappearances, the document's authors emphasize that "the total official number of missing persons recorded in Mexico is enormous, exceeding any other situation of violence, armed conflict, or dictatorial regime experienced by any other country in Latin America," while impunity persists, which "could also be understood as a form of collaboration on the part of the authorities responsible for the administration of justice in the commission and repetition of atrocities."
The report was signed by hundreds of groups of relatives of the disappeared and searchers from across the country, as well as from Central America, civil society organizations such as Consultora Solidaria, Foundation for Justice and the Democratic Rule of Law, the Children's Rights Network in Mexico, Article 19, Assembly of Indigenous Peoples of the Isthmus in Defense of Land and Territory, Fray Francisco de Vitoria Human Rights Center, Tlachinollan Mountain Human Rights Center, Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center, Center for Research on Atrocious Crimes, Center for Justice for Peace and Development, Juan Fray de Larios Human Rights Center, Transitional Justice Mexico, Weaving Childhood Networks, Platform for Peace, among dozens of others, as well as activists and academics such as Aída Hernández (CIESAS), Alejandra Nuño (ITESO), Elena Azaola (CIESAS), Mariclaire Acosta, Michael Chamberlin, Santiago Corcuera and José Antonio. Guevara, among others.
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