“Turning the Tide on Impunity: Protection and Access to Justice for Journalists and Human Rights Defenders in Mexico”, 29 de marzo de 2019

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office after campaigning on a platform focused heavily on combating corruption and insecurity and bringing peace and reconciliation to the Mexican people. This report focuses on how the new government can approach an important aspect of this endeavor: creating a safer and more enabling environment for journalists and human rights defenders to carry out their important work. Key Findings: Protection measures provided through Mexico's Mechanism to Protect Human Rights Defenders and Journalists are often insufficient. The Mechanism has been unable to develop risk analysis protocols that effectively identify the different needs of female, rural, indigenous, and other particularly vulnerable journalists and defenders when it comes to receiving protections…The Mechanism suffers from a serious lack of adequate staffing and budget levels. There are only 35 Mechanism personnel overseeing the protection of 831 journalists and human rights defenders…The Mechanism has made progress in developing strategies that go beyond providing immediate protection to journalists and human rights defenders…Mexican authorities are frequently identified as the perpetrators behind crimes against journalists and human rights defenders…The Mexican government’s failure to properly investigate and sanction crimes against journalists and human rights defenders has left these groups open to attack…