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Mexico High Court Shields PGR
 The News
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March 10, 2010
 |  | Even though the Commission is a state agency that has the protection of fundamental rights, could anyone say with any certainty, without risk, that the information given to a Human Rights Commission cannot be leaked by any of its employees?
- Justice Arturo Zaldivar |  | | |
Mexico City – The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a controversial reform that will make it more difficult for the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) to obtain information about ongoing criminal cases.
The justices, in a vote of seven to four, upheld the validity of an amendment to Article 5 of the Attorney General Office’s (PGR) Organic Law. The amendment establishes that the PGR can only “provide information to the National Human Rights Commission when requested in exercise of its functions, so long as it does not jeopardize ongoing investigations or the safety of persons.”
The CNDH challenged the measure with a lawsuit of unconstitutionality, saying that the amendment was created to give discretion to the attorney general to investigate human rights violations committed by officials of that office.
The lawsuit was submitted last year by the then-CNDH President José Luis Soberanes, who warned that the amendment would remove the possibility of protecting human rights abuses committed by the PGR.
But his arguments were echoed only by the minority of the justices. Most, agreeing with Justice Fernando Franco González Salas, concluded that the reform does not violate Constitutional provisions. In their arguments, Justice Arturo Zaldivar Minister asked his colleagues that if “even though the Commission is a state agency that has the protection of fundamental rights, could anyone say with any certainty, without risk, that the information given to a Human Rights Commission cannot be leaked by any of its employees?
“What risk would this pose to the investigations given the state of the country and the safety of its people?” Zaldivar asked. He continued, “the exception is more than justified; there is no breach of fundamental rights.”
The secrecy in the management of this information, Justice Margarita Luna said, is justified, because the criminals themselves whom the PGR investigates can lodge complaints with the CNDH to obtain information on their own cases.
In response to these arguments, minority justices Jose Ramon Cossío, Juan Silva Meza, Olga Sánchez Cordero and Guillermo Ortiz Mayagoitia agreed that this measure violated the terms of the CNDH and its advocacy of human rights. Cossío warned that this decision leaves victims of abuse, disappearances and torture defenseless, when PGR officials are involved. |
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