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Calderón Confirms Commitment to Defense of Human Rights
 Suzanne Stephens Waller - Presidencia de la República
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June 08, 2010
| | President Felipe Calderón attends 20th Anniversary of National Human Rights Commission. (Presidencia de la República) | |
Mexico City - Repeating Federal Government’s commitment to the defense of human Rights, President Felipe Calderón declared that it is also necessary to enforce these rights, not only in the face of institutions but in any circumstances that violate them.
“That explains this effort and deployment of force by the state to enforce the law and ensure that the rights of the weakest are respected.
And there can be no doubt that the greatest threat is that de facto power (organized crime) which ruins the lives of innocent people, attacks, extorts, abducts and limits the freedom of journalists, farmers and migrants alike,” he added.
During the 20th Anniversary of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), the President also stressed respect for freedom of expression. A propos of this he said, “In Mexico, expressing an opinion is not penalized, at least at the federal level. Abuse obviously takes place but in the pendular movement of history, between the abusive exercise of freedom or censure and coercion, we will always be in favor of freedom with all its risks.”
Accompanied by his wife, Margarita Zavala, and CNDH President Raúl Plascencia Villanueva, the Mexican president declared that he is also working to protect migrants’ rights, since they are threatened, among other things, by organized crime, and because Mexico has had “a long and shameful tradition” of violating the rights of migrants that cross our country.
He rejected the SB 1070 Law, which is based on racial profiling.
“People have failed to understand that enforcing the law on the basis of racial criteria not only violates migrants’ human rights but also opens up a Pandora’s box of the worst abuses in the history of mankind,” he said.
President Calderón also repeated his condemnation of the murder of Mexican citizen Anastasio Hernández who died at the hands of US migration authorities.
“I have issued instructions and we have sent the appropriate diplomatic notes but we must all raise our voices, not only for Mexico but for human rights because the migrants’ cause is one that involves all of us who, either because of the law or personal conviction, have a common cause with people’s human rights,” he said.
He added that another of government’s tasks was to prevent or reduce the cases of human rights violations by federal authorities including the Armed Forces.
“That is why we have made every effort to ensure that the Armed Forces follow the observations made by the National Commission and which establish first level offices in every department to deal with human rights violations. We have also made a bold attempt to provide human rights training for members of the Armed Forces, Federal Police and the State Prosecutor's Office in Federal Government,” he explained.
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