E/CN.4/2003/8/Add.3
page 11
IV. POSITIVE ASPECTS
20.
In the course of its visit, the Working Group was informed of the following positive
initiatives at the domestic level:
(a)
The establishment of human rights units to ensure that all officials in the federal
branches of the Office of the Attorney-General, the Federal Investigation Agency, the Organized
Crime Unit and the Anti-Drugs Office, among others, respect human rights;
(b)
The establishment of a mechanism to coordinate with the National Human Rights
Commission, thereby enabling staff from the Office of the Military Prosecutor-General to hold
weekly meetings with the Commission’s inspectors in order to follow up every complaint
thoroughly;
(c)
The creation within the Ministry of the Interior of a new post of Under-Secretary
for Legal Affairs and Human Rights, to be responsible for the promotion of human rights within
the federal administration, with the same system adopted at the State level (Oaxaca) by several
governments;
(d)
The establishment in June 2002 of the Inter-Ministerial Commission on
Government Policy on Human Rights.
21.
At the international level, attention is first drawn to the above-mentioned open invitation,
which was announced in Geneva at the March 2001 session of the Commission on Human
Rights. The invitation to pay an official visit to Mexico was extended to all the Commission’s
thematic mechanisms.
22.
The following United Nations mandate-holders visited the country: the Representative of
the Secretary-General on internally displaced persons, the Special Rapporteur on the
independence of judges and lawyers, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, the
Special Rapporteur on adequate housing and a delegation from the Committee against Torture.
The Special Rapporteur on violence against women will be visiting Mexico in 2003. The
Working Group made the visit that is the subject of this report in response to the standing
invitation.
23.
The Organization of American States (OAS) Special Rapporteur on women’s rights and
Special Rapporteur on the rights of all migrant workers and their families also visited the
country.
24.
The Working Group was told that the Senate had approved the ratification of the
following international instruments: the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of
Persons, the Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and
Crimes against Humanity, the two optional protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the
Child, the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women. The Senate has also approved the declarations recognizing the competence of
the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the Committee against Torture.
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