E/CN.4/2003/8/Add.3 page 12 25. Attention is drawn here to a major constitutional reform amending article 21 of the Constitution in order to enable Mexico to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. 26. The importance of the latter decision, which was solemnly announced in the following terms by the President, can be measured by the reservations certain States have about ratifying the Rome Statute and the opposition of others: “Building the framework of the Statute of the International Criminal Court, a unique body that will allow justice to be done in cases of crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity, is one of the top priorities of Mexican diplomacy … Mexico has embarked upon the legal process to ratify the Statute, which will require amendments to some of the provisions of our Constitution. My Government is determined to encourage all countries to become members of the Court in order to make it a viable and effective institution in the service of mankind” (President Fox, speaking at the Solemn Session of the French National Assembly on 14 November 2002). 27. Another positive initiative is the signing in December 2000 of a multi-phase technical cooperation programme with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The programme was designed, among other things, to develop forensic procedures to combat torture, to strengthen the role of the Mexican National Human Rights Commission and to open a local office (which opened recently) of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. This office is to conduct an overall stocktaking of the human rights situation in the country with a view to devising, in cooperation with the Government, a national action plan in the field of human rights. 28. In addition, the Working Group has noted visible signs of a real desire for change in the fight against impunity and corruption. 29. With regard to impunity, an effort is being made to take a new look at the country’s past, especially the period of the so-called “dirty war”, in order to bring about the conditions for reconciliation. 30. Following the publication in November 2001 of a report by the Mexican National Human Rights Commission on enforced disappearances during the 1960s and 1970s, and given people’s desire to know the truth, the President decided to set up a special body in the form of the office of a special prosecutor for acts likely to constitute federal crimes committed directly or indirectly by public officials against persons connected with past social and political movements. The task of the office is to investigate (with full access to archives from the days of the “dirty war”) past crimes against activists from political or social movements. At the same time, the Supreme Court has ordered an inquiry into the bloody repression of the student demonstration in Tlatelolco (Plaza de las Tres Culturas) in Mexico City in 1968. 31. The Working Group was also interested to note that an effective (at least at the federal level) campaign has been launched against corruption. The cornerstone of the campaign is the Organized Crime Unit, whose offices the Working Group visited. In the detention centres it visited, the Working Group encountered many officials who had been sentenced or were on trial for corruption, including some former members of the army or the Public Prosecutor’s Office, former governors and many former police officers and prison guards. During its visit to the