Washington, D.C.—Today, WOLA and eight other human rights organizations released a statement expressing support for continued progress in the investigation of the 43 disappeared students in Mexico. The statement asserts that while the Mexican government has taken some positive steps to support the investigation and the continuing work of the IACHR-appointed Group of Experts—namely transferring the case to the Attorney General’s prosecutor for human rights and assigning a new team of government investigators to work alongside the Experts—some currents within the government continue to resist opening new lines of investigation and insist on the validity of the government’s original case theory and findings.
“The Group of Experts presented a thorough report that clearly debunked the government’s original theory about what happened to the students,” said Maureen Meyer, WOLA’s Senior Associate for Mexico and Migrant Rights. “Now that the Experts have a new team to work with, the Mexican government has another opportunity to do right by the victims of the attack and their families, and show its full support for the Experts and the investigation.”
The joint statement also points to concerns about recent attempts by some groups to discredit the Group of Experts and the organizations providing legal representation to the students and their families, as well as concern for attempts to criminalize the victims of the attack. In the statement, the organizations assert that “These efforts add unnecessary pain to an already shameful case, draw attention away from the investigation itself, and seek to call in to question the Group of Experts’ work and the legitimacy of the families’ search for justice.”
The statement was supported by the following organizations: Amnesty International, Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), Conectas, Due Process of Law Foundation (DPLF), JASS (Just Associates), Latin America Working Group (LAWGEF), Peace Brigades International (PBI), Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, and Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA).
Click here to read the full statement.
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Contact:
Kristel Mucino
WOLA Director of Communications
(202) 797-2171
press@wola.org
