IACHR

Press Release

IACHR Expresses Confidence and Support to the Independent Experts Members of the GIEI

January 28, 2016

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Washington, DC. – The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) expresses its unconditional and absolute support to the five members of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI, by its acronym in Spanish) as well as to the work that this Group has carried out in Mexico.

The five members of the GIEI were designated by the IACHR’s Commissioners in consultation with the Mexican State and civil organizations that requested precautionary measures (Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Montaña Tlanchinollan, Centro Regional de Defensa de los Derechos Humanos José María Morelos y Pavón, Red Guerrense de Organismos Civiles de Derechos Humanos and Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez), as established in the trilateral Agreement signed by the parties on November 2014 in order to provide international technical assistance in the search, investigation and non-repetition of the facts.

The IACHR renews its confidence in the five experts who comprise the GIEI. Their knowledge, experience, professional trajectory and ethical integrity are highly recognized at the international level and have been showed at all times in their work in Mexico. These experts have carried out their work in Mexico with the utmost professionalism, which exposed them to attempts to disqualify them. This type of action persist in the region as a strategy to hinder the work defending human rights.

The IACHR considers relevant to reaffirm its recognition to the contributions that GIEI made to the investigation in regards to the events of Iguala. The Group’s input has been crucial for the progress of the investigation. The IACHR highlights that after the first stage of the GIEI’s mandate, the Mexican State publicly expressed: “working with the group has been, for us, an extraordinary privilege.”

A principal, autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), the IACHR derives its mandate from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has a mandate to promote respect for human rights in the region and acts as a consultative body to the OAS in this area. The Commission is composed of seven independent members who are elected in an individual capacity by the OAS General Assembly and who do not represent their countries of origin or residence.

No. 006/16