Blog Entry

This Week in Ottawa: Breaking the Silence - Mexican human rights defenders to testify about worsening crisis

Jen Moore

Latin America Program Coordinator / Coordinadora del programa para América Latina, 2010-2018.

From October 16 to 18, a delegation of nine Mexican human rights experts will be in Ottawa to shine a light on the acute human rights crisis in Mexico. The visit is taking place just days after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s state visit to Mexico.

During their visit, the Mexican human rights defenders will testify to Parliament’s Subcommittee on International Human Rights, as well as to members of the Senate Human Rights Committee. The experts work in diverse sectors such as women’s rights, forced disappearances and torture, labour issues, journalism and freedom of expression, indigenous rights, and mining-affected communities. They will also meet with officials at Global Affairs Canada, and have asked for a meeting with Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland to discuss Canada’s role in Mexico’s human rights crisis, given the two countries’ relationship, NAFTA and Canadian mining companies’ investment in Mexico. 

Please join us Tuesday or Wednesday for public events: 

Tues Oct 17th 2017, 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm
iPolitics Office 
17 York St., #201, Ottawa 
https://www.facebook.com/events/291175378065092/
This event will also be livestreamed here

Wed Oct 18th 2017, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Carleton University
Room 608 Robertson Hall (Senate Room)
1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa 
https://www.facebook.com/events/1827506157562211/

Delegation participants: 

  • Daniela Pastrana – Murder of journalists and freedom of expression, Journalist Network 'Periodistas de a Pie' 
  • Santiago Aguirre Espinosa – Forced disappearances and the case of the 43 students, Centro Prodh 
  • Gustavo Lozano – Mexican Network of Mining-Affected People and Collective Action-Guanajuato 
  • Julia Quiñonez – Women maquiladora workers and labour rights, Comité Fronterizo de Obreras 
  • Arturo Alcalde Justiniani – Labour rights lawyer

  • María Martín – Women’s rights and femicides, JASS Mesoamérica 
  • Roberto Abel Jiménez García – Teacher leader from Section 22 (Oaxaca) of the National Education Workers Union (SNTE) and former political prisoner 
  • Araceli Tecolapa Alejo – Indigenous rights and forced disappearances in Guerrero, José Morelos y Pavón Human Rights Centre 

This event is co-sponsored by: 

Americas Policy Group - CCIC, Amnesty International Canada, CoDevelopment Canada, MiningWatch Canada, Nobel Women’s Initiative, Comité pour les droits humains en Amérique latine (CDHAL), Inter Pares, Peace Brigades International, Public Service Alliance of Canada Social Justice Fund, Steelworkers Humanity Fund, Canadian Union of Public Employees, Latin American and Caribbean Studies program, School of Journalism and Communications – Carleton University, Canadian Committee for World Press Freedom, and the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC). 
 

 

Carleton Event Poster Wed Oct 18