UN sustains validity of its report on the Ayotzinapa case

The UN Human Rights Office sustained today the “methodology and findings” of their report on the Ayotzinapa case, after the criticisms the Mexican Government made public last Monday.

The report, “ Double Injustice: report on human rights violations in the investigation of the Ayotzinapa case ,” published on March 15, 2018, concluded there were “strong grounds” to believe that at least 34 of the individuals prosecuted in connection to the disappearance of the 43 students of Ayotzinapa in 2014 were “arbitrarily detained and tortured.”

“These serious violations were, in turn, inadequately investigated and covered up,” states the UN.

In response, the Mexican Government submitted last May 7 a document containing several observations to the UN's report .

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior, as well as Mexico's Office of the Attorney-General claimed in a joint statement that the UN “failed to respect” the request of the Mexican Government to work in collaboration with Mexican authorities so the Government could address through its institutional channels the concerns of the organization.

Likewise, Mexican authorities informed that following the application of the Istanbul Protocol – manual on the investigation and documentation of torture – “the findings failed to prove, without a doubt, that [torture] acts took place.”

The document added that the case is still under investigation and thus the conclusions of the UN are “premature.”

However, the UN Human Rights Office released a statement today , claiming that the organization operated pursuant to the agreement signed in 2002 with the Mexican Government, through which they also established an office in the country.

Likewise, the UN Human Rights Office calls Mexican authorities to implement the recommendations of their report “so as to clarify the facts of what happened, guarantee justice, provide reparations to victims, and ensure non-repetition of these tragic events.”

The Office has also urged Mexico to conclude the investigations within a “reasonable time limit” and identify those responsible for the arbitrary arrests and acts of torture.

In this sense, the UN stated they will continue monitoring the investigation given that “to date, no one has been held accountable” for these human right violations.

According to the official version of the Mexican Government, the night of September 26, 2014, corrupt police officers arrested in Iguala, a community in southern Guerrero, 43 students and handed them over to the United Warriors drug cartel, who murdered the students and incinerated the bodies in a landfill.

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