Overview

The authorities continued to criminalize the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression. Land, territory and environmental defenders were criminalized for protesting and there were frequent killings of journalists and defenders. The government’s failure to protect refugees and migrants continued, nevertheless, the Supreme Court ruled that the maximum stay in an immigration detention centre was 36 hours. Access to abortion eased, with a ruling that the criminalization of abortion was unconstitutional. The number of femicides remained very high and cases were not properly investigated. More than 114,000 people had been registered as missing and disappeared since 1962. Relatives searching for disappeared people continued to face serious risks, such as enforced disappearance, murder, repression and threats. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that Mexico must eliminate the concept of arraigo detention (precautionary detention without charge) and modify the pretrial detention system. The independence of the judiciary remained under threat, including through the arbitrary detention of judges. The construction of the “Mayan Train” continued despite environmental concerns. The government’s failure to phase out fossil fuels persisted, and work began at the “Dos Bocas” refinery. Many states had yet to change their civil codes regarding same-sex marriage, despite its authorization throughout Mexico in 2015.