Lawmakers Call for Increased Oversight of Mexico's Victims' Law Tiana Carriedo - Justice in Mexico Project
go to original July 3, 2014

Protestors demonstrate at the Mexican Senate. (Cuartoscuro)

In the past month, a Workers’ Party (Partido del Trabajo) congressman from the Federal District (Distrito Federal, DF) called for the creation of a monitoring body to oversee the implementation of the General Law for Victims (Ley General de Víctimas), while a trio of Democratic Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Democrático, PRD) lawmakers requested an investigation into the law’s Executive Commission.

Passed in January 2013 at the urging of various civil society organizations, academics, and victims, the General Law for Victims establishes various mechanisms to address the needs and guarantee the right to justice, truth, and reparation of the growing number of direct and indirect victims of Mexico’s “war” against organized crime and drug trafficking organizations.

Despite hopes that the new law would mark a change in the government’s treatment of victims and their families, the on-the-ground reality remains problematic.

There are three main tools created by the law to attend to victims: the National System of Attention to Victims (Sistema Nacional de Atención a Víctimas, SNAV), the Executive Commission of Attention to Victims (Comisión Ejecutiva de Atención a Víctimas, CEAV), and the National Registry of Victims (Registro Nacional de Víctimas).

With respect to all three mechanisms of the law, there have been delays and substantive shortcomings that have affected how and whether victims are able to avail themselves of some of the law’s benefits, which include legal and financial assistance. In terms of delay, the Executive Commission was not named until October 2013, three months after the deadline imposed by the law; the National System of Attention to Victims was not created until January 2014, eight months after it should have been established; and the National Registry of Victims remains incomplete.

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