Submission by Human Rights Watch to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights concerning Mexico 63rd plenary session
Abstract
This submission focuses on the situation of migrant and refugee children in immigration
detention; attacks on students, teachers, and schools; access to palliative care; the involuntary
treatment and arbitrary detention of persons with disabilities; and the protection of education
during armed conflict. It relates to Articles 2, 3, 6, 11, 12, 13, and 14 of the International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and proposes issues and questions that Committee
members may wish to raise with the government.
Evidence contained in this submission is based in part on research conducted in the Mexican
states of Chiapas, Chihuahua, Oaxaca, Sonora, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, and Veracruz, as well as
Mexico City, and the cities of San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa in Honduras between April and
December 2015. Human Rights Watch interviewed 61 children and more than 100 adults who had
traveled to Mexico from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Human Rights Watch also
interviewed Mexican government officials; representatives of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN refugee agency; and representatives of
nongovernmental organizations; and reviewed case files and data collected by Mexico’s
immigration and refugee protection agencies.