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.