Crime Affects 7 Out of 10 Children in Mexico

Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: Milenio

     This sexennium, 7 out of 10 missing are children , making them a very vulnerable population.
               NGOs warn that crime has affected nearly 40 million children and young people.

By: Fernando Damián and Carolina Rivera

Of the 6,330 minors that make up the National Registry of Missing and Missing Persons, 73.9 % occurred during the term of  government of President Enrique Peña Nieto. Civil organizations agreed that the situation of crime, impunity, violence and insecurity in the country has impacted nearly 40 million children and young people. 

In a joint conference, NGOs defending the rights of children and young people denounced the poor compliance that the State has shown to guarantee the rights of this sector. Rafael Castelán, counselor of the Network for the Rights of Children in Mexico, said that the seriousness of the problem affects one of the most vulnerable populations and illustrates the need for the development of a comprehensive care strategy.

A clear example, he added, is the data from the National Registry of Missing Persons that reveals that to date there are 6,330 missing children, of which 73.9 % occurred during the presidency of Peña Nieto.

While in 2017 slightly more than 50 % of adolescents who were in the criminal justice system suffered some type of physical violence at the time of their arrest and more than 31 %  who are detained have been victims of at least one crime. Given this panorama, he stressed the importance of adopting the recommendations made by civil society after the UN Universal Periodic Review on Human Rights.

On the other hand, Mónica Yerena, from Institutional Liaison for Educating in Rights and Solidarity, confirmed that the State is obliged to recognize the gravity of the situation and to comply with  the recommendations made. 

According to information published yesterday in this newspaper, 13 ,000 minors were killed between 2007 and 2017, in addition to that the aggressions are the main cause of death among young men. 

Plan against violence :

The president of the Board of Political Coordination and leader of Morena in the Chamber of Deputies, Mario Delgado, affirmed that the elected government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador fine-tuned the details of its security and peace-building strategy to contain the violence.

Asked about the crisis of insecurity that Lopez Obrador's administration would inherit on December 1, the legislator said: "It is clear that the current strategy does not take us anywhere, because every month the record of homicides is breaking." 

For this reason, he reaffirmed López Obrador's approach to the causes of violence and addressed the lack of opportunities for young people and the abandonment of the countryside that has left entire communities at the mercy of crime. 

In addition, the next government will present its security plan this week, while Morena's caucuses in Congress advance in the reforms to create the SSP.

"We are working on an amendment to the law to have a Security Secretariat that concentrates the intelligence agency, the FP and is in charge of national security," he said.

NOTE:

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a unique process which involves a periodic review of the human rights records of all 193 UN Member States. The UPR is a significant innovation of the Human Rights Council which is based on equal treatment for all countries.
OHCHR | UPR Basic Facts about the UPR:

https://www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/upr/pages/basicfacts.aspx