The sixth anniversary of the death of Digna Ochoa

dublin | rights, freedoms and repression | event notice Saturday October 13, 2007 21:54 by Gerald Kelly - Amnesty international

Visit of Jesús Ochoa to Ireland

Digna Ochoa was a human rights defender who defended people who had suffered serious violations of their human rights. To this date the investigation into her murder has made little progress and the suspicion is growing that the judicial authorities in Mexico have no desire to bring to justice the people responsible.

Jesús Ochoa is Digna's brother. Since her death he has campaigned tirelessly on her behalf. As part of a tour of European countries and as a guest of Amnesty International he will be talking in Dublin on Thursday 18 October at 8.00 PM in The Teachers Club on Parnell Square.

Digna Ochoa

Digna Ochoa was a human rights defender who defended people who had suffered serious violations of their human rights.

She was part of the community of human rights defenders in Mexico which has done so much to advance the protection of human rights defenders.

Her death was a great loss for her family as it was for the community of human rights defenders.

The investigations into her death carried out by the authorities since 2001 are rife with deficiencies and irregularities which have never been adequately corrected.

These deficiencies, which are present in many aspects of the Mexican justice system, have created doubts about the conclusions drawn by the official investigations that her death was suicide.

Digna's brother, Jesús Ochoa, and other members of the family, have fought for years questioning the conclusions of the investigation and calling for it to be reopened.

In particular they question the refusal of the Public Ministry to accept the evidence that the family considers demonstrates that her death was murder.

In 2005 the family won a legal victory which obliged the Public Ministry of Mexico City to reopen the case and reconsider the evidence presented by the family’s lawyers.

In 2006 the lawyers presented evidence from their own experts, including evidence from the exhumation of Digna Ochoa’s body.

In 2007 the new General Procurer of justice of Mexico City recommended to the Public Ministry to reopen the case and to take account of the evidence presented by the family.

In 2007 a Federal judge rejected the petition presented by the family which demanded action against the Public Ministry of Mexico City for not having fulfilled its obligation to reopen the investigation as specified by the previous judicial decision. The family is in the process of appealing this last decision. At the same time, the family's lawyers, who had pursued this case for several years, decided to no longer do so.

Jesús Ochoa and other members of the family continue to fight to get the Public Ministry to change its conclusions and recognise the death of Digna Ochoa as murder.

Public position of Amnesty International
Amnesty International regrets the death of Digna Ochoa and the danger which many human rights defenders in Mexico face in carrying out their work.

Amnesty International considers that the irregularities and deficiencies in the original investigations identify by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights have never been explained.

Amnesty International insists on the right of the family to present evidence which indicates other leads in the investigation and that the authorities have an obligation to evaluate and follow up on this evidence in an independent and impartial manner, in conformity with the "Manual on the efficient prevention and investigation of illegal executions, arbitrary or summary" (UN, New York 1991)

Human rights defenders and journalists continued to be in danger as the murder of Ricardo Murillo from Frente Civico Sinaloense on 6 September demonstrates.

The serious weaknesses in the justice system frequently prevent the investigation of threats, intimidation or attacks, to such an extent that these offences are carried out with almost total impunity.

The authorities not only have a responsibility to guarantee efficient and impartial investigation of attacks against human rights defenders but also to establish fast and secure protection mechanisms.