In some cases, SEDENA even failed to provide information it had provided to the CNDH, and which the CNDH had published in its annual report. (The CNDH itself also refused to grant Human Rights Watch access to information it has on the status of military investigations into these cases.)Perhaps I am reading too much into this, but it certainly seems as though the CNDH views HWR as its rival if not adversary, while remaining on good terms with the Department of Defense, one of the foremost entities that the CNDH should be monitoring, comes across as a vital objective.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
More on the HRW Report
No, I won't be live-blogging my reading of this report (although I imagine people would be glued to their computer screens if I did), but this passage struck me as a perfect illustration of the fundamental corruption of the CNDH, a Mexican example of agency capture:
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2 comments:
I think you are reading too much into this. CNDH does not have prosecutorial powers, and can neither enforce a subpoena, nor initiate a prosecution.
While CNDH is hampered by needing to go to another prosecutor to enforce its findings, it is part of the Mexican judiciary, and HRW is not. It sounds as if HRW is expecting a Mexican judicial investigator to turn over his or her findings to a foreign (and powerless) agency BEFORE it goes to a prosecutor.
Yeah, I may have jumped to a conclusion unfairly. I dont know if you've read the report, but the CNDH comes off better in most of it than in that section. As to HRW's unreasonable expectations and the CNDH having to work through its proper channels, I see your point, but I'd be more sympathetic to that if the CNDH was a more effective advocate for human rights to start off with. As it is now, whatever its structural limitations, the CNDH comes across as an organization pretending to do more than it does.
Also, is it clear that the HRW was requesting the info before CNDH went to a prosecutor? I, perhaps incorrectly, read as them wanting the information after the investigation was closed.
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