MEXICO

Digna Ochoa

Digna Ochoa, an activist for the defense of human rights in Mexico, who was associated with the “Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez” Human Rights Center (PRODH), was assassinated on October 19th, 2001, two months after provisional measures in her favor were lifted.
In the years before her assassination, the activist endured many threats and kidnappings as a consequence of her work as a defender of human rights in Mexico. For this reason, in 1999, Ochoa, accompanied by the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) y la Red de Organismos Civiles de Derechos Humanos, sought preventative measures before the Inter-American Commision on Human Rights in 1999 and later provisional measures before the IHR Court for consistent threats and attacks against Digna Ochoa and PRODH.
After about two years, the Inter-American Human Rights Court terminated the provisional measures granted to Digna Ochoa and other members of the PRODH Center. Two months after, Digna was assassinated.
The Attorney General’s Office of the Federal District, in charge of the internal investigation, determined that the death was a suicide, so the investigation process was halted and the case was closed.
The facts of this case are not isolated, they are representative of a larger structural context of violations of the human rights of defenders in Mexico, particularly female defenders, a situation that is compounded by high rates of impunity.
The process continued in the Inter-American System of Human Rights and after Digna’s death allegations related to the lack of effective investigation and clarification of the true facts were presented before the Commision. In 2013, the hearing was carried out and the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights released an admissibility report on the case for its subsequent decision.
The IHR Commission declared the responsibility of the Mexican State for the human rights violations against the relatives of Digna Ochoa and ordered the State to adopt a series of measures to repair the injuries caused and guarantee that such things do not happen again. However, due to the absence of substantive progress in compliance with these measures, the case was referred to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The case is currently awaiting a hearing before the IACHR Court in San José, Costa Rica.

Impact of the case:

• The case represents an opportunity to order the State to carry out an investigation of the death of Digna Ochoa that is independent, impartial, and free from gender stereotypes, with the lens of vindicating the image, work, and memory of the female defenders of human rights.

• Taking into account the current context of general impunity for crimes committed against people who are defenders of human rights, the case also represents an opportunity to reaffirm the States’ obligation to protect human rights defenders, especially in the case of female defenders.

• This case will set an important precedent in the establishment of international standards in relation to the stigmatization of gender in the investigation processes of cases of female human rights defenders and the repercussions that these have on access to justice and truth.