The following indicator reveals the dramatic resignation of the Jalisco State Human Rights Commission (CEDHJ) to ensure the citizens.
In the first year of Luz del Carmen Godínez as head of the CEDHJ, complaints and ex officio investigations plummeted. Between August 2, 2022 -the date she took office- and August 2, 2023, she opened only 22 ex officio complaints for alleged human rights violations, according to data she obtained through transparency.
Just to give a dimension, his predecessor, Alfonso Hernández, initiated 1,133 ex officio investigations in 2021 alone for possible human rights violations related to denials of assistance to crime victims, improper exercise of public function, violation of environmental and health rights , disappearances, among others. Of the 22 official complaints in the current administration, 17 correspond to last year and only five to this year.
The protection of human rights must be proactive, progressive and effective. For this, the CEDHJ has a figure established in its organic law: the ex officio complaint.
This is the power of the Commission to investigate on its own initiative an alleged violation of human rights. Each one of the General Visitors as well as the Complaints Department have the power to open an ex officio investigation when they notice a possible serious violation of human rights.
In past administrations, exhaustive monitoring was carried out through press releases, but apparently the visitors and the complaints director renounced that power. The importance of these complaints lies in the fact that they often lead to broader recommendations that warn of omissions and structural failures.
One of the 22 ex officio complaints that the CEDHJ opened this year is related to the alleged violation of custody in the Puente Grande state prison. However, the agency has been absent in other cases such as the disappearance of the five young people from Lagos de Moreno, the femicides, domestic and criminal violence, the bombing in Tlajomulco and many other cases that are not necessarily covered by the media.
In parallel, the Commission registers a drop in the number of complaints filed by citizens, another edge that reveals the loss of credibility and trust in the institution in the midst of a human rights crisis.
I express it in figures, but it is about lives. These are the guarantees and rights of the Jalisco people. The progressive loss of moral and institutional authority has given rise to a pachydermic organism, co-opted by partisan interests and protector of political power, not of citizens.
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