OHCHR RUNS SLIM OPERATION IN MEXICO

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MEXICO 003267

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PREL MX
SUBJECT: OHCHR RUNS SLIM OPERATION IN MEXICO

REF: STATE 73948


1. (U) Summary: Minister Counselor for Political Affairs
(MCCA) and PolOff met with the representative in Mexico of
the United Nation's Office of the High Commissioner for Human
Rights (OHCHR),Amerigo Incalcaterra. The OHCHR's strategy in
Mexico is to promote a human rights agenda by working with
existing institutions and building governance capacity in a
country that is increasingly democratic, transparent, and in
many ways inclined to respect human rights but fraught with
significant abuses. Incalcaterra arrived in October 2005 to
run an operation that is so far a one man show charged with
advancing recommendations made in the 2003 comprehensive
assessment of Mexico's human rights situation. His strategy
is to work with government institutions to identify and
enhance their ability to address human rights issues. His
success will depend on his personal relationships,
professional expertise, political acuteness, and the deft
employment of his good offices in a country that, while
opening to the world, is still suspicious of foreign
interference and international criticism. This cable responds
to reftel. End summary.

Status
--------------


2. (U) Amerigo Incalcaterra, the OHCHR representative in
Mexico, assumed his position in October 2005. He manages a
UN office that was established in 2002 at the invitation of
the Fox Adminsitration to conduct a comprehensive assessment
of human rights. At this stage the three-year mandate has
expired and the office operates under global guidelines
established in Geneva, with near-term focus on supporting
implementation of a national human rights program, training
forensic investigation techniques in torture cases, and
building capacity of indigenous organizations. Incalcaterra
arrived in Mexico after serving as Deputy Director of the
OHCHR office in Bogot . He also draws on his UN experience in
southern Mexico eighteen years ago.

Strategy
--------------


3. (U) The OHCHR's strategy in Mexico is to promote a human
rights agenda by working with existing institutions and
leveraging their authority to build on the advances in human
rights already made. Incalcaterra specified five areas on
which he will focus. (1) He is encouraging constitutional
reform to conclusively define and protect human rights,
banking on the constitution as the legal document that
commands most respect in Mexico. (2) He is working with
members of the Mexican Congress to identify existing tools -
such as federal laws and international conventions - and
explore ways to sharpen and utilize them. (3) He is promoting
judicial reform to allow judges to exercise their full powers
with respect to human rights and establish legal precedents.
(4) He is working with civil society members to build
governance capacity at the state level, where impunity
remains a serious issue. (5) He is maintaining an open
channel to the international community, a subtle but
important development in a country that until recently has
been largely closed to international scrutiny and remains
suspicious of foreign meddling. Incalcaterra was somewhat
vague about specific implementation strategies.

Scrutiny
--------------


4. (SBU) While the OCHCR initially hoped to work closely with
the National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH),the Director
refused to cooperate and the comprehensive assessment was
done without CNDH's participation. Incalcaterra has tried to
find common ground with the very nationalistic CNDH, and
proposed some areas where the two might work in parallel
fashion, if not together. Despite his conciliation efforts,
Incalcaterra dscribed the extremely well-funded CNDH as a
body without teeth which on occasion fails to defend
adequately the public's rights. Moreover, he suggested the
Commission has political motivations that sometimes can be an
impediment to its human rights work. Incalcaterra explained
that he had plans to work with the political parties in the
Mexican Congress who have the power to influence the
Commission's mandate, particularly in defining clear
standards of human rights and how to the Commission should
identify and respond to violations of these standards.

Comment
--------------


5. (SBU) While Incalcaterra made a positive impression in

MEXICO 00003267 002 OF 002


expressing his ideas for the improvement of human rights in
Mexico and in his understanding of how the political system
functions, his programmatic activities and objectives
remained vague. His efforts to define common ground with
CNDH, build ties with Congress, and reach out to states are
somewhat hampered by the current fixation on elections.
Incalcaterra was firm that his mandate was not to close out
the office but to help inculcate respect for human rights
inside Mexican institutions and NGOs.


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GARZA