100 Organizations Demand Forced Disappearance Law in Mexico

Mexican demonstrators representing several organizations delivered a message to the government on behalf of 100 Mexican and international organizations that signed on to a letter demanding the creation of new legislation on forced disappearances in Mexico, La Jornada reported Saturday.

Pushing for new comprehensive legislation, the 100 signing organizations emphasized the need to create an independent body to implement searches for disappeared persons and introduce strong protocols for how to carry out such searches. The proposal also stressed the importance of centralizing investigations through the creation of a national victims registry and database, among other measures.

Protesters, who marched demanding that the country's disappeared persons, including the 43 Ayotzinapa students, be brought home alive, read the declaration of the 100 organizations in front of the Mexican Senate.

RELATED: The Forced Disappearance of 43 Students in Mexico

The proposed new legislation would act on the recommendations of the U.N. Committee on Enforced Disappearances, whose findings on Mexico published in February 2015 included concerns with the state's compliance with the relevant international convention on forced disappearances.

Marching during the International Week of the Disappeared, demonstrators stressed that although the disappearance of the 43 students from the Ayotzinapa teachers training school in Guerrero state last fall has been a pivotal moment bringing international attention to the crisis of forced disappearances in Mexico, there are countless other victims of forced disappearance for whom they also demand justice.

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​More than eight months since the disappearance of the 43 students, the government has still not been able to present any information about the whereabouts of 42 of the 43 students.