Paris, Mexico City, 28 November 2025. The FIDH, IDHEA, and EMAF conducted a joint advocacy mission to Mexico, from 3 to 7 November 2025, to call on authorities from the State of Mexico to fulfil their obligations under international human rights law and to comply with national legal norms to protect the rights of women and of the victims of disappearance. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (CED) are among the international conventions that are not effectively implemented. When speaking to Mexican authorities, the FIDH, IDHEA, and EMAF referred to the recommendations made in their joint report "¿Quién nos busca? ¿Quién nos cuida?" (en inglés "Who searches for us? Who cares about us?") published a year earlier.
The delegation of human rights organisations met with officials from several key institutions, among them the Human Rights Unit of the Secretariat of the Interior, the Women’s Secretariat, the Senate Human Rights Commission, prosecutors specialised in human trafficking and femicide in the State of Mexico, and the Implementation Commission of the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic. The meetings were used to identify concrete ways to strengthen the measures taken to prevent the forced disappearance of women and girls who are victims of human trafficking.
Persistent shortcomings in the protection of women and girls
The report "¿Quién nos busca? ¿Quién nos cuida?" documents deficiencies in the authorities’ response to the human trafficking-related disappearances of women and girls in the State of Mexico, including insufficient consideration of the links between disappearances, human trafficking and feminicide, insufficient communication and coordination among the specialised prosecutors’ offices, and repeated instances of revictimisation of victims’ families by the authorities conducting the investigations.
In general, the authorities acknowledged that they were aware of the documented shortcomings. Several highlighted the measures taken in recent years to address them, including the adoption of specialised protocols and the creation of the Comprehensive Programme to Prevent, Support and Eradicate Violence against Women 2025-2030. Several also expressed interest in strengthening existing mechanisms and exploring new avenues for action, including strengthening coordination between the specialised public prosecutor’s offices of the State of Mexico by establishing more regular exchanges.
"We commend the acknowledgement by Mexican authorities of the deficiencies that were identified. Notwithstanding, the gravity of the situation requires not only the rapid transformation of the commitments made into concrete action, but also the effective implementation of existing protocols and mechanisms", explained Anaya Finalé, programme officer at the FIDH Women’s rights and gender equality desk.
"Our daughters disappear twice"
In a system characterized by impunity, it is the families who do most of the searching and investigating that would normally be done by the authorities. The victims’ group that met with the delegation emphasized that the current judicial system seemed to place more importance on convicting perpetrators than on searching for victims. Often, once a perpetrator is found guilty, the search stops and families are deprived of the possibility of finding their daughters. Given the context, the victims groups stressed the need for the authorities to explore restorative justice mechanisms that can be used to provide crucial information to help locate victims.
"Our daughters first disappear when they are abducted. Then they disappear a second time when the authorities fail to investigate, or when, after convicting a perpetrator, they stop looking for them. This form of double disappearance must stop", declared the representatives of the victims’ groups.
Although the authorities’ acknowledgement of their failings is a positive sign, the FIDH, IDHEAS, and EMAF continue to call for the implementation of effective measures to combat the femicide crisis in the State of Mexico and to support victims’ groups in their pursuit of justice and truth. The FIDH, IDHEAS, and EMAF urge the State of Mexico to continue the dialogue and to ensure the effective application of the recommendations formulated during the meetings.