REDIM: Every day 14 people between the ages of 0 and 17 are reported missing

The Network for the Rights of the Child in Mexico (REDIM) found that every day, 14 people between 0 and 17 years of age were reported missing, not located or located during 2021. This is based on data provided by the National Registry of Missing and Unlocated Persons (RNPDNO) with a cut of April 11, 2022.

According to the data consulted, since registration (that is, since 1964), 82,328 children and adolescents have been reported in this situation and one in five of these persons remains missing or unlocated until April 11, 2022.

While most cases (80.1%) are localized, the NGO noted that for every 100 people aged 0 to 17 who were located, one was found dead. Thus, according to the analysis of the data, 710 children and adolescents reported missing or not located have been found lifeless as of April 11, 2022.

“The RNPDNO does not provide information on the status of people who were found alive, although some of them may have suffered violence,” said the Children's Network.

REDIM tmabipen reported that, in the case of adolescent girls and women, the National Registry of Missing and Unlocated Persons (RNPDNO) points out that, as of 11 April, two out of every three persons aged 0 to 17 who were registered as missing, not located or located in the country were women, ie: 55,873 out of 82,328 registrations.

In addition, one out of every 217 girls and adolescent women located are found lifeless. For example, in the State of Mexico (an entity marked by gender-based violence) 56 of the minors reported missing have been found dead until the eleventh of this month. Tamaulipas and Chihuahua follow in index of this trend, there are 3 states in which this problem is most observed.

“There is an urgent need for the recognition and visibility of victims and effective work for prevention through the application of instruments such as, in the case of children, Additional Protocol for the Search of Children and Adolescents (PABNNNA)”

The network takes up the recommendations that the Committee on Enforced Disappearances of the United Nations (UN), pointed out in its latest report, issued on April 13: to encourage the effective work of “all the cogs” normative, legal and institutional provisions within the framework of the General Law on Disappearance, which still requires the adoption of its regulations four years after its entry into force,” both organizations state.

“As a human rights organization, we join the call for a policy to prevent disappearances that also takes into account children as families and seeking children, as well as human rights defenders, activists and journalists, who are now also victims of the epidemic of enforced disappearance in Mexico.”

Another issue also addressed by the Committee was the situation of militarization in the country, since the collective sent by the UN demanded that the federal president return the Army to the barracks, in addition to converting the National Guard (NG) into a civilian command, as was raised from the beginning.

To accomplish this mission, the agency recommended that the federal government devise an “orderly, immediate and verifiable” withdrawal plan for military forces that are carrying out public security actions

In response to this point, REDIM expressed its rejection of the growing use of the militarization of public security, explaining that the problems it seeks to address, “require a citizen's vision with a human rights approach.”

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