32nd Meeting, 80th Session, Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR)
Date: 4 November 2026
Language: English
Transcript: https://transcripts.un.org/ar/cescr/32/2?lang=en
Transcripts available through this tool are created by using automatic speech recognition and are not official records nor official documents of the United Nations. Official records and official documents are available on the Official Document System of the United Nations.

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CESCR · Chair [20:35]:

Good afternoon. I call to order meeting number 32 of the 80th session of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. It is my great pleasure to welcome the distinguished delegation of Mexico, and in particular the head of delegation, Her Excellency Ms. Francesca Mendez Escobar, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Mexico to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva. who will deliver the opening statement, and of course the other distinguished members of her delegation. I would also like to welcome all those observing the dialogue, both in person and on webcast. Before giving the floor to the delegation for consideration of its initial report, I would like to outline the methodology we will follow for the dialogue today and tomorrow. We have prepared proposed speaking times for the dialogue, which will be conducted following the four clusters that we work around, led by our committee members constituting the task force for this review. The initial questions will be posed by our country rapporteur and lead member of this cluster, cluster one, that is Mr. Ludovic Hennebel. Other members may pose follow-up questions thereafter. Other members of the task force are Ms. Carla Lemus Devasquez, for cluster 2, Mr. Santiago Vaisken for cluster 3, and Ms. Laura Maria Crachiniotatu for cluster 4. The delegation is kindly requested to speak at a reasonable pace and to provide any written material that will be read out by the delegation to the Secretariat. To facilitate this process and to enable us to cover the full range of issues at hand, I would like to invite my colleagues and the distinguished delegation to kindly speak in a concise manner, giving due attention to the time allocations. With this, I have the pleasure to give the floor to Your Excellency to deliver your opening statement, and you have, Your Excellency, 10 minutes for that. Thank you. You have the floor, madam.


Mexico · Ambassador, Permanent Representative and Head of Delegation [22:46]:

Thank you very much indeed, Madam Chair, and a very good afternoon to you all, distinguished experts. of the Committee. Heartfelt greetings to you, Mexico appears before this Committee to defend its seventh periodic report and restate its availability to have an open and constructive dialogue on progress made and actions initiated to progressively give effect to the rights enshrined in the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Covenant, the CESC. The preparation of this presentation brought together institutions from the three branches of government, executive, legislative, and judicial, as well as independent constitutional agencies, as well as leaders in charge of the design and implementation of public policies. entities whose job is to generate information, guarantee rights and to provide and defend justice as well. Consultations were held with civil society organisations, whom we would like to thank for having appeared here today. This broad participation reflects a fundamental principle, namely the realisation of economic, social and cultural rights, calls for coordinated actions from all state institutions, it also calls for or requires concertation with civil society and the private sector. Our country has placed the well-being and social justice at the heart of its national project. This vision is underpinned by the concept of Mexican humanism. which recognises human dignity, equality and non-discrimination as the bedrock of what motivates the decisions of the state. This starts with a clear finding: development only means something when it enlarges or magnifies the effective enjoyment of human rights and gives rise to better living conditions for everyone. Under the principle of 'for the good of all', first of the poll, the National Development Plan 2025-2030, as well as the sectoral policies adopted by the administration of President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, follow the same aim, namely make progress towards development with well-being, strengthening substantive equality, reducing gaps, and attend to those who historically have been disenfranchised in this respect, the Mexican state has shouldered the responsibility of planning and fostering development, guaranteeing economic, social, and cultural rights, and promoting more equitable distribution of wealth. For over 20 years now, Mexico has been carrying out a multidimensional measurement of poverty on the basis of human rights, using that to fuel our social development programs and policies, thanks to which the Mexican state can give effect to the rights enshrined in the Covenant and implement the recommendations issued by the CESCR. In this respect, the programs for well being are a concrete expression of this concept of Mexican humanism and amount to instruments to reduce inequalities and provide a bedrock for well-being. At the end of 2026, the programs for well-being will reach 42 million rights holders with a historic investment of a trillion pesos, which is equivalent to 57 and a half billion dollars. This policy strengthens the social protection we afford to the elderly, to women, to people with disability, to persons with disability, to students, to young people, to peasants, to agriculturalists, and fisherfolk, as well as indigenous peoples and African Mexicans. In the labor sphere, the new minimum wage policy has made it possible to recover purchasing power for workers and head towards sufficient wages, wages that are high enough for them to meet their needs and the needs of their families between 2018 and 2026. The monthly wage increased nominally by 256.5%. With these measures, from 2018 to 2024, over 13 million people were able to be lifted out of poverty, out of whom 1.7 million were lifted out of extreme poverty. As well as this, in 2026, labour poverty was the lowest it has been since 2005. Furthermore, Mexico has fostered a new labour justice model based on conciliation, on trade union freedom, trade union democracy, and real collective bargaining. Furthermore, it has enlarged social protection for people working from home, at home, those who work on digital platforms, and people who are paid on a daily basis in the agricultural field. and to gradually reduce working time to the end being to reach 40 hours worked weekly by 2030 in schools. The basic scholarship for basic education called Rita Setina was awarded to 14.9 million students between 2025 and 2026, and the universal scholarship for upper secondary school called Benito Juárez was awarded to 4.16 million students over the same period of time. These initiatives contribute to countering teen or to ensuring that boys and girls and adolescents stay in the classrooms. Also, we have a program called Young People Writing Their Own Future, which was enabled half a million students in higher education to stay in higher education. This policy is complemented by the enlargement of educational infrastructure to create new schools, new educational establishments at all levels of schools. As far as health is concerned, we have embodied, we've brought together 24 agencies into the Mexican institute for social security and for well-being, to bring free health care for our public without social security, in addition to that with the construction and rehabilitation of infrastructure, training and recruitment of specialized medical staff, the supply of medicines, and a program called Health, Door-to-Door Health, which makes it possible for us to bring our health care system towards closer to the elderly and people with disabilities, also the universal health service seeks to coordinate what is done by the main public institutions, strengthen primary healthcare and ensure that the needs of people are placed at the heart of what we do. As far as housing is concerned, the current administration is aiming to build 1.8 million new homes to provide homes for 12 million families through new accessible, new homes, new accessible credits, the reforms or improvement of homes and regularization ownership. As far as food is concerned, Mexico is driving forward food security through programs designed to strengthen production, improve the income of agriculturalists, farmers, protect native seeds, and safeguard the kind of food we need to preserve our identity and culture. Now, this being said, shared prosperity can only happen if we have substantive equality, which is why the gender equality has been embodied throughout our planning. and is linked also to the guarantee of the rights of the women and guarantee us to creating a proper welfare society. Mexico has also triggered a new stage in its relationship with indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples. We started by reforming Article 2 of the Constitution 2024, which recognizes them as people with public rights, with a legal personality and their own assets in this context. The regional development and justice plans are main instruments we use for dialogue and coordination to address the historic lagging behinds of these communities, protect their territories, strengthen community well-being, respect their forms of organization. The direct transfer of resources makes it possible also for these communities themselves to define their own destinies through their own assemblies. thanks to which they're able to strengthen their independence and participation. We give them agency. Social justice is also a condition that we need to meet if we need to build peace, which is why addressing causes for inequality is one of the main pillars of the national public security strategy. The guarantee of economic, social, and cultural rights, as well as the recovery of community space will contribute to, or does contribute to, strengthening social cohesion and generating conditions for there to be lasting peace in the country. Consistent with this vision, the Plan Mexico, Mexico Plan, and the economic development hubs for well-being promote an inclusive and sustainable form of development, as well as the generation of decent jobs, the strengthening of productive capacities, and the reduction of regional inequalities we see in the country. Furthermore, a programme called Young People Building Their Own Future, whose aim is to give jobs to young people aged between 18 and 29, has been something that 3.5 million people have availed themselves of in the last eight years. These principles also gear what we do in our foreign affairs policy. Our country is humanistic diplomacy guided by justice, peace, solidarity, international cooperation, and respect for human dignity. In doing this, Our foreign affairs policy links our national priorities with multilateral debates on human rights, as well as multilateral debates on development, equality, and social justice. Thank you very much, Madam Chairperson.


CESCR · Chair [33:48]:

Thank you, Your Excellency, for your opening remarks. I will now give the floor to Mr. Ludovic Hennebel, the Country Rapporteur, who will pose his questions under Cluster 1. Sir, you have 15 minutes, and the screen will guide you to keep track of the timing. So, you have the floor.


CESCR · Country Rapporteur [34:10]:

Much appreciated, madam, for giving me the floor.


Interpreter [34:13]:

Mr. Inabel's microphone is not close enough to him. If somebody could move it.


CESCR · Country Rapporteur [34:16]:

Madam Chair, Excellencies, distinguished members of the delegation, dear colleagues, on behalf, I wanted to thank the delegation for turning up here today, for being available, and for the report submitted.


Interpreter [34:31]:

The interpreters cannot hear Mr. Inabel because of his microphone. You had...


CESCR · Country Rapporteur [34:36]:

Thank you very much to the interpreters. As I was saying,


Interpreter [34:42]:

the interpreters are grateful. Thank you.


CESCR · Country Rapporteur [34:44]:

So, I was saying welcome. You must have got that. Thank you for appearing here. I was underscoring the importance of the exercise, the efforts made to draft the report, the annexes you provided to your report. I wanted to thank civil society organizations, those NGOs. Indigenous peoples as well, representatives of Indigenous peoples, families, families of disappeared persons who have informed or kept the Committee abreast of what was happening in the country in the context of the preparation of this report. Mexico obviously has a particular place in the history of CESCR, especially in the place of economic, social and cultural rights in the Constitution itself of Mexico, and also As you've said, Excellency, significant progress has been made since 2018. Multi-dimensional forms of poverty which are being reduced, a minimum wage which has been raised, ratification of ILO conventions, a number of achievements which we've noted, which we will talk about today, but also there are signs that are cause for concern covering the same period under review. which we were going to have to address once again and talk about. In addition to all that, since you submitted your written answers at the end of 2024, major reforms have taken place, in particular in the judiciary, the Amparo law, the election of judges, the dismantling of some bodies, transparency, the Water Act, the Energy Act, public expenditure. So we're going to raise matters under all of these reforms and the impact of these reforms on the rights enshrined by the Covenant. We will be asking you to shed light on the exact scope of these reforms, their consequences. We'll also raise all of these points, and we're going to begin specifically with Articles 1 to 5 and a whole raft of cross-cutting issues linked to how the Covenant is implemented in Mexico. I will start with a very first initial question, which remains an enigma for me and other observers, and for members of the Committee. I'm referring here to the potential ratification of the optional protocol of the Covenant, you will know that this optional protocol to the CESC makes it possible for CESC to consider individual communications, which is very important. We know how committed Mexico is to multilateralism and to the various individual complaints mechanisms. So you can imagine that we are surprised that Mexico still hasn't ratified this optional protocol. Some senatorial initiatives have occurred but not been given effect to, so we would like to know today what the position of the delegation is. Is Mexico intending to ratify? If so, when, by when, and if not, why not? If you could potentially tell us where the obstacles lie. That was question number one. Number two, or second cluster, will have to do with the general framework, and in particular security. in the country. We appreciate how serious organised crime-related violence is, and this organised crime will have necessarily impacts on the enjoyment of economic, social, and cultural rights. According to information we've received, whole regions reportedly do not receive healthcare because of lack of medical staff, because people are afraid to go there because of crime-related violence. Reportedly, there are lacunae in terms of vaccinations, chronic diseases not being addressed, a number of families having to flee from their homes, a number of territories who allegedly have been deserted or at least less protected as far as CESC is concerned and social trust is concerned, because, once again, of this organised crime-related violence. So, how do you see things? And especially, have you assessed the consequences of insecurity on access to health, education, land? And how do you guarantee the continuity of essential services in the most affected territories beyond what the State does from a purely security point of view? As far as organized crime is concerned specifically, a number of UN mechanisms have documented in certain regions the that organised criminal groups exercise control, but also they enjoy connivance and acquiescence from federal, municipal, or regional authorities. Have you assessed that? Is it true? Could you tell us what the extent is? And have you been able to prosecute and convict anyone? Because this, needless to say, will have immediate consequence on the enjoyment of CESC and social justice. Another issue we will raise in connection with the reforms, especially with regards to the Amparo reform. We're concerned about information whereby Amparo, which is defending communities against megaprojects or extractive projects, was restricted reportedly in 2025. So how effective is today the Amparo law? Communities who wish to defend their environment, how are they protected? What are the remedies? Could you give us examples of what the state has done to protect them? Still in connection with Amparo law, we have the issue since October 2024 and the reforms that took place then, the unconstitutionality issue needs to be dealt with because As soon as you've got a constitutional reform which runs counter to the Ceasach, what remedies remain for the public? As I say, if the Constitution contravenes the Covenant. I would like to raise another question about the decision of the Supreme Court in a case 54/2021 on the Veracruz case, which allegedly has not been implemented. Other authorisations were issued subsequently. So, the Veracruz reef system Where does it stand today still on the independence of the justice system in the context of the 2024 constitutional reform and the election of judges? What concrete safeguards ensure the independence, impartiality, and specialised competence of judges called upon to protect Covenant rights? These are questions we will revisit throughout this review. We then have another cluster of issues related to human rights defenders. The Committee is deeply concerned about information received about alleged killings, disappearances and attacks targeting defenders of land, territory and the environment, as well as people searching for their relatives who have disappeared. information about the number of investigations, arrest warrants and convictions, and how all of this is managed? Also, the families, the relatives who are looking for their disappeared relatives, are these families considered to be human rights defenders, quote unquote? In that respect, have you adopted any standards to protect them, as recommended by CIDH in another context, to Mexico, that is? Now, the relatives of disappeared persons specifically, you will know that the Committee is deeply concerned about this issue, generally speaking, and the working group on enforced disappearances has told us that they are concerned about information stemming from Mexico whereby relatives of disappeared persons, mainly women, are having to meet the economic loss on their own. So often they lose their homes, there are consequences on their health, or at least on the healthcare expenditure. Their children often drop out of school because they have to support the family and support the family in finding the disappeared person. So could you tell us more? about the effective coverage of subsidies or allowances given to families. How many families receive help for their home, for education of the children? If you could break that down by region or federative entity, that would be helpful. I have another question to put to you now on the rights of, it's a related question, and it's the independence of indigenous peoples. What guarantees the State Party created to respect the autonomy and the independence of institutions representing indigenous communities, especially the agrarian assemblies, and in particular with their access to water, land, and natural resources. Furthermore, the 2026 consultation on the general law on the rights of indigenous peoples and Afro-Mexican peoples which implements the reform to Article 2, has flagged contradictions or tensions between different groups. Have you identified these and taken them into account? We have another question on the Plan México, Mexico plan, and the economic development hubs for well-being. Have you carried out free, prior, and informed consent consultations? Were they culturally sensitive, also, these consultations? Did they take into account the communities and peoples who are likely to be affected by these decisions? Another issue still on natural resources. So, right, fully to dispose of wealth and natural resources, I have questions on the three major projects expressly identified in the list of issues: the Maya Train, the Inter-oceanic Corridor in the isthmus of Tehuantepec, and the wind farms of the isthmus. We would like to know more about the impact assessments you've carried out, because you've told us about things in general terms. We would like to hear things in specific terms. What environmental impact assessments have you carried out for all of these plans? Also, social and human rights impacts, have you considered them? Were they published before any decision was made? And if so, can you, where can we consult those impact assessments? Also, on reparations now, what reparations have actually been granted to families and communities displaced or affected by these projects I was mentioning? Another question still in connection with this issue, namely, consent, reportedly, we've been told 60% of extractive projects in indigenous peoples' territories since 2017, reportedly, and not broken down by register, so you can't actually concretely consult what was done. There were consultation processes that were done at the last minute. Could you tell us more about these practices, generally speaking? Another question now on the same issue, same issue, indigenous peoples, more specifically, though, business and human rights and due diligence of corporations as far as the implementation of their economic policies in connection with human rights. Could you tell us more about what is happening with business and human rights? Could you tell us what judicial mechanisms you have available for people who might want to challenge investments that are at odds with international human rights law and international law per se. I have another question to put to you with regards to fiscal justice or tax justice. You've provided no substantive response to available resources and taxation. We'd like to have more information about this issue, tax justice. Moving on now to, as I was foreshadowing before, the elimination of a number of independent agencies assessing your social policies. How have you replaced those disbanded mechanisms or agencies? How do you carry out your assessment or your monitoring, and what concrete results have you brokered in investigating corruption in Public procurement and the purchase of mentions, have any investigations been launched? Anybody been convicted? And finally, on discrimination, the issue of discrimination, the committee, or at least the working group, is concerned about information sent to us by asylum seekers. refugees, whose numbers increased. We’d like to know how that has happened and how you, Mexico, is tackling this issue of asylum seekers and refugees. We’re also concerned about reports of the scope of the national strategy to combat discrimination, in particular discrimination against three groups: people on the move, people deprived of liberty because of their migratory status, and the third group, persons with disabilities. We might revisit this point subsequently, but we would really like to know what measures are available to ensure that people who are sent back from the US to Mexico, regardless of their nationality, have effective access without discrimination to identity, to ID papers, to education, housing, and education for their children. Finally, a very, very last question, because I see that my time has elapsed. As far as sexual violence is concerned, according to information we've received, half women aged over 15 reportedly have been the victims of sexual violence. The definition of rape is problematic now. How are we going to harmonise these criminal codes to define rape as lack of consent and to change provisions that are problematic, especially with regards to estupro or statutory rape? I'll conclude with this. In the follow-up questions and all, I will have a chance to revisit some of these points which have been left in as pending. So to conclude, indeed, the report was considered very carefully by us, as well as Alex's. However, a number of measures adopted since the report, namely the publication, appear to potentially have had a negative impact on existing guarantees, and it will be important, therefore, for you to raise, to address these various matters. Thank you at any rate for your kind attention.


CESCR · Chair [50:39]:

Thank you, sir, for your initial questions. Your Excellency, you have requested for a couple of minutes to organize your work. So we'll just take a two-minute break. I request colleagues to kindly remain in the room while the delegation reorganizes its work, and then we'll reconvene in a couple of minutes. Thank you. Dear colleagues, can I have your attention? We resume our session, and I request the distinguished delegation of Mexico to kindly respond to the questions posed initially by Mr. Ludovic Hennibel. And you have, madam, 30 minutes, and it will be reflected on your screen, the time, to keep track of time. So you have the floor, madam.


Mexico · Director-General for Human Rights, Ministry of Foreign Affairs [58:17]:

Thank you very much, Chair. And I also take this opportunity to thank the lead country rapporteur for the questions he's put to the representatives of the Mexican state and thank him for his acknowledgement of all the progress that we've seen in Mexico, particularly in terms of guaranteeing and upholding economic, social, and cultural, and indeed environmental rights. In an attempt to respond to your questions, sir, we have decided to cluster our replies in order to ensure that we have a systematic approach to the way in which we respond to the points you raise. So first I'd like to refer to the question or questions that you asked about the new judicial system in the country, which followed the constitutional reform of 2024. which was actually rolled out as of 2025, having been adopted in 2024. Now, part of our diagnosis is that judicial agents were not elected and were not subject to the scrutiny of society. So that's one of the trigger points of the reform. It's one of the points of analysis which was part of the constitutional reform initiative. And as part of that, we identified and pinpointed challenges vis-à-vis abuses of privileges, particularly by assessment and evaluation mechanisms, as well as by the judiciary themselves. And there was a whole system in place in order to streamline and improve judicial proceedings and to borrow from, for example, international models of the election of judges and magistrates. This was intended to bring about a historic reform, which is what we saw, which is that for the first time all judges in the country are elected. This means that persons in this role can be part of this democratic exercise, which had its first round a couple of years ago. And this reform is also governed and overseen by a separate, independent, specialised body, separate, although within the Supreme Court, which is able to ensure that criteria for popularly elected judges are met. There's also a judicial disciplinary tribunal, which is responsible for verifying and ascertaining the actions of judges, making sure that they fit with the law and the relevant criteria. This reform has led to advances such as gender equality, gender parity, And it has also meant that sectors of society which previously didn't have easy access to these roles, to the post of judge, can now apply and be elected. It's more easy for them to do so, as long as they meet the necessary constitutional requirements of eligibility and suitability. As long as those conditions are met, they can apply to be judges and be elected to be same. And as part of this reform, we have been able to implement criteria which have promoted the enjoyment of economic, social, and cultural rights. In the Supreme Court, for example, innovative criteria have been cited in the fields of interculturalism and access to healthcare, housing, indigenous consultation rights, etc. These legal decisions, these legal rulings, which have cited these new rights, have also allowed for the expansion of healthcare, social welfare, workplace and access and rights to work, rights which fall under economic, social, and cultural rights. These include, for example, adequate housing, the right to housing, improvement of agricultural workers, social, economic, and cultural rights, etc. And this new configuration of the Supreme Court has enabled us to bolster and promote these rights further, as I've just demonstrated. Amparo proceedings are also in place to protect the legitimate interests of citizens in Mexico, and so it's possible for a group of persons suffering a similar situation can appeal to the courts as part of an amparo proceeding, citing the particular region from which they hail and the legal status that they have, and they can then submit an amparo proceeding, which can then be applied to similar analogous situations in the future. So, this is to respond to your questions that were asked about the judicial reform and the current status of the judiciary. I'll now give the floor to the Ambassador to respond to the next cluster of questions. Ambassador Mendez Escobar.


Mexico · Ambassador [1:02:49]:

Thank you very much. And I in turn would like to thank the country rapporteur for Mexico, Mr. Ludovic Ennoble, for his very detailed questions, very targeted questions, which makes it abundantly clear that you very carefully read the report and you're very aware of what's happening in our country. So I'd like to begin by responding to your very first question, rapporteur, a question as to why Mexico has not yet ratified the optional protocol to your covenant. Now, Mexico duly recognizes the challenge that lies in ratifying the optional protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. and the many steps that need to be taken before we can ratify that optional protocol, the need to satisfy internal proceedings. We need to follow the guidelines vis-à-vis the ratification of treaties and related documents. And so we need the buy-in of the competent authorities. We need their support. We need them to promote this step. So we're engaged in inter-institutional consultations currently. But these have not yet culminated in the necessary consensus that would allow Mexico to ratify your optional protocol. But the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has identified an opportunity to re-galvanize, to resume this process of inter-institutional consultation as a precursor to the adoption of the optional protocol, and we're engaged in timely and targeted consultations that hopefully will culminate in Mexico being able to ratify the optional protocol. So it's not stagnating as an issue. On indigenous peoples, well, rapporteur, expert members of the committee, chair, as I think many of you will be well aware, Mexico is a pluri-multicultural, multi-ethnic, as well as multilingual society, home to some 69 indigenous peoples, as well as Afro-Mexicans, with some 16,000 different communities and 25.8 million inhabitants. who are indigenous peoples, Africa, Mexicans, which represents just over 20% of our overall population who fall into those categories. In December 2024, there was a reform of Article 2 of the Constitution, which duly recognized, and this is a historic step, a milestone in the history of Mexico. It recognized indigenous peoples and communities and Afro-Mexican peoples and communities as public right holders with a specific legal status and enjoyment of their own culture, and I referred to this, if fleetingly, in my opening statement. As a result of this step, we have been able to strengthen self-determination, the autonomy, and the participation in national public life of these communities and peoples. As part of the implementation and rollout of this constitutional reform, The Government of Mexico drafted the General Law on Indigenous Peoples and Afro-Mexicans as part of a broadly consultative process, which followed the standard of free, prior and informed consent with these community and people groups themselves, and noting that you refer to the importance of free, prior and informed consent yourself, rapporteur. This then culminated in information days in the communities themselves. There were 82 regional assemblies for consultation across the entirety of the country as part of the process feeding into the adoption of this general law. The judiciary of Mexico has strengthened the protection of indigenous communities and peoples and Afro-Mexican communities and peoples. through legal criteria, through specialised training for judges, and through the provision of mechanisms for access to justice which duly mainstream intercultural needs to make it easier for these communities to access justice in the courts. That said, I would now like to turn to the issue of consultation and free, prior and informed consent as principles that you referred to, rapporteur. and consultation and FPIC, free, prior, and informed consent, are fundamental safeguards and guarantees that underpin the exercise of self-determination by Afro-Mexican and indigenous peoples and communities. This duly in line with the aforementioned Article 2 of the Political Constitution of the United States of Mexico. It's also in line with ILO Convention number 169. This right, guaranteeing effective participation in decision-making on issues that might affect their land rights, their natural resources, and livelihoods is now in place, thanks to that reform. Chair, expert members of the Committee, the energy reform of 2024-2025 explicitly incorporated the right to free, prior, and informed consultation and consent As in line with the applicable legal framework in the legislation covering the hydrocarbon and electricity sectors, which is something you touched upon in your questions, rapporteur, we've established specific procedures to guarantee that that consultation and consent is acquired before the granting of any permits, authorisations or contracts that are susceptible of impacting from Mexican or indigenous communities or peoples. The National Institute for Indigenous Peoples, INPI, has strengthened the application of this right, of this law, by providing technical support to consultation processes, by promoting effective participation by the relevant communities and their representative organizations, and by bolstering understanding of the Free, Prior and Informed Consent instrument amongst indigenous peoples, sharing with them its legal basis and methodology so it's easier for them to understand what it is and implement same. If you'll indulge me, Chair, I'd now like to answer the questions that were asked about business and human rights. Here, Mexico has made definitive headway in strengthening and bolstering a national business and human rights agenda. Which is focused on promoting responsible business behavior, due diligence, and the incorporation of the guiding of the United Nations Guiding Principles in public policies with a focus on decent work, environmental sustainability, and inclusive economic development. By the same token, one of the main progresses that has been made in 2026 is the drafting of the National Business and Human Rights Policy, a process that was coordinated by the Ministry of the Economy, supported at the technical level by the International Labour Organization, the ILO, as well as by staff from the OHCHR. And that process included consultations with authorities, with businesses themselves, with trade union organisations, with civil society organisations, and the purpose of all of this broad consultation was to strengthen the prevention of adverse impacts on human rights and to ensure access to mechanisms to redress same when they occurred in business activities. It was also intended to ensure that we bolstered the institutional framework to promote responsible business behaviour. And as a further part of that, I would point to a step taken in August 2025, information you may not have had, rapporteur. The institutional consultative group, coordinating with the business sector, civil society, academia, and trade unions. So a multi-sector consultative group established a national contact focal point for Mexico on business and human rights. which is a unit sitting within the Ministry of Economy. In November of 2025, eight sectoral guidelines or handbags drafted by that secretariat in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, were drafted and published to facilitate the incorporation of human rights standards in the federal public administration. We also reactivated the non-judicial conflict resolution and dialogue mechanism to address issues of responsible business behavior. And that also fits within that national focal and contact point unit as part of the Ministry of the Economy. More recently, in October of 2026, so just last month, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the MFA, was the headquarters in its building for a brainstorming exercise on business and human rights in Mexico and human rights at large, which was organized with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the OHCHR of the United Nations, and civil society organizations. So we had that brainstorming meeting on human rights. It was discussed research, education, working closely with the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights, as on transnational corporations and other related organizations. And we organized that workshop, that brainstorming exercise on transnational corporations, business and human rights to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the publishing of the United Nations guidelines on business and human rights. So with that said, I'll give the floor back to the Director General for Human Rights from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Sisav


Mexico · Director-General for Human Rights, Ministry of Foreign Affairs [1:11:50]:

Thank you very much, Your Excellency. At this juncture, I would like to touch upon a very important and interesting topic that you referred to in your opening questions, rapporteur, which is the care and support provided by the Mexican State to refugees and asylum seekers. As far as Mexico is concerned, the whole topic of human mobility and our response thereto is one that we attach a great deal of importance to. It's led by our Ministry of the Interior, who make sure that all actions are linked to the Sustainable Development Goals, the Nation's Development Goals, and our constitution. Our state policy is Mexican humanity, which is intended to promote social justice, rights, and well-being, both domestically as well as abroad. It's a key strand of our foreign policy, and it's the way we approach human mobility in its four dimensions. And our country has a very complex background when it comes to human mobility, because we're a country of transit, destination, departure, and also return. And of course, these different groups of people, different categories of people, need different ways of being approached and taken care of in order to ensure that their human mobility is regular and orderly. With regard to repatriated Mexicans, in January 2025, we rolled out our Mexico Embraces You initiative via four Mexican ministries, providing care and attention facilities, providing psychological and medical support, as well as other support for returnees, repatriated persons. It also provided activity to have access to education, healthcare, and workplace opportunities, and to be able to better integrate themselves in the host communities. From the rollout of the programme, there in some 390,000 returns, 170,000 of such by land and the rest via air. We have provided nearly 1.7 million different forms of services to these returnees: legal advice, psychological support, healthcare, differentiated attention to vulnerable groups, such as women-headed households or those returning alone. taking steps, including making sure of making them back to their country of origin. With regard to the question about identity documents, the Mexican state has guaranteed this human right by the conferring of more than 168,000 new birth certificates for repatriated persons, which is vital, of course, for their identification documents. We've also provided to more than 207,000 people a peasant well-being card and package in order to ensure that they have a basic minimum cash injection to be able to meet their minimum standards of livelihood and well-being. With regard to refugees and the recognition of their status, the Mexican Commission for Refugee Support has progressively consolidated an integrated attention and care model, which is focused on international protection needs and ensures the early identification of needs, barriers to meeting their needs, differentiates support and channels for access to identification, social welfare, family integration, healthcare, and education, and we're an example of asylum policy at the global level, we believe. Up until 30 July 2026, we dealt with 3,547 We dealt with some 35,000 cases of asylum requests, including 6,000 involving children, and we engaged in 180,000-plus support and assistance actions, 2,400 of which related to identity needs and a single identity key. Twenty thousand of our actions were focused on local integration, including education, inclusion, and employment actions. These services are rolled out across the territory, including the Tapachula Center, which since December of 2025, in a single shot, a one-stop shop, means that refugees and asylum seekers can address all their needs related to identification documents, education, next steps, et cetera. We've also improved channels to access to education, et cetera, and rolled out a strategy which promotes employability and inclusion in the labor market. We guarantee the physical integrity of these people, ensure that they are treated with dignity and integrated in communities with dignity. We have also rolled out the Integrated Mexico Program under the Ministry of the Interior, working with UNHCR to facilitate access to rights by asylum seekers and refugee persons by coordinating the delivery of public services in an integrated and coordinated way. The local integration plan is the plan which we believe puts Mexico at the forefront of actions taken to promote the well-being and rights of refugee persons. Ten years after its implementation, several tens of thousands of people Some 600,000 people have received support under this plan, 120,000 at the local level, encouraging them to be able to integrate in the local community in which they'd arrived, whereas many of the rest have been supported in relocating to other regions of the country, particularly in the north and center, having arrived in the country via the southern corridor. With regard to your questions that were asked about human rights defenders and environmental defenders, in Mexico, support for these persons is a sine qua non. for the enjoyment, on a progressive basis, of economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights. The role of our defenders in all of this is vital. And so the protection of these human rights defenders, environmental defenders, and journalists is a responsibility of the Ministry of the Interior and includes protection measures as well as emergency response measures. We also carry out analysis of risks. We identify threats and vulnerabilities in order to guide such actions. We determine protection measures, and we coordinate the implementation of those protection measures with federal, state, and municipal authorities. We have also developed capacity-building and training in self-protection and self-defence measures, and strengthened coordination with specialised units in the areas of environmental protection, as well as equal treatment and treatment with dignity. As of September 2026, some 2,362 persons have benefited from these programmes, including journalists as well as human rights defenders. It also included 423 relatives of human rights defenders. And in some 400 cases of these cases, we’re talking about environmental defenders. I’d also like to highlight that, as of January 2026, the Ministry for Environment and Natural Resources has joined the governing board of this protection mechanism for human rights, environmental defenders, and journalists. It is also the governing body, the lead body, for implementation of the Escasu Agreement. So, having answered your questions thus, I'd now like at this stage to give the floor to Mr. Hector Figueró, who is part of the National Statistics and Geography Institute, in order to respond to some of the questions that were put to him. Thank you very much.


Mexico · Representative, National Statistics and Geography Institute [1:18:54]:

Thank you very much for the questions that were asked about the continuity of autonomous institutions.


Interpreter [1:19:00]:

Could the interpreters request that the speaker move the microphone closer to his mouth, please, so that we can better hear what he's saying?


Mexico · Representative, National Statistics and Geography Institute [1:19:13]:

Much.

Appreciated for your question on the continuity of the independent agencies. It gives us a chance to explain how the administrative reform makes it possible to give follow-up to the assessment of the social development programs and measuring the multifaceted aspects of poverty, as well as the transparency exercise which was given to another agency. Article 2 of the CESCR commits States Parties to adopt measures, especially economic and technical measures, to progressively, through all means possible, including the adoption of legislative measures, achieve the full effectiveness of the rights enshrined in the CESCR. Article 11 of the International Covenant also commits States Parties to recognize the right of all persons to an adequate standard of living for him, her and their family. In this respect, there is a recognition that poverty is linked directly to limitation of the life options of individuals, and we seek to identify the various deprivations that could limit the exercise of individual freedoms and collective rights, collective freedoms rather. Which is why starting from the legislative measures which measure the social justice achievement as the guidelines for the identification and measuring of poverty, we have kept our methodological continuity where the 2024 measurements were carried out with the same methodology and source of information exercise in using the previous exercise, thanks to which we've been able to preserve the biennial series of 2016-2024, a series of results. This is important because the state is a benchmark, a model in terms of statistics internationally for social development, because in 2004 it published a general law on social development. which establishes that this Mexican state must carry out multidimensional measurement of poverty, which it considers the economic well-being as well access to social rights, whose outcomes must be used by the agencies in charge of promoting social development. The methodology for the measurement of poverty in Mexico follows the human rights-based approach. in considering that poverty manifests itself as a violation of rights. It refers, therefore, to the situation of those persons whose living conditions are affected by lack of economic resources, as well as the impossibility of exercising the social rights enshrined in the Constitution of the United States of Mexico. For these reasons, in the definition and identification of multidimensional poverty, we consider that a person is in this situation when when they have not guaranteed at least one of their social rights and does not have sufficient income to satisfy their needs. On this basis, the multidimensional poverty results provide information for giving people options. It provides evidence for the follow-up of 2.1 aim of the 2025-2030 development plan geared towards strengthening the social protection network to guarantee the social inclusion, economic inclusion of all the public, focusing particularly on vulnerable groups. Thank you very much indeed.


Mexico · Ambassador [1:23:04]:

Thank you, Dr. Héctor. I would like to circle back, if you would allow me. Rapporteur on the law on Indigenous Peoples and the consultation process you raised, which meant us organizing a number of round tables to tackle complaints, issues raised by a number of sectors, including those who disagreed with us and our proposed legislative changes. We also created spaces in allowing people people to exchange views, make proposals, different proposals, and build consensus when wherever possible. The contributions made are then embodied in the rapporteurships and the in every exercise. That was just to elaborate on the consultation process. Now, rapporteur, if you would allow me now, I would like to address matters pertaining to the priorities of the office of the President, namely sexual violence. For the first time in the history, our history, we have a female president 200 years after our independence, and this, she has been a great leader in terms of substantive equality and everything that entails. May I elaborate on what has been done in the various Mexican state institutions contributing to strengthening prevention, attention, care, protection, access to justice for women, girls, and adolescents who are victims of violence, and extending territorial coverage of specialized services and strengthening the institutional capacities to address the various manifestations of gender-based violence. Just to give you some figures, Mr. Rapporteur, in 2025, seven centers for justice for women were open, and the speaker is listing these seven centers, all of which are small towns in Mexico. And in 2026, we created 17 centers for justice for women in nine federative entities. They were roaming entities. So mobile, it is a piece of good news, in addition to all the other good news I've provided. The crime of feminicide, well, an initiative was presented through a general act whose purpose is to standardize the definition of femicide throughout the country. Certainly, this initiative on femicide is following the legal path it needs to follow, but the working group, I can tell you, the working group on discrimination, as well as the expert, the UN expert in the consequences of the International of Geneva, fully recognized the usefulness and the value of this initiative, not only for Mexico, but also for the international community. Dr. César Villanueva, may I give a floor back to him?


Mexico · Director-General for Human Rights, Ministry of Foreign Affairs [1:26:22]:

Thank you very much indeed, Ambassador. I'm going to talk about security, an issue raised by the rapporteur earlier on. As part of what we said earlier on, focusing on security needs to involve tackling the root thereof. Mexico has started to guarantee the dignity, integrity, and the basic minimum for people. for them to be able to have adequate standards of living, keeping them safe from criminal gangs and reducing delinquency. In just two years, the murders fell by 52% in the last two years. High impact crimes have fallen by 36%. We are now dealing with the root causes, the origins of this scourge of delinquency, of crime. And finally, on disappeared persons, Mexico has made it a priority, a main priority, to address the issue of disappeared persons. We are fully aware of the pain caused to people who've lost loved ones, mothers, people who are searching for missed ones. say that we will never tolerate disappearance, regardless of the modality in which it occurred. We currently have an unprecedented cooperation between federal and state entities to authorities to locate disappeared, investigate crimes, and combat impunity. In just this year, so far this year, with the efforts we've been making, we've located 16,000 people, most of whom were found alive. And we will, we confirm the our commitment to international cooperation, dialogue and scrutiny to guarantee the right to life and the right to physical integrity of all. Thank you.


Mexico · Ambassador [1:28:22]:

Chair, we believe we have finished answering questions put in this cluster. Thank you.


CESCR · Chair [1:28:29]:

Thank you, ma'am. I now open the floor for follow-up questions. I recognise Mr. Ludovic Hennibel as the first request. You have the floor, sir.


CESCR · Country Rapporteur [1:28:48]:

Chair, thank you for giving me the floor. I would like to thank the members of the delegation also for participating in this unusual exercise, because you have very little time to respond, to prepare your answers on very legal major issues, the questions on many different topics. It's a very challenging exercise. I would venture to revisit two or three points which I raised, which, because of time, we understand, you weren't able to fully answer. There's something I'd like to dwell upon: organised crime. At the end of the day, it is a very important issue for us. criminal violence will entail displacement, that we see, dispossession of land, interruption of schools, interruption of transport and other essential services. So we'd like to know and understand actually how the social justice aspect, the economic, social, cultural rights aspect, is embodied in your analysis and regulation of the effects of this criminal violence, the loss of control over certain territories, sometimes occurring. You have a complex structure, we know, in Mexico with various institutional levels, state and federal. Could you tell us more, explain how you react? And also tell us what authorities were held accountable for not having prevented certain crimes and what reparations remedies are awarded? How do you rectify the situation? Another question I wasn't able to ask earlier on because of time. You listed 150,000 amparo citations involving economic, social and cultural rights between 2018 and 2024. You spoke of 30% or a little over 30% were given effect to, were granted. So how do you then implement? One thing is granting an Omparo, another thing is actually implementing, make sure that the decision is enforced. How do you work on the enforcement? On the issue of the relatives of disappeared persons now, family members, you'll have a chance to elaborate under other clusters for us to really understand how these families are taken care of or at least supported, so that they can enjoy their economic, social, cultural rights, which have been deprived because of the social and economic distortions triggered by a disappearance. Another question I'd really like details on, and that is the issue of Plan Mexico and the economic development hubs for well-being, which the head of delegation mentioned, were they consulted? Was there free, prior, and informed consultations occurring before it was adopted? And what consequences on human rights? And really, we'd like to hear about the, talk about the megaprojects, the Maya train, the three projects, megaprojects I mentioned. You will know that this has caused for, caused civil society to be really concerned. And inevitably, this kind of economic project triggers important economic, social, cultural and human rights issues as a whole. So it might be good for us to dwell longer on these megaprojects and how we deal with them. We know that the Inter-oceanic Corridor and the Maya Train have been called of national security interest and given to the Ministry of Defence and of the Navy, if we're not mistaken in our understanding. Does that have consequences on access to information, consultation, remedies? This is one aspect of the question, not all of it, but these are obviously questions we would like to repeat and have an answer to. The last question I would put, of course, i need to give time and opportunity for colleagues to add, but the federal bill on discrimination Has it been adopted yet? Has it been enacted into law? What is the adoption schedule? What are the effective remedies or appeals, remedies that it would provide to victims? I'll stop here. I might add, depend on what people say.


CESCR · Chair [1:33:31]:

Thank you, sir. I recognize Mr. Santiago Furio. So you have the floor, followed by Ms. Julieta Rossi. Sir, you take the floor.


CESCR · Committee Member, Cluster 3 Lead [1:33:44]:

Thank you very much indeed. It's a real pleasure to be here this afternoon and have this exchange with Mexico. I would like to put a question, a request for clarification, that is. Now, i understand the relationship between communities and government on projects and how you deal with them, but How about free, prior and informed consent and the right thereto for indigenous peoples? Could you tell us whether the legal framework establishes a right to consultation, full stop, or does it actually guarantee, go beyond this free, prior and informed consent for the development of activities or for the implementation of programmes, policies that might affect the way of life of Indigenous peoples. How does it work? Also, on a national catalogue or register of Indigenous peoples, do you have one? Could you describe it? And what is the purpose of such a register or catalogue, and on what basis are Indigenous peoples embodied or listed in that catalogue or register. So could you elaborate on that? I'm pre-empting somewhat the next cluster, but if you could start thinking about it now and start answering potentially now, it will be interesting, very important because it has an impact on other questions we might ask.


CESCR · Chair [1:35:39]:

I'm so sorry. Ms. Julieta Rosi, you have the floor, ma'am.


CESCR · Committee Member [1:35:47]:

Thank you very much indeed, Chair, for giving me the floor, and welcome from me to the delegation of Mexico in AMIS this afternoon. It's a pleasure to be here with you, to have you with us. I would like to revert back to the constitutional recognition of indigenous peoples and progress made in legislative acknowledgement of them, and ask you what specifically it means. Namely, what rights do indigenous peoples have in terms of their, you said they've been recognized, they have assets and legal personality. What does it mean? Could you elaborate on the, what the implications are of that new status? Do you have any plans to recognize the, the, the concept of indigenous municipalities, so that they can, indigenous peoples can address, administer their own resources. That was number one. Number two, on the general law on the indigenous peoples' rights, you described the process followed to consult communities on this act, on this law, a number of roundtables, consultation processes. But we have heard also from civil society organisations information whereby, well, they have criticised this process and said that it was a limited process. For example, the time allowed, the information provided, which wasn't always culturally appropriate. So not enough time, not enough space given to the communities. Also, you used a format which is not compatible with the traditional arena used by indigenous peoples to make decisions. So we've heard this criticism, you have heard this criticism as well. In principle, you have opened up areas for participation, but we've heard this criticism, we would like to know how you take them, what you think about this criticism. And finally, on the Amparo law. It was amended in 2025, as we've heard, and it was also the target of criticism because it allegedly restricts the possibility to claim collective rights. For example, we have this concept of "legitimate interest," which must be abided by for people to avail themselves of this Amparo Act. Could you elaborate? Thank you.


CESCR · Chair [1:38:28]:

Thank you, Ms. Rossi, Your Excellency. I request you now to kindly respond to the questions and the clarifications posed to you, and you have the floor. 20 minutes, 20 minutes, yeah.


Mexico · Director-General for Human Rights, Ministry of Foreign Affairs [1:38:47]:

Much appreciated. Thank you all, everyone of you, for your individual questions. Focusing first on the Maya Train project. Rapporteurs referred to it, and a number of special procedures have been interested in it. It was part of a regional development strategy designed to strengthen connectivity, economic activity, and opportunities for development in the south and southeast of Mexico under participation, social participation, environmental protection, and safeguarding of the cultural heritage. In terms of indigenous participation, during 2019, we organized a whole consultation process with indigenous peoples who were affected. Fifteen regional assemblies were organized and 50 consultation assemblies were organized with the participation of 4,869 individuals, including agricultural communities, municipal communities, as well as representatives of 1,078 indigenous communities. For the follow-up of these agreements, we put together a commission comprising 293 community leaders in the environmental field, the works, the projects were submitted to the assessment processes and in the light of environmental laws embodying compulsory measures of mitigation, compensation, restoration, and monitoring, including actions for the protection of fauna and flora, restoration of areas that were worked on, preservation waste management and the preservation of ecosystems, priority ecosystems. In this respect, this project, inter-institutional project, had the participation of the water authorities guaranteeing water supply to the area and technical advice to strengthen the prevention measures and mitigation measures and follow-up measures related to the protection of the water system of the Yucatan Peninsula. The public participation was also part of this assessment process, as you asked just now, Mr. Rapporteur, between 2020 and 2025, we carried out eight public meetings, information and consultation meetings with the participation of 1,375 individuals who presented comments, questions, and proposals. considered in the corresponding proposals. Cultural Heritage Now, the National Institute for Anthropology and History, implemented a broad-based programme for archaeological vestiges, as a result of which we have protected 26,500 archaeological monuments and strengthened the register for consultation and documentation of our cultural heritage of the region. In addition to that, the project has received technical assistance from international organizations on sustainable development and cultural heritage, land planning, and project management. All of these actions are designed to promote regional development in connection with the Maya training, which is consistent with the environment, the preservation of cultural heritage, and the participation of indigenous peoples. in the processes involving them or concerning them. With regards to the question put to us on the consultation process, the general law on indigenous peoples and indigenous peoples, Afro-Mexican communities, I was involved personally in a number of the fora and roundtables which took place. It was a highly valuable exercise because, first, there was an informative part wherein the National Institute for Indigenous Peoples was gave the communities information on what was the scope of the project. Then we carried out the assemblies per se, in which opinions were heard from all the people involved through round tables, and then there were eight months work to systematise all the information gleaned. Some of these assemblies were also proposed specifically because we weren't able, they weren't able to systematize or compile all the information, or that matters remained pending, which is why the process of this law is still in a consultation phase. Now, the Mexican state is, this is what the Mexican state has done for the indigenous communities. And in terms of the register and them being classified under the constitution, well, this comes from, well, we've changed our assistance-based model, and now given the indigenous communities their means and identity in the constitution so they can have agency to decide how they wish to be involved, including in the budget. The Supreme Court has made significant progress on these matters, providing comprehensive safeguards for indigenous communities, starting with constitutional courts, constitutional trials, which they have access to. So, Ambassador Mendes, I give the floor back to you to address other issues that were put to us.


Mexico · Ambassador, Permanent Representative and Head of Delegation [1:44:20]:

Thank you very much indeed, Dr. Villanueva, says the Ambassador. I would like to thank rapporteur Ludovic Ennabell once again for reiterating your follow-up questions, which had not escaped our radar. With regards to Julieta Rossi and the previous speaker, This is an opportunity for us to tell you more about what we have done, and in that respect, let me add the following. In April 2026, we strengthened the institutionality of the Office of the Attorney General through the creation of a specialized Attorney General's Office for Indigenous Peoples and Afro-Mexicans, whose job is to provide care or support with an intercultural approach, which is a question you asked us about. Now, with that new Attorney General's office, which is specialized, we have strengthened access to justice through translation and interpretation mechanisms in indigenous languages. As I said in my introductory statement, we have 69 indigenous peoples, and 67 indigenous languages, so this is a huge task which has been performed by the state to protect them and preserve communication. We've also embodied legal pluralism criteria, gender plurality, and intersectionality. These are criteria we've embodied in our policies. Can I also tell you that the Supreme Court and the federal courts have consolidated a standard, a number of very robust standards to protect the right to free, prior and informed consultation, which is culturally appropriate and conducted in good faith, establishing that they should happen if there is a slightest possibility that the interests of the communities might be affected. And all the actions must. So this is when measures are adopted that are likely to affect the territories. of indigenous peoples and Afro-Mexicans, all their natural resources, all their forms of organization, and this obligation is extended to spheres such as mining, energy, the environment, and territorial development. The whole set of measures strengthen the determination for us to strengthen the self-determination, access to justice, and protection of individual and collective rights of Indigenous peoples and communities, Indigenous and Afro-Mexican communities and peoples pursuant to our Constitution. I have some more information to give you on this matter. In the context of the National Development Plan 2025-2030, which, as you know, is our chapeau framework public policy Consultation is the instrument to promote well-being, social justice, and substantive equality, guaranteeing that infrastructure projects and energy and territorial development projects embody the priorities and perspectives of indigenous communities and contributes to the progressive realization of economic, social, and cultural rights, which is the matter we are discussing here this afternoon, which is your purview, may I also tell you, still on free, prior and informed consent, consultation rather. Mexico strengthened the institutional framework, as I've said, and a regulatory framework, and, of course, we have challenges, doesn't work perfectly yet, for the effective implementation of this framework, a regulatory framework, but as can be expected, we're working on it.

Amongst the challenges that I referred to, to be totally upfront and frank with all of you expert members of the Committee, there is, first and foremost, the need to strengthen inter-institutional co-ordination, also to expand technical capacity and the local presence of responsible authorities and BIDs, particularly in regions with high levels of indigenous and Afro-Mexican populations. and the growing concentration of development projects. As expert Ludovic Ennebel pointed out, Mexico is a complex and challenging country. We have our challenges, given our territorial complexities, and so we're working hard to respond to those and to address those challenges. There's also a need to strengthen consultation as a substantive dialogue process and to have it understood as same, because expert members of the committee, this openness by the Mexican state is rather recent. We have a long history, and it's only recently that we've accepted this need for consultation at the state level. And so I think if you understand that, you will recognize that we've taken a qualitative step forward, a major step forward, but we're conscious of the challenges that still remain. As I said, I wanted to speak frankly. And so we need to take those steps to strengthen consultation as an intercultural dialogue process, ensuring the effective participation in trail of women and young people, ensure the cultural and linguistic sensitivity and relevance of the consultation processes as well, is another step we need to take. And we also need to ensure that we have a system in place to follow up on agreements reached as part of that consultation process. Also, to share with you, to circle back to a point that I made earlier, which was also made by Dr. César Vega-Nueva Esquivel, we need to address and further bolster the General Law on Afro-Mexican and Indigenous Peoples, which is intended as a vehicle to standardise and improve the standards and principles that surround consultation with these people groups and ensure that that consultation takes place early and following the principle of culturally sensitive and free, prior, and informed consent. And also to ensure that those consultations are pursued in good faith. So we're aware of what needs to be done, but we're working on it. I give the floor back now at this stage to Dr. Vicianueva. Thank you very much.


Mexico · Director-General for Human Rights, Ministry of Foreign Affairs [1:50:54]:

Thank you, Your Excellency. To expand upon the scope of the Amparo proceedings to which the rapporteur referred. with regard to economic, social, and cultural rights, and how these have been cited in Amparo proceedings at the judicial level. Since the judicial reform in September 2025, the courts continue to directly apply the provisions of the Constitution and international human rights instruments to protect rights related to healthcare, education, housing, social welfare, the environment, and the rights of Indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples. This judicial and court level protection has been strengthened via training and capacity building tools of a specialised nature, inspired by the experience of specific cases in these fields. I would point to the manual on the legal enforcement of economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights, which provides for criteria that need to be followed for the analysis of related case, minimum content, and the prohibition of a regressive approach. as well as steps that can be taken as part of rulings surrounding these rights that can strengthen institutional oversight. There have been specific rulings on the water and the environment in which it was ruled by the Supreme Court that there be an immediate implementation of measures to guarantee access to safe drinking water as a legitimate interest and to protect communities from environmental risks. reaffirming the state's role and obligation to adopt a preventive approach to prevent scientifically substantiated concerns related to potential environmental damage. In January 2025, Ms. Rapporteur, we submitted an equitable economic development strategy or plan, which is intended to strengthen the internal market, and to promote productive investment and to generate dignified jobs and to reduce regional inequalities under a model of shared equality and wealth. It's a plan that covers up until 2030, which is intended to generate some additional 1.5 million jobs in the specialised manufacturing sector and other specialised sectors. It's also intended to boost investment to above 28% of GDP. It's also intended to ensure the annual training of some 150,000 specialised technical staff and experts and employees. It's also intended to promote environmental sustainability. One of the key instruments for the implementation of this plan are the 15 economic development hubs for well-being, which are distributed in 14 different federal entities. The purpose of these hubs is to attract investment, to promote regional investment and regional growth, to integrate SMEs in value chains, and to promote well-paid and dignified jobs. In the area of institutional strengthening, in May of 2025, we established a regulatory framework for fiscal stimulus to support these hubs, which includes an immediate deduction of 100% of investments in new jobs and new posts, as well as a deduction that is available at 25% for steps taken towards economic, industrial innovation and development design, which is intended to boost at the regional level innovation and job creation. This strategy has led to significant headway being made. For example, we have the first economic development hub, for well-being, which was rolled out and up and running in 2026. We also have the regulatory framework for the coordination mechanisms, which will support the rollout of the additional 14 such hubs. If I may now turn to the question that was asked about support for the relatives of disappeared persons. As I mentioned earlier, this is a central pillar of the search strategy, that is, to wit, the engagement of communities and relatives. There have been 3,750 meetings with relatives of disappeared persons, as well as institutional coordination meetings. We always have a listening ear to these persons. We are always willing to engage in dialogue and provide support and care to the relatives of disappeared persons and searchers. The doors of the Mexican authorities are always open to hear from these people. We also have a regional presence, which enables us to review investigation files, to take the necessary and register the necessary data and evidence. We have a national registry for victim support, which is part of the Ministry of the Interior. As of 31 August 2026, we registered 28,000 victims of enforced disappearance, of which some 16,000 So 60.8% were indirect victims of this crime. At the federal level, indirect victims represented 75% of the cases registered of this crime, this offence of enforced disappearance. This information has allowed us to strengthen the identification of differentiated needs and to guide and shape actions at the inter-institutional level in order to guarantee effective access by the relatives of disappeared persons to care and support services, to protection services. as well as other services to accompany them in their investigations and efforts. We recognise that we still have challenges that lie ahead in working better in this area, but we remain resolved to further embed a central federal policy to support relatives and families of disappeared persons, recognising their specific needs as a category of persons. This plan and this approach is also intended to bolster institutional capacity in order to ensure that we provide ever more specialised, accessible, and humane services and support to this category of persons, to the relatives of disappeared persons, that is. I would also like to state that the – indicate that the State has identified opportunities to improve the ways it delivers medical and psychosocial and psychological support to searchers for disappeared persons. We have provided plans for institutional coordination and holistic support. which ensure that we can engage in preventive actions on a human rights-based focus, as well as mainstreaming gender needs on an intersectional basis to support these searchers. And now finally, I would like to refer to the issue of the federal law to prevent and eradicate discrimination. Here, we recognize the importance of continuing to take steps to bolster this law and its impact. This law is currently being reviewed by the legislative branch. The protection of the right to equality and non-discrimination has been strengthened via constitutional reforms, as well as legislative headway that has been made. In 2024, we strengthened Article 4 of the Political Constitution, recognising the need to provide a pension or a payment plan for persons with disabilities under the age of 65. With regard to gender diverse and sexually diverse persons, Article 1 of the Constitution prohibits discrimination on the grounds of gender or sexual preferences, as well as any other discrimination that would undermine human dignity. In September 2026, we submitted an initiative for a constitutional reform that would expressly incorporate sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sexual characteristics within the Constitution going forward as grounds for the prohibition of discrimination. This proposal is currently still being reviewed, it's still undergoing the legislative process. With regard to the pension that I referred to earlier for those under the age of 65 who have a disability, just to clarify that everybody over the age of 65 receives a state pension automatically. So with that clarification, thank you very much once again for the questions, and we look forward to the next cluster of questions, and we eagerly await hearings same, and being able to share with you all that the Mexican State is doing in order to guarantee the rights covered by your covenant. Thank you very much.


CESCR · Chair [1:58:54]:

Thank you, sir. That completes the set of questions and responses to the first cluster. We will now move on to the second cluster, Your Excellency, and I request Ms. Carla Lemus de Vazquez to kindly pose her questions within the next 10 minutes. You have the floor, madam.


CESCR · Committee Member, Cluster 2 Lead [1:59:16]:

Thank you very much, Chair, and I in my turn would like to welcome the delegation from Mexico and to thank them for the information contained both in the seventh report as well as all that we've heard in their replies to the questions, as well as in their replies to the list of issues prior to reporting. I'll be asking questions covering articles 6 to 9 of the Covenant. These questions are based on the information that the State has shared with us, as well as information received from other stakeholder sources. I'll begin with some questions on article 6, the right to work. We've taken note of the historically low levels of unemployment, informal employment, and workplace poverty in the state party. That said, we still lack data and statistics disaggregated on the grounds of disability and ethnic origin, statistics that is on unemployment and subemployment for these categories, which have been requested by this committee. In that understanding, I ask the following question. What proportion of the jobs created in the last five years are in the formal and stable sector? and what verifiable results exist vis-à-vis the impact of workplace integration for historically discriminated against groups? Verifiable results and outcomes, that is, over and above the mere number of participants in employment programmes. A second question: Do you include in your statistics data on indigenous persons with disabilities? And could you also share information with us on the outcomes of the National Work and Employment Program for Persons with Disabilities that was rolled out in 2014? Now, with regard to employment in the informal work sector, which employs over 50% of the Mexican population, here I would ask what labor protection measures have you adopted for workers in the informal economy? On what measurable, verifiable impact had your policies to transition from workers from the informal to the formal economy had, in particular for women, young persons, and migrant persons? Bearing in mind that women are responsible for three quarters of care tasks, what measures including the public provision of long-term childcare, does the state party intend to roll out in order to ensure that care is no longer a barrier to women's employment in the formal sector? Now, according to information we have received, the official rate of unemployment, which stands at 2.7%, would skyrocket to 10.2% were it to include those members of the population who are fit to work but who are not actively seeking employment. We have also been informed about the plight of street traders working in public spaces, including ad hoc artisanal recyclers who provide cleaning services in the city of Mexico without receiving a salary nor being recognized as actual workers. We've also had concerns relating to those who facilitate the delivery of social programs. but who work on the basis of grants or scholarships, and they do not have any other security or actually a fixed contract to support the work and the services that they provide. So against that backdrop, what measures does the state intend to enact to recognize and provide workplace protection to these people who are working in working-class jobs? And what steps you also intend to take to ensure that the official statistics better reflect the underemployment of the workforce? What do you intend to do to adopt legislation which would guarantee the employment rights of street traders and artisanal recyclers, including the steps that are required under the 2018 Constitution of Mexico City? Now I have some questions about those searching for disappeared persons, which has already been touched upon by my colleagues as an issue. Now, the majority of those who are searching for disappeared relatives are women, and they often lose their job and their affiliation to social welfare programmes because they've had to devote all of their attention to their search activities. Are there mechanisms in place to ensure that they can remain affiliated to social welfare programmes, to ensure that they can enjoy leave of absence or other forms of protection to prevent them from being fired? from their jobs, and does the State intend to eliminate the requirement to prove a causal link in order to be able to have access to social welfare benefits? I now have some questions under Article 7, equitable and satisfactory working conditions. We have taken note of the increases in the minimum salary and its impact on reducing the gender wage gap. Nonetheless, according to Annex 14 to the list of issues, between 2018 and 2022, the wage gap between men and women actually increased both for those in skilled occupations as well as in non-skilled occupations. You also didn't specifically reply to a question on the issue of whether Mexico adopts the principle of equal pay for work of equal value. So I would ask some questions against that backdrop. What measures and what objective assessment mechanisms have you put in place to assess jobs and to be able to identify whether they are jobs of equal value and therefore deserving of equal pay, in particular in sectors with high employment of women, with a particular focus on indigenous and Afro-descendant women, whose wage gap is often considerably greater than other categories of women, according to figures from the State itself? To what does the State attribute the increase in the a wage gap for those who are employed in the formal sector between 2018 and 2022, despite the increase in the minimum salary. According to information received, the minimum salary does not include the criteria contained in ILO Convention 138. For example, 278,000 persons working in the public sector are not covered by the measure; they didn't see an increase. in their salary? What measures has the State adopted to align the minimum salary standard with ILO standards and ensure compliance with these minimum salary requirements in the public sector? How do you intend to ensure that remuneration, including that which is collectively negotiated in the public sector, allows for a dignified standard of living? Could the delegation also indicate the real change in average salary and what proportion of the reduction in poverty is attributed to wages and what is attributable to social welfare transfers, cash transfers, and others, et cetera. We welcome the 2026 reform, which is intended to gradually reduce the maximum working week to an upper level of 40 hours by 2030. We note, however, that overtime can apply for an addition account for an additional 12 working hours per week. And so how does the state monitor compliance with the limits it set in the law, including, for example, people having to sign in and out of work on an electronic basis so it's recorded, as a way of ensuring that these rules are followed and that, for example, overtime is not used as a way to neutralize the effects of the intended reduction in the maximum working week? We have received information about the alleged participation of organised crime groups working with some employers in measures of extortion to prevent the forming of trade unions. So what measures has the state enacted in order to prevent these extortion measures, and have there been any investigations opened into these claims, and what have been the outcomes thereof? Now, we recognise the importance that the state party attaches to tripartism and to negotiation in the federal labour law. But could you indicate what are the major agreements that have been reached over the last five years under the auspices of the National Committee for Consultation and Productivity, and how do you guarantee the effective participation of the most representative workers' organisations in collective negotiations? We would also welcome information as to whether there exists within the Ministry of Labour a standing unit or mechanism that is responsible for providing follow-up and for coordinating the implementation of recommendations from, for example, this Committee and ILO oversight bodies in the area of trade union rights and workplace rights. And should that body not exist, does the State intend to create some, ensuring that social partners are involved in the setting up of such a body? Finally, with regard to social welfare rights, we have been made aware that the pension for persons with disabilities is only available to about 1.6 million people, whereas some 8.8 million people are registered with a disability in the state party, according to your National Statistics Institute, and that the amount of that pension is only about 20% of a minimum salary wage. So what measures do you intend to take to extend coverage and to strengthen control of the registers of persons with disabilities, and what measures are you taking to ensure that these pensions are sufficient to meet cost-of-living needs? And how do you ensure that the pensions can be updated periodically? Finally, to ask a question about your reform of federal law and to ask where it currently stands, because I believe it is currently languishing in the Senate pending full adoption. I'll leave it there for the time being and may come back to other issues in the follow-up round. Thank you.


CESCR · Chair [2:09:06]:

We'll just break for two minutes for the delegation to organize their work. Dear colleagues, I request you kindly to be seated. Can I request colleagues to kindly be seated? I now give the floor to the distinguished delegation of Mexico to kindly respond to the questions posed by our cluster leader, and you have 30 minutes for that.


Mexico · Ambassador, Permanent Representative and Head of Delegation [2:15:59]:

Thank you very much, Chair. And once again, thanks to the expert members of the committee for for the very detailed, targeted and specific questions, which help us as a State Party delegation a great deal in terms of our methodology for preparing our responses to your questions, making sure that we can reply to the question that you asked and not miss the target. So with that said, I’d like to give the floor to Director-General César Viciano-Esquivel. You have the floor, Doctor.


Mexico · Director-General for Human Rights, Ministry of Foreign Affairs [2:16:27]:

Much obliged to Your Excellency, and I would like to reiterate that we pay particular attention to these articles. We view them as being very important parts of the Covenant. Over the last few years, the Mexican state, with the entry into office of new governments, has sought to guarantee labour rights from a progressive perspective, and I hope that will become apparent to you in our replies to the questions that were just asked under this cluster. To begin by referring to the questions that were asked about support for families of searchers of disappeared persons, that support provided by the Mexican state, which we've touched on earlier. And so I'd like to use this opportunity to highlight several critical points. As far as the Mexican government is concerned. One priority for us is providing necessary attention to the search for disappeared persons, supporting that search, and supporting searchers, particularly mothers of families. The search is a responsibility of the state, and so mothers who are searching for disappeared relatives enjoy all of our respect and our support. The Ministry of the Interior has gone directly to the communities of those persons of disappeared persons, and also made sure that local offices are available. And so we've dialogued with each of these mothers who are searching for disappeared persons to hear firsthand from them the problems which they're confronted with, and to be able to direct them towards the relevant authorities who can assist them either at the local or federal level, so that their needs can be met and their requests can be heard. The Mexican Government works on a daily basis and responds immediately in a targeted way in order to react to cases of disappearance and to listen to persons who have ended up being searchers because their relatives have disappeared. Mother searchers are at the heart of our action and the attention we attach to this issue, and we continue to take steps to strengthen this dialogue and to work alongside them. I would like to highlight some figures from the Executive Commission for Victim Support, which sits within the Ministry of the Interior. working in close coordination with the relative institutions of the national healthcare system. They have worked together to strengthen medical, psychological, and social support services provided to the relatives of disappeared persons. In October of 2024, for example, in August of 2026, or between these two dates, support was provided to 6,670 indirect victims, with more than 60,000 interventions by social workers. We also provided some 100,000 psychological subverts and some 1,556 medical interventions. This is part of a national search strategy. which is a priority and includes prevention actions as well as search activities and support and care activities for the relatives of disappeared persons. This action includes the guarantee that all of the registries that we have contain complete data of all disappeared persons, and that each individual disappeared person has a file, a case file, which is regularly updated with updates on the search process. and the activities of those who engage in the search processing. We have also rolled out an immediate alert system which functions 24/7 so that people can signal disappeared persons. We also have search institutions in hospitals and other public institutions. We have a human remains identification plan, which has the necessary forensic components, and we work in close coordination with the security forces in order to ensure that we can make use of all possible data, electoral data, etc., to connect young people who might be connected to a disappeared person or to find them. We also have specialised teams and teams that work with collectives or groups or co-operatives across the country, including at the local level, in order to ensure that we can immediately engage with the relatives of disappeared persons in the communities from which they disappeared. We are

going to continue to implement this national policy comprehensively in a timely fashion, providing, and we'll keep you updated on what we've achieved and following the instructions of the Republic, the President of the Republic. May I give the floor now to the next speaker to address the next cluster? Ambassador Francisca Mendes.


Mexico · Ambassador, Permanent Representative and Head of Delegation [2:20:38]:

Thank you very much, Director-General, for Human Rights and Democracy. First of all, I'd like to acknowledge the role played by Carla Lemus in this cluster, acknowledging her expertise And the fact that she has also been on this side of the table, so to speak, she's been part of a delegation being reviewed. So you have a lot of experience, madam, on both sides. And for that very reason, I'd like to tell you about two things that we do in Geneva, specifically in the ILO, given that we are in this cluster, which is on work, labour issues. In 2024, In the context of the ILO, there was an exercise, a very important and significant one, on guidelines for the care economy. In this exercise, Mexico was involved actively, and Mexico's proposals fortunately were heard and taken on board in these guidelines for care. And this is in conjunction with Mexico's participation. Well, our care system is a priority for the President and the whole of the administration, public administration. Another important element I'd like to highlight, which is consistent with this public policy, strengthening the labor sector and strengthening the labor rights of the public, is this. we have participated in what is now ILO Convention 193, open to ratification, adopted this year. And ILO Convention 193 is on decent work on digital platforms, specifically, a scheme for which Mexico has been a major leader in terms of negotiation thereof. consistent with what we do domestically. Finally, and this is to answer another question, the Secretariat of the Ministry of Labour does have a body that follows up on the recommendations of the committee, the ILO oversight bodies, through a unit for labour policies and institutional relations. That unit coordinates internally and externally what needs to be done to follow up on those cases, to monitor implementation of those cases. I'll also tell you that this is directly related to employers' organisations who work together, employers' organisations. Ms. Lemus? May I now move on to the questions you kindly put to us. On the labour reform in 2019, it was an upheaval in labour relations. It strengthened freedom for trade unions as trade union democracy and real collective bargaining. As part of this process, we created the Federal Centre for Conciliation and Labour Registration, which is an institution in charge of the national register of trade unions and collective contracts, as well as the verification of processes linked to labour representation, sorry, trade union representation and collective bargaining. The centre has launched a process to simplify and digitalise registration processes strengthening the transparency of labour information, enlarged the services provided to the 32 federative entities, thus contributing to better accessibility and legal certainty for workers, trade union organisations, and employers. For September 2026, in other words, two months ago, 45,461 collective work contracts were in force, out of which 30,550 were organised under the mechanisms pursuant to the reform and 14,911 registered directly with the National Centre for Conciliation and Labour Registration. Between January and September 2026 this year, 8,469 applications were processed for verification and 12,090 visits were carried out to supervise proceedings pertaining to trade union democracy and collective bargaining. Since the operations were launched, 12,086 applications were processed for collective conciliation, of which 7,969 were successfully led to an agreement between the parties. These procedures covered inter alia wage reviews, collective contracts reviews, law, collective instruments review, employers institutions and participation of utilities. Now, may I refer to a key issue which I have already touched upon, namely our whole care system, comprehensive care system, which, as I've said, is a priority for the government. The building of the national progressive care system is a priority for the government of Mexico. Its aim is to guarantee, progressively, that is, the exercise, effective exercise of the right to care through the organisation, the articulation of policies, programmes, services and infrastructure. The building or the putting together of the system starts with, and this is very important, it starts with the acknowledgement that the current social organisation of care is one of the main obstacles to substantive equality. Pursuant to the National Survey on the Use of Time 2024, women in Mexico set aside, on average, 39.7 hours weekly to domestic work and unremunerated care. Among the main progress made, we have the embodiment of the care agenda as a cross-cutting issue in the 2025-2030 development agenda, or plan rather, which I've referred to several times in my statements this afternoon. What's important here, what's important in this plan, is the building and implementation of the centres for education and care for children, which expert, Lemos, referred to, and rightly so, they're known as SESI, the creation of the electronic certificate of disability, the implementation of the door-to-door health care, the adoption of the national plan for dementia, and the public health strategy driven forward by the National Institute for Geriatrics, and the implementation of women's well-being pension. The Secretariat for Women, or the women's Ministry, which is an institution which was created under our administration, and the Agency for Digital Transformation of Telecommunications, developed together a system for care information. Its first phase was launched in 2025, embodied geo-referenced information of over 100,000 care centres and has data for 104,326 care centers. In the budget, expenditures in 2026, we included the cross-cutting Annex 31, which is consolidation of a care society with 468 billion pesos, that is, on dispersed over seven federal programs, thanks to which we have identified and quantified the public resources that we have set aside for this particular issue. The Mexican Institute for Social Security has promoted the transformation of the children care And the creation of the CECI, I was just referring to these centres, with a target of 1,000 new centres for 2030, creation thereof. In September 2026, we created 750 new places for childcare, and 21 projects for education centres and childcare were underway there, the CECI centres. in Baja California, Chihuahua, Durango, the State of Mexico, Jalisco, Nahuacan, and Veracruz. All of these entities, federative entities, of the 32 federative entities Mexico has. On the 21st of January 2026, the Ministry of the Economy and the Mexican Institute for Social Security ratified an agreement to launch the building of CCECs in corporations and industrial parks. May I now give the floor to the Director-General for Human Rights, Mr. Cesar Bijan Nweywe? I give you the floor.


Mexico · Director-General for Human Rights, Ministry of Foreign Affairs [2:31:16]:

Thank you very much, Ambassador. To give you more data on the progressive achievements in formal employment, and social protection in the Mexican state, may I tell you that the government has launched reforms to strengthen the protection of labour rights and enlarge coverage of social security in sectors which historically have faced more vulnerability, and I'm referring here to domestic workers. Reforms launched since 2019 have strengthened the acknowledgement of their labour rights and culminated with the mandatory incorporation of these workers in the social security system as of October 2022, guaranteeing them access to health services, labour provisions, service provisions, and social protection mechanisms. These measures, strengthened by international labour standards, were strengthened in the case of domestic workers. the Mexico Institute's contributions increased by around 4,000. So they recruited an additional 4,800 people, which means that affiliated persons now reached 59,000 plus. Now, much of it was 62,000 persons registered, which is a integral and growing trend. On equality and non-discrimination in access to jobs and staying in jobs, which you draw attention to, we recognise that discrimination continues to be a barrier for access to jobs and staying in jobs for different people in the country, which is why the National Council for the Prevention of Discrimination has launched initiatives to identify, prevent, and address discriminatory practices and strengthen equality of opportunity in jobs. The National Plan Program for Equality and Non-Discrimination 2026-2030 contemplates measures geared for women, the elderly, people with disabilities, indigenous and Afro-Mexican communities and peoples. intersex persons, people on the move, and other people historically discriminated against. Mexico has also promoted the adoption of the next standard on labour equality and non-discrimination as an instrument to strengthen practices of inclusion, equal opportunities, and prevention of discrimination in labour centres. On 10 August 2026, we registered 872 certified centres covering 7,042 labour centres and benefiting well over a million workers in the country, out of whom about half a million are women. With regards to labour inclusion now of women and historically discriminated against groups, the National Plan for Development 2025-2030 contemplates actions designed specifically to strengthen the rights, labor rights, enlarge employment opportunities for groups historically discriminated against, and open up labor opportunities that are free from discrimination and violence. In the normative field, we have the constitutional reform. on substantive equality and its embodiment in the federal labour law adopted in 2024, which strengthens the principle of equal pay for work of equal value and establishes the foundation for the reduction of wage gaps between men and women, providing labour conditions that are fairer and more equitable. Mexico has also drawn forward specific instruments to strengthen the labour inclusion of individuals, including the sectoral programme for social provision and labour 2025-2030, and the national programme for employment and work for persons with disabilities 2026-2030. As far as implementation is concerned, the Labour Ministry has developed actions designed to promote labour equality and non-discrimination in the workplace. On 10 August 2026, 835 labour centres had a certification for the Mexican standard on non-discrimination, benefiting 1.19 million workers. In addition to that, between October 2024 and July 2026, the National Network of Labor Relationships carried out 177 coordination events between private sector, public sector, and civil society organizations, over 10,000 elderly people who have difficult access to jobs were supported. Next point, namely the recognition of the expert of the policy to support the minimum wage. This policy is one of the main strategies used by the Mexican state to strengthen the right to sufficient, to decent pay and improve living conditions or standards of living for workers. This policy contributes to the well-being objectives, social justice objectives, and substantive equalisation and reduction of inequalities in the 2025-2030 Development Plan, the constitutional mandate which implements it, is designed to increase the wages of the poorest paid and strengthen their ability to meet their basic needs, as mentioned at the beginning of our statement. This for the good of everyone and first for the poor. This contributes to the progressive realization of economic, social and cultural rights, and in particular the rights to work in decent work and adequate standard of living and to social protection. The wage policy is based on dialogue mechanisms between the three sectors of business to promote a gradual recovery and sustained recovery of purchasing power of people who are on the minimum wage. The figures speak for themselves. On 1 January 2026, the minimum wage was €315. pesos per day, around 15.75 US dollars, and 440 pesos daily, around $22 in the northern area. Thus, the culmination of what we've been doing since 2019 in this respect to By way of comparison, there has been significant progress made in labour well-being. In the first term of 2026, labour poverty was reduced to 30.7%, which represents a fall of 3.2% as compared to the same period of 2025, and 10 percentage points as compared to the beginning of this wage policy. Also, during the first quarter of 2026, the real income increased by 3.1% as compared to the previous year and 27.1% as compared to 2019, thanks to which the purchasing power of workers has increased. The wage recovery has had particularly strong effects for those who receive income between December 2018 and July 2026. The average wages of 10% of the lowest pay increased 210% in the northern area and 135.1% in the rest of the territory, thanks to which the income gaps have been reduced and we've strengthened economic inclusion. The evidence available shows that this policy has contributed to the reduction of gender inequalities in jobs. This recovery of the minimum wage favours a reduction of 29% of the gender wage gap at a municipal level, and up to 66% reduction in other areas where wages are lowest. With regards to the shortening of the labour week to 40 hours, pursuant to the national survey on jobs, at the first quarter of 2025, it was 13.4 people worked more than 40 hours a week in the formal sector, which is around 63.9% of the working population in the formal area. Five economic areas concentrate 5.2 million workers, including manufacturers, trade, and hospitality, as well as the transport sector. Mexico has put at the heart of what it does, the life of individuals, their integrity, their dignity, with concrete examples, with humanistic policies, and with catching to the needs of the most vulnerable. Thanks to all of this, we've been able to produce results and achievements thanks to which MEXEGR is at the vanguard of what is done to guarantee economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights. May I now give the floor to Héctor Figueroa Palafox to give more figures, as requested by the distinguished experts.


Mexico · Representative, National Statistics and Geography Institute [2:41:48]:

Thank you very much indeed. As mentioned, we have a data gathering system that enables us to monitor the rate of respect For CESC, we've disaggregated data depending on where you are, broken down on gender, ethnic group, disability, ability, and level of income. This availability of information directly meets our obligation, which Article 2 of CESC imposes upon us, pursuant to which States Parties must have disaggregated data enabling them to assess the effective implementation of rights as well as the lack of discrimination in their exercise. And in particular, we have short-term indicators such as a number of different indicators which enable us to, on a quarterly basis, monitor quality of our investment in the labour sector. In other words, purchasing power for homes, as well as on a monthly basis, update our information depending on rural and urban areas, which are a base mark to determine whether monthly income is sufficient to buy your basic food basket, a non-food basket, and to define the space for well-being in measuring multidimensional poverty. Which means that Labour integration is not sufficient to generate economic empowerment. We need to have quarterly data on income and compare them to poverty baselines. At the second quarter of this year, we see that labour poverty nationwide was 31.9%. whereas in the rural areas it was 44.5% and in the urban areas 28.3%. If we break that down by gender, 31.9%.


Interpreter [2:44:10]:

The interpreters cannot put these figures in context, we're afraid, it's too far too fast.


Mexico · Representative, National Statistics and Geography Institute [2:44:26]:

35.8%.

Incomes, nationwide, just from jobs, 3,600 pesos, whereas a female-headed household, 400 plus, 3,700 plus with male-headed households. In addition to this, data broken down as such. We have data broken down by municipalities, indigenous groups, ages, by town, by. We also have data, as I was saying to you before, data from, or on rather, income depending on formal or informal sector.


Mexico · Ambassador, Permanent Representative and Head of Delegation [2:45:26]:

We have more answers, madam, which we would like to respond to after we've heard back from you. Thank you very much indeed.


CESCR · Chair [2:45:40]:

Thank you, Your Excellency. That's very considerate of you. The floor is now open for follow-up questions to cluster two, and I see Ms. Carla. Luis Vasquez requesting for the floor at this stage. Madam, you have the floor, followed by Mr. Ludovic Hannibal and then Mr. Michael Wunfo. Yes, yes, Ms.


CESCR · Committee Member, Cluster 2 Lead [2:46:06]:

Much appreciated, Chair.

I'd like to thank the delegation very much for their answers to our questions so far. As the rapporteur said at the beginning, we know it's complicated. This is a difficult exercise because of the time pressures. It's difficult for you to cover all the questions. But the number of our questions attest to the interest we have in the situation in Mexico and how the CESC is applied there. On Article 6, may I reiterate the issue of labour informality, so the informal sector, if you could tell us more about measures taken. in connection with my question. And on follow-up, on Article 7, labour inspections, we're concerned about the number of labour accidents, accidents in the workplace every year. We've been told that in some Wawila mines, they're supposed to be suspended, but they've actually continued. The labour inspection's not always very effective for domestic workers and on digital platforms. So what are you intending to do to strengthen labour inspection in those sectors, as well in the mines, the coal mines as well? Coal mines, domestic workers, and platforms. How many inspectors do you have to carry out visits in those three areas? Access to labour justice now. Could you tell us if you have any information about complaints received within the framework of social security framework created in May 2024 to report lack of affiliation of domestic workers. And with regards to peasants paid on a daily basis, we've been told It is a complaints mechanism also, and what sanctions, effective reparation has been awarded that you could tell us about? With regards to trade union rights now, the 2019 reform exists, we've noted it, we acknowledge it, but according to the data, the enrolment rate rose from 24.5% in 2017 to 13.5 in 2024, that's the trade union enrolment affiliation, according to what we've been told. People are sacked because they belong to trade unions, and female leadership in trade unions is low. When you register in a trade union, you have to be identified with an employer, so if you're self-employed, you can't have a trade union. And also no collective bargaining for domestic workers either. What are you doing to increase enrolment? and collective bargaining for domestic workers.

On the right to strike, we note that there are still limitations on the exercise of said right, particularly for those working for the state, civil servants, in other words. So what measures do you intend to implement in order to ensure that the legal restrictions on this right to strike are limited to those strictly necessary in line with Article 8 of our Covenant? A final question. On the right to social welfare, we welcome the fact that there has been universalization of the old age pension, and that should now be available to everyone, but there's still a significant proportion of older persons who continue to lack access to a contributory pension. So we'd like to ask what measures the state intends to enact to expand the coverage of contributory pensions amongst all persons, particularly women and those working in the informal sector, and what measures have you enacted in order to ensure that the sum paid out as a pension allows for an adequate standard of living to be met, so it meets the cost of living? Thank you very much. Those are all my follow-up questions for now.


CESCR · Chair [2:50:12]:

Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Henebille.


CESCR · Country Rapporteur [2:50:18]:

Thank you, Chair. My thanks also go to the delegation for their replies to the questions asked under the second cluster. One point springs to mind in terms of methodology, and we are here to work together, committee and delegation, on the promotion and protection of human rights. So we intend to try and identify together challenges, draw attention to challenges, difficulties, structural problems, and see how these can be resolved. So amongst the points that have been flagged, some of the replies have been a little bit superficial, perhaps because of a lack of time. And I think in particular, there are three points that we flagged repeatedly to which we feel the replies have been a little bit superficial, including organised crime. and the impact of the deprivations on economic, social, and cultural rights. There's also the point that we've raised about the mega projects that we've repeated repeatedly and the impact of those mega projects on economic, social, and cultural rights. And there's finally this issue of judicial reform and its concomitant impact on economic, social, and cultural rights. You have partially responded to these questions, but as I say, I find the replies to be somewhat superficial. though I'm sure you're acting in good faith, it's abundantly clear that reforms of such a scale will necessarily have an impact on human rights, including the subset of economic, social and cultural rights. So I will ask you a direct, perhaps blunt question. As part of the ongoing judicial reform, the most recent judicial reform, Are the judges who've been elected as a result of this reform, do they have specific skills, specific competencies, specific training and understanding of international human rights law and economic, social, and cultural rights law? It's a specific question. Have they been trained in this, these newly elected judges under the judicial reform? So are they capable of ruling on such cases? Do they have the necessary background? We've received information, we've been reading a lot, we've been reading a lot of analyses. And we have identified a gap between the structural importance of economic, social and cultural rights and the lack of replies to some of our concerns. Now, I have another question about the poverty gap between the south of the country and the rest of the country, which is quite wide. So, I'd like to ask what regional development policies you put in place to try and reduce these regional inequalities in terms of access to labour, proper remuneration, infrastructure, and civil rights in including social welfare, in the south of the country and what indicators are in place to measure the impact of any such regional development disparity reduction efforts? Another question I'd like to draw your attention to is the disparity of enjoyment of rights between persons with disabilities and the rest of the population. So there's a clear poverty gap between persons with disabilities and the rest of the population. So I'd like to ask what steps have been taken, what has been the impact of the pension or benefit for persons with disabilities? Have you been able to measure the impact of that disability benefit or disability pension? And have you integrated into your delivery of that disability pension the increased costs faced by persons with disabilities to meet their cost of living needs? Thank you very much indeed.


CESCR · Chair [2:53:34]:

Thank you, sir. Mr. Winfer, followed by Ms. Rossi and then Mr. Furey. Mr. Winfer.


CESCR · Committee Member [2:53:41]:

Yeah, from my side also, warm welcome to the delegation. I still remember then when we met last time with you, it was two or three days after this big earthquake in Mexico City, and you couldn't come, and we had a first online exchange with part of the delegation, and the embassy was here present, so I still remember this. It was a very delicate situation. Luckily, we have a better situation now, but it came to my mind when I was seeing you again coming here. I have two questions on Article 9, social security, and I'm glad that you already mentioned. My first question is on social security for domestic workers, and we learned already that you have installed a system of managing this after your Supreme Court also decided you should have a system of, uh, access to this. I would like to understand better how this work. You said you have centers where people can register. Is it followed by many people? Or how many of them? You mentioned 66,000 people. I couldn't follow all the data. So for me, it would be really an interest how big is the coverage you have already achieved. And additionally to this, you mentioned that you would have a model clause for workers' contracts and domestic workers. So my interest would be, how much is this applied? Well, I know it's all since 2022, so only a few years in work, but I would like to understand how this model clauses work. Is it really a comprehensive and meaningful process? My second question has to do a bit with the coverage of social security measures, um, on particular, uh, taking care of the poverty rate. I was looking back, I think in 2018, when you have been here, we had a poverty rate of 42%, and it has gone down to 29.3 as far as I could see in your documents, so quite an improvement. But on the other hand, as Mr. Hannibal just said, in some of the sectors, I- I checked the figures for Chiapas, 66% poverty rate, Guerrero, 58%, Oaxaca, 51.6%, you have a tremendous poverty rate still there, and my question would be, what is your thinking about the role of social security in covering this, and what is the role of other policy measures in reaching out to reduce this further, and what other policy measurements you have in mind, just to get an idea, what- what do you see, uh, what is the role of social security? in this, and what is the role maybe of rural employment and other things, just to get an idea how you think about this, how to reduce it further, yeah, because the poverty rate is still was 29.6%, quite high, yeah. Thanks.


CESCR · Chair [2:56:42]:

Thank you, Mr. Winful. We've run out of time, but we have requests for two other speakers, and so I'd request them to kindly be brief in the interest of time. Uh, Ms. Rossi.


CESCR · Committee Member [2:56:55]:

Thank you, Chair. I'll try and be as succinct as possible. I had a follow-up question that echoes a point that's already been referred to pertaining to domestic workers. Now, the point was made that existing legislation covers the obligation to render domestic employment formal, and you talked about some progressive numbers, progressive coverage, but according to the data that I consulted that we have available to us, there's still a very significant gap. The figure that I have is that 26.4% of domestic workers still don't have a written contract. So my question off the back of that is, are you intending to enact measures to accelerate this process of the regularisation of domestic worker contracts to ensure that they all have a written contract? I understand it's a progressive endeavour and the figures that you shared with us are positive. It's much better than it was in the past, but it needs to be further accelerated because this lack of coverage is very high. And in terms of social welfare coverage, it's almost 100%. You also referred to persons with disabilities and the fact that they now have a benefit or a pension. which you referred to, and my colleague Carla referred to the fact that although this pension exists, the amount that it pays out is woefully insufficient. I understand that it only equates to a third of the minimum salary paid out every two months, and it's different from other social welfare programs, for example, those provided to young people who have higher rates of coverage, who receive a higher payment, a higher payout. The pension is also, also fails to reach more than 10% of persons with disabilities in the country, so there is problems in terms of accessibility, people knowing that the pension exists and they can apply for it. problems in terms of accessibility to this disability pension, particularly for given communities such as indigenous communities who don't get the information that the pension exists, they don't know how to go through the paperwork, the procedures, etc. This leads me to a question: are these pensions, as I understand it, they're for persons with permanent disabilities, but what happens for those who don't have a permanent disability? do they receive some kind of social benefit payment from the state, even though their disability is not a permanent one? Thank you very much. I'll leave it there.


CESCR · Chair [2:59:17]:

Thank you, Ms. Rossi. Mr. Fiorio.


CESCR · Committee Member, Cluster 3 Lead [2:59:25]:

Thank you very much. I'll be brief. With regard to the information that we've received, Mexico doesn't have specific and updated national censuses covering street traders, nor these artisanal recycling persons, people who recycle the cans, et cetera. So we would welcome statistics on these groups of persons because we don't have these statistics. We also lack statistics on online digital platform workers. So what measures does the State intend to enact to carry out targeted censuses and to be able to compile statistical, updated and disaggregated data on these three groups of workers in order to be able to craft public policies and assess their workplace conditions and levels of protections? Moving on to another question, I'd like to ask what measures the State party intends to put in place in order to guarantee that urban development planning instruments and tools, particularly as part of the general development plan for the City of Mexico, duly recognize the rights of, for example, street traders in public spaces and have sufficient safeguards in place to protect these streets and other traders and other commercial traders in line with the Constitution of Mexico? Thank you very much.


CESCR · Chair [3:00:41]:

Thank you, sir. We are running behind time, so I would request the delegation to use the next five minutes to respond to those questions that have been posed, which you can respond immediately. And then my request would be to stop after five minutes so that you can hear the questions under cluster three. And then tomorrow morning, then you'll have overnight to plan the response to the questions posed under cluster 2 as well as cluster 3. So the next five minutes, in the interest of managing time, Your Excellency, just devote to some of the questions that you can respond to right now, and then we can stop to take questions from cluster 3. Thank you.


Mexico · Ambassador, Permanent Representative and Head of Delegation [3:01:27]:

Thank you, Chair, for that guidance. I would like to talk about this whole issue of persons with disabilities, disabilities that has been flagged by some of the rapporteurs and expert members of the Committee, and I take this opportunity to thank you once again for these very targeted and specific questions. Workplace inclusion of persons with disabilities is a priority for the State of Mexico. In the framework of our policies intended to promote equal opportunity, dignified work, and non-discrimination, we include that workplace integration for persons with disabilities. We have specific mechanisms to promote workplace integration for this sector of society, including the National Work and Employment Programme for Persons with Disabilities 2026-2030. We also have an official standard on secure access conditions and development opportunities for persons with disabilities in places of work. We also have the Mexican Standard on Workplace Equality and Non-Discrimination. We have a national network of workplace integration and various other tools to promote workplace rights and to ensure a workplace free of discrimination. With regard to the implementation of these tools and mechanisms, between January 2025 and July 2026, we provided guides in 121 employment centres to facilitate discrimination-free workplaces and jobs, providing support to some 49,400 workers, including persons with disabilities, some 700 of them. As part of our workplace monitoring and oversight actions between October of 2024 and August of 2026, we verified compliance with the relevant provisions of the law and the norms and standards for workers with disabilities in 5,700 workplace inspection visits. in places of work in which we identified the presence of workers with disabilities, so specific labour inspector visits were carried out. We recognise and acknowledge that there are still major and meaningful challenges that have been highlighted by a national survey on discrimination of 2022, which indicated that persons with disabilities continue to be confronted with major obstacles when it comes to their full and fair and unfettered workplace inclusion. particularly in terms of discrimination, access to employment, and work in the formal sector. And it's for those reasons that the Mexican state is continuing its efforts to strengthen accessibility, equality of opportunity, and effective inclusion, including necessary accommodations and reasonable accommodation in places of work for persons with disabilities. And the purpose of all of this is not just to guarantee access to a job, to employment, but also to ensure that persons with disabilities can develop their activities including their economic and workplace activities, in equivalent conditions and enjoy dignity and equal treatment in the workplace, in increasingly inclusive workplace environments, ones that respect their rights. We are aware that this is a progressive task that needs to be pursued. If I could also ask the question about the pension payouts, the benefit payout that was asked by the expert, Mr. Limous. the pension for the well-being of persons with disabilities. This is intended to bolster the economic empowerment and autonomy, the independence of children, adolescents, young people, and adults with permanent disabilities. In June 2026, the programme had covered 1.8 million persons paying out a monthly pension of 1,650 pesos. We had also engaged in rehabilitation workplace reintegration efforts. 25,400 children received specialised rehabilitation services, including 6.2 million individual therapy sessions for this group of children. I have some additional information about social welfare coverage if time allows. We have taken actions to progressively expand social welfare benefits to ensure social welfare protection, in particular for older persons who are still working and those who are the most vulnerable. The Secretary of Social Welfare has carried out inspection, workplace formalisation actions, and other steps to promote compliance with social welfare requirements. One significant step forward is the labour reform of January 2024, which was intended to promote the rights of those working in rural areas, including agricultural day labourers and immigrant workers in the agriculture and rural sector, intended to promote and protect their social welfare and social benefit rights. which included the rollout of a labor certificate for those in the agro-export sector, which is intended to certify that they meet the necessary workplace standards, which they can then use to promote their export activities of agricultural goods. There were a lot of questions also asked about domestic workers, and I thank you most sincerely for those questions. Mexico ratified ILO Convention 189 very recently, we were a little bit of a laggard in so doing, and the ILO has been supporting the State of Mexico in the concomitant drafting of secondary norms as a vehicle for the domestication of that ILO Convention. We ratified ILO Convention 189 in 2024, and we deposited the instrument almost immediately afterwards, so we've only been a party to that convention for about the last two years. The Mexican state recognizes that domestic workers have been historically confronted with working in an informal sector and limited coverage of social protection, social welfare, and it's for that very reason that we have carried out a program of reforms in order to ensure their effective inclusion in the social welfare system, the social protection system on an equal footing with those working in other sectors. One vital step has been the transition from a voluntary system to a compulsory system for those employing domestic workers, which is part of the social welfare law. There are specific provisions on domestic workers on that law, which bolster the responsibility and accountability for those employing domestic workers, and this law also recognises that domestic work is work with labour and workplace rights. There's also the option for access to holistic protection and support, including medical support, sick pay, identification and avoidance of workplace risks, social welfare payments, protection for beneficiaries, and access to related rights, including those related to housing. In a complementary way, the Secretariat for Social Welfare and the Mexican Institute for Social Security have been engaged in awareness raising and training and dissemination activities to promote the formalization of the domestic work sector. I would point to the drafting of a handbook on domestic workers and their rights, which was crafted in collaboration, as I referred to earlier, with the International Labour Organization, the ILO. As part of our work that we have pursued in cooperation, once again, with the ILO, we have developed and rolled out a strategy to strengthen the affiliation of domestic workers into our social security systems. We have a national roadmap on decent work in the domestic work sector, and we also have information tools available aimed both at domestic workers themselves as well as employers, so they know what their rights and obligations are. I believe the results of all this action have shown significant progress has been made. In July 2026, the Mexican Social Security Institute identified 73,970 registered beneficiaries who are domestic workers. which means that a significant number of people enjoy social welfare protection under this scheme, and we have really bolstered the number. Around 50,000 domestic workers have been able to achieve pension rights, and we do recognise that there are still persistent challenges to expand the coverage fairly and to entrench the formal nature of the sector. That is a challenge, particularly when it comes to the timely registration of compliance with employer obligations and the fostering of a culture of recognition of domestic work as proper work that enjoys full rights and full protections. In order to improve things, we continue to engage in institutional coordination activities, training activities, and activities to promote social security for domestic workers so that we can ensure broader and more effective and sustainable coverage of social security benefits for domestic workers. Additionally, I did want to share with you that Mexico has been a leader. We have been at the forefront of issues related to persons with disabilities and their rights. We were advocates for the adoption of the related international convention, and we are also at the forefront of advocating for and promoting various activities to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the CRPD. In the Human Rights Council. We have sponsored the resolution on persons with disabilities. Mexico is the pen holder on that resolution, and we have been duly acknowledged for our activism on this particular issue within the Human Rights Council, and this is commensurate with our foreign policy. But our foreign policy matches our domestic policy. We intend to do better and to be active at the domestic level in supporting and promoting the rights of persons with disabilities as well. With that, I think I've run out of my five minutes, Chair. Thank you very much.


CESCR · Chair [3:11:42]:

Thank you, Your Excellency, and really want to congratulate you and your delegation for being very mindful of the time. Really appreciate that because, you know, we have many questions, as you can see, and of course, we would like to hear from you. The interpreters have kindly allowed us another few minutes. Very grateful to them, and thank you very much for that. So in this last 10 minutes, if Mr. Santiago Fiorio could kindly pose questions under cluster three, but my request is to stick to those 10 minutes exactly, sir. so that we can complete on time and then you have time to respond tomorrow afternoon. Sir, you have the floor.


CESCR · Committee Member, Cluster 3 Lead [3:12:25]:

Thank you. Given that I have a lot of questions, I’ll try and reduce the number I ask this evening and perhaps come back and ask more tomorrow as part of the follow-up round. So, a first question about the families and relatives of disappeared persons, which, so, considering question 19 in the list of issues prior to reporting and paragraphs 135 and 136 of the replies of the State, we are concerned, as a Committee, by the plight of relatives of disappeared persons, particularly women searchers. We have concerns about economic issues, social issues, and health impact as a result of the disappearance and their search activities. We have concerns regarding the support provided to them and acts of violence for which they are often the target. So I would ask, can the delegation provide updated information on the number of families who have duly been recognised as victims of the crime of enforced disappearance and any information about assistance and welfare programmes to support them? Also to ask what measures you have adopted to guarantee medical and psychosocial support, retention in education, social welfare and economic support, as well as steps that you have taken to ensure that sufficient resources have been allocated to provide support for victims of direct and indirect enforced disappearance. And I have some questions on the protection of children and adolescents, in light of paragraphs 144 to 152 inclusive of the national report and 137 to 141 of your replies to those issues. I would say that we continue to be concerned by situations of child labour, child sexual exploitation, and child trafficking, as well as the recruitment of children and adolescents by criminal groups. The list of issues prior to reporting in question 20 already requested information about children caught up in these situations, as well as asked you to provide information about the impact of the National Programme for the Protection of Children and Adolescents, PRONAPINA. Now my questions: Could the State provide updated data on the rate of violations, the level of such violations, and the concrete outcomes of measures adopted to prevent such violations, to detect cases of such violations, and to protect the victims thereof? More specifically, what mechanisms exist to identify and provide support to children and adolescents recruited by criminal groups, and to guarantee that they are duly recognised as victims rather than perpetrators, as well as steps taken to guarantee their access to protection and reintegration measures? What measures is the State adopting to prevent the recruitment and use of children and adolescents by these criminal groups, including in drug trafficking activities? What measures are you also adopting to recognise these children and adolescents as victims and to guarantee the provision of psychosocial care and restoration of their rights? Under this same heading, what progress has been made in aligning State legislation to guarantee that the crimes of sexual violence against adolescents are duly investigated and sanctioned on the basis of the lack of consent, including what steps you're taking to ensure that you are repealing the crime of statutory rape, to make sure that statutory rape is treated in a similar way and not in a way that would be incompatible with the standard of absence of consent being indicative of a crime of sexual violence. What specific policies has the State adopted to prevent child, early and forced marriage and equivalent unions, particularly in indigenous and Afro-Mexican communities, in a way that is culturally sensitive? And how have you done so without stigmatising nor criminalising these communities? Turning to another topic, we are concerned by the recruitment of children and adolescents by criminal groups, as I said, as well as the barriers faced by migrant children. The national report describes the efforts undertaken by the national strategy for early childhood care, the national strategy for support to other protection rather of children and adolescents, and the strategies of the national system for the protection of children and adolescents. But it would be important if we had more information about the effective outcomes and results of these programmes and strategies. What measures are being adopted by the State to prevent the recruitment and use of children and adolescents by criminal groups, to guarantee their recognition as victims and ensure psychosocial support and restoration rights, avoiding their criminalisation? How does the State guarantee that migrant and asylum seeker children and adolescents have access from the very time of their arrival in the country to education, health care and comprehensive protection without undue delay caused by procedures in recognising their migration status? The Committee has received information about corporal punishment or violent disciplinary practices affecting some 46 per cent of children. between the age of one and four. We have also been informed that in 2025, an average of 86 minors per day went to hospital having suffered physical aggression, physical assault, including corporal punishment. So I would ask what budgetary resources and institutional capacity have been allocated to the National System for the Protection of Children and Adolescents, SIPINA, to prevent and address these forms of violence, and what concrete results have been obtained in terms of reducing such levels of physical violence, including corporal violence, corporal punishment, against children? The Committee has also received information indicating deficiencies in terms of food, early childhood education and development conditions for children living with mothers deprived of their liberty. So I would ask what measures you have adopted to guarantee that these children have access to adequate food, to early education and to health care, and to appropriate spaces to foster their development, as well as steps you have taken to preserve family unity and to address the best interest of the child. Turning now to some questions on violence against women and the protection of their families, this refers to question 21 of the list of issues, and paragraphs 145 to 153 inclusive of your reply is there too. We continue to be concerned about the persistent levels of violence against women and girls, including femicide, as well as the knock-on impact this has on their families, particularly their children, who are often left unprotected as a result of that violence. So could the State go into greater depth on the outcomes of the prevention measures that it has enacted and the measures it has enacted to provide support to victims of gender-based violence, providing information beyond mere figures about the number of services and resources available? In particular, what mechanisms guarantee holistic support and care for the victims of this violence, including the indirect victims of femicide, in terms of economic support and protection, and what support is received by children who lose their mothers as a result of this violence? Turning now to the protection of maternity and joint care responsibilities, and here I ask questions off the back of paragraph 159 of the national report, which indicates to the Committee that paternity leave stands at a mere five days when compared with maternity leave, which stands at six weeks. So, I would ask what measures the State intend to adopt to strengthen the protection of maternity and maternity rights, and to progress towards a system of parental and care leave that promotes a more equitable distribution of family responsibilities.

Article 11 now on the right to an adequate standard of living. In the light of 1692174 paragraphs other national report, issue 26 of list of issues and paragraph 173 to 175 of the replies to the list of issues, we're concerned about the existence of deep social territorial inequalities, in particular of rural populations, indigenous and Afro-Mexican populations, and other vulnerable groups, as well as the assignment of public resources to ensuring the guaranteeing of CESC. What our group results have the policies had positive introduction policies in effective access to economic, social rights and reducing territorial gaps of inequality? How does the state guarantee its tax and budgetary policies and to mobilize and assign maximum available resources to make effective those rights, in particular with regards to health, water, housing, and social protection? On the right to adequate food, we're told about the adoption of the general law on sustainable and adequate food. We're concerned about malnutrition, child malnutrition, and inequality in access to adequate food. Paragraph, sorry, we have here 22. Answer to the list of issues 175 to 129 of the National Report and answers 154 to 162 of the list of responses. Could the State provide statistical information that has been updated and broken down on food insecurity, malnutrition, overweight, obesity, in particular, women, indigenous communities, sorry, boys, girls, women, indigenous communities, and rural population? What results of the new law had And what measures do you have to ensure that the provisions thereof, in terms of right to healthy food and regulation of food and drink, are concerned? For interpreters, I'm going to skip a few questions and go up to 12, which is the enjoyment of the highest attainable level of physical and mental health. This is Article 12. Access to medicines, paragraphs 28 to 249 of the National Report. and responses 179 to 204 of the answers to a list of issues is where you need to refer. May I ask the following questions? Could the State provide updated information on effective coverage of health services and timely and free access to medicines and medical supplies or inputs? In this respect, what measures reduce the financial barriers and territorial barriers? and what measures strengthen primary care and guarantee culturally and linguistically adequate services for indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples and communities. I'll stop here because of the question time. I will ask more tomorrow. Thank you.


CESCR · Chair [3:22:30]:

Thank you, Mr. Furio, for being so mindful of time. I know that you have several other questions, and then tomorrow when we meet in the afternoon. You will have the opportunity to complete your set of questions during follow-up. Your Excellency, we will meet, of course, at 3:00. We will continue our constructive dialogue at 3:00 tomorrow. You have the evening and afternoon and the morning as well to plan your work. We will devote about 15 minutes to the residual responses on cluster two. and then 30 minutes to respond to the questions posed by Mr. Furio. Of course, it's flexible, or 45 minutes, I should say, are available to you, whichever way you wish to use them, at 3:00 tomorrow afternoon. Have a very good evening and a good rest, and see you tomorrow at 3:00. And thank you very much, dear colleagues. The meeting is closed.