Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission on Sunday [advocacy website, in Spanish] on Sunday criticized [text, PDF, in Spanish] the Mexican Attorney General’s Office [official website, in Spanish] and other government offices involved in the investigation of the “Missing 43” [The New Yorker report] for failing to comply with its recommendations. The commission, a non-governmental organization with the mission of protecting or monitoring human rights in Mexico, had issued [text, PDF, in Spanish] 26 observations and recommendations [AP report] in July to aid the Attorney General’s Office in their investigations concerning the college students’ disappearance. According to the report, the Attorney General’s Office did not fully address the 26 observations and recommendations and did not address 20 at all [télam report, in Spanish]. The document concludes by maintaining that “for this organization (the Commission), the Iguala Case is not over and this organization will in due time decide its conclusion against the backdrop of human rights”.

The disappearance of the 43 students has drawn widespread condemnation of the security situation in Mexico leading to novel situations including last month’s release [JURIST report] of a 54,000 page file [text, PDF, in Spanish] detailing the Mexican government’s investigation into the “Missing 43.” Attorney General Arely Gomez Gonzalez provided the partially-redacted document following repeated calls by Mexico’s National Transparency Institute for its release. Last month, in response to the security situation and on his visit to Mexico, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein urged the Mexican government to cease using their military as law enforcement and replace the current force with well-trained police officers [JURIST report]. The UN official also addressed the need to continue the investigation into the 2014 disappearance of the “Missing 43.” Pressure on the Mexican government has also led to President Enrique Peña Nieto’s pledge to appoint a special prosecutor [JURIST report] to investigate the case of the “Missing 43.” The disappearance of the 43 students sparked international outrage [Al Jazeera report] and the official government report concludes that the students were all killed [JURIST report] after being seized by police.