Pursuing Access to Justice for Disappearances in Mexico
UNHR through Arts Coordinator Mica Borovinsky and Yale students Leyly Moridi and Lucía Amaya Martínez at the Roundabout of the Disappeared (Glorieta de las personas desaparecidas), in Mexico City, Mexico (March 2024)
Last updated September 2026
Disappearances in Mexico undoubtedly represent the most serious human rights crisis in the country, and one of the most critical in the region. There are over 132,000 disappeared people in Mexico as of April, 2026, according to Mexico's National Registry of Disappeared Persons. However, the Committee on Enforced Disappearances (“Committee” or “CED”) and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances has noted that, “in many cases, disappearances go unreported, and thus the scale of this tragedy may even go beyond what is currently registered.”
The broader context is one of near total impunity: Officials at every level of government are either directly responsible, complicit, unable or unwilling to investigate reported disappearances. According to the OHCHR, as of November 2021, between two and six percent of cases of disappearance had been brought before the courts, and only 36 judgments had been issued in such cases at the national level. The vast majority of the disappeared are never found. Families of victims rarely discover the truth about what happened to their missing loved ones.
UNHR Associate Director Sofía Galván, Human Rights through Arts Coordinator Mica Borovinsky, and Yale students Lucía Amaya and Leyly Moridi with Karla Quintana, former head of the National Search Commission (Mexico City, March 2024)
The situation is so serious that in April 2025, the Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED), the most important UN body on the subject, activated for the first time in its history the procedure under Article 34 of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance in relation to Mexico. This special procedure, used only as a last resort, allows the CED to present the case to the United Nations General Assembly if it determines that Mexico is not taking sufficient measures to address the situation. On April 3, 2026, CED announced its decision to request that the General Assembly consider measures (such as “technical cooperation, financial support, and specialist assistance”) to support Mexico in addressing the disappearance crisis. The CED concluded that there are well-founded indications that enforced disappearances in Mexico may constitute crimes against humanity.
Help us combat impunity for disappearances in Mexico
Seeking Justice
UNHR Associate Director Sofía Galván, Human Rights through Arts Coordinator Mica Borovinksy, and students Lucía Amaya and Leyly Moridi with Luis Daniel Vázquez, researcher at the Institute for Legal Research at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. (Mexico City, March 2024)
In this context, UNHR has established a collaboration with our local partner (Fundar) to support families and communities who are direct or indirect victims of this crime in exercising the right to justice. Under UNHR supervision, students from NOVA School of Law, Wesleyan, and Yale have traveled to Mexico since 2024 to interview experts, leaders of search collectives (colectivos), and family members of the disappeared with the aim of understanding the challenges of access to justice and identifying initiatives aimed at ensuring this right.
In October 2024, UNHR and Fundar co-published a report entitled “Disappearances in Mexico: Active Impunity and Obstacles to Justice and Search,” which analyzed the situation in Mexico and highlighted the key challenges to accessing justice, particularly in the areas of investigation and search efforts. Our report's findings and recommendations were subsequently cited by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights' in its May 2026 report on disappearances in Mexico.
UNHR interview with Alma Rosa Preciado in Mexico City, Mexico (March 2024)
The principal recommendation of our report was to establish a hybrid justice mechanism composed of international and national experts to ensure access to justice. i The central focus of UNHR’s work in Mexico, at present, is to promote the mechanism and identify frameworks for its implementation. In July 2026, UNHR supervisors and students from the LL.M. in Human Rights Advocacy cohort travelled to Mexico City to consult experts from civil society and key academic institutions. Another core element of UNHR’s work in Mexico is to build and strengthen relationships with community partners, including the Colectivo en Búsqueda de Verdad y Justicia (Collective in Search of Truth and Justice) and Hasta Encontrarles (Until We Find Them). UNHR is committed to ensuring that members have a direct voice in the decisions that affect them and their pursuit of justice. During the visit to Mexico in July 2026, the UNHR team held an advocacy tools workshop with the Hasta Encontrarles search collective, and conducted interviews with its members to gather their views on the proposed mechanism. Previously, UNHR has produced a series of short videos and artworks highlighting the stories of missing people and their relatives searching for them.
Drawing the Disappeared, by Mica Borovinsky
(Image descriptions from left to right)
1. UNHR Senior Advisor Sofía Galván and Yale students Lucía Amaya and Leyly Moridi with Piero Vásquez, international human rights expert (Mexico City, March 2024).
2. UNHR staff Sofia Galván and Mica Borovinsky, alongside Yale student Lucía Amaya, meet with Humberto Guerrero of FUNDAR, a leading human rights organization in Mexico. (Mexico City, March 2024)
3. UNHR Senior Advisor Sofía Galván, Human Rights through Arts Coordinator Mica Borovinsky, and Yale students Lucía Amaya and Leyly Moridi with Karla Quintana, former head of the National Search Commission (Mexico City, March 2024)