Joint statement: concern over the reduction of civic space in Chiapas, Mexico, due to the deterioration of conditions for the defence of human rights

The undersigned organisations express our deep concern on the reduction of civic space in Chiapas, Mexico, due to the deterioration of conditions for the defence of human rights. We urgently call on the Mexican State to fulfil its obligation to protect and publicly support human rights defenders and their work, and to carry out thorough investigations into crimes committed against them. We urge the international community to take concrete actions aimed at giving visibility, legitimising and protecting human rights defenders, thereby protecting and promoting civic space for the defence of human rights in Chiapas.

This statement is issued in response to the recent raid on the home of Dora Roblero, director of the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) as well as the persistent surveillance, intimidation, and harassment against this organisation, which directly hinder its fundamental work in defending human rights in the state.

On 22 July 2025, the home of Dora Roblero was raided in San Cristóbal de Las Casas. As Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, stated when commenting on this incident, this raid is part of a series of security incidents that members of the organisation have recently faced, in an increasingly difficult context for human rights defenders in Chiapas. Throughout its history, the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) has played a key role in supporting communities, victims and groups in their struggle for peace, justice and truth, work that has led to numerous attacks and assaults against it. For this reason, since 2010, Frayba is a beneficiary of precautionary measures MC 52-10, granted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. This raid constitutes a serious attack not only against the personal integrity of the director of Frayba, but also against its entire team. This is the second raid on Frayba in less than a year, adding to the 46 recorded since 2024. We consider it particularly serious that some of these have been carried out by the Federal State itself, such as the defamatory statements made by the former President of the Republic in April 2024.

The raid of the home of the director of Frayba is part of a pattern of sustained and acute attacks against human rights defenders in the state. Since January 2024, the Observatory of Attacks against Human Rights and Land Defenders in Chiapas has documented 156 attacks, including four murders and a total of 131 people attacked in retaliation for their work defending human rights. The most frequent types of attacks have been surveillance, intimidation, and defamation, while the most serious incidents have been the massacre in Nueva Morelia, on the border with Guatemala, on 12 May 2024; the murder of Tzotzil priest and human rights defender Marcelo Pérez Pérez on 20 October 2024; and the attacks against members of the civil organisation Las Abejas de Acteal in June 2025 in the community of Tzajalch'en, which included targeted armed attacks and explosions by criminal groups, as well as threats of criminalisation by members of the state security forces.

The state of Chiapas is one of the poorest states in the country and suffers from structural inequality that mainly affects indigenous peoples and their territories, as well as women and children. Since 2021, this situation has been compounded by violence generated by organised crime groups, which has exacerbated the human rights violations already present in the state, including forced displacement, enforced disappearance, and human trafficking. Given the state's inadequate response to this crisis, despite the change in state government and the deployment of its Security Strategy, the work of civil society organisations plays a fundamental role. According to the Civil Society Organisations Space for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists (Espacio OSC), Chiapas is the fifth state with the highest number of defenders and journalists at risk and under protection measures (124) in the whole country.5

The undersigned organisations view with deep concern several aspects that reflect the lack of effective guarantees for the exercise of the right to defend human rights in Chiapas. First, we are concerned about the absence of public support from the authorities for the legitimate and fundamental work carried out by human rights defenders, which can contribute to their stigmatisation, delegitimisation and vulnerability. As stated by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, a comprehensive protection policy based on the recognition of the importance of defense work in the consolidation of democracies and the rule of law is needed. We also note that the commitments made by the Mexican State in terms of protection, as set out in the Law for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists passed in 2012, and in the corresponding Protection Mechanism, have not been effectively fulfilled. As highlighted by the Working Group for the Strengthening of the Protection Mechanism, despite the progress made, both the technical and economic resources available to this institution and the application of comprehensive, collective and intersectional approaches in research and analysis, as well as in the design and implementation of protection plans, are insufficient.In this regard, there is particular concern about the difficulty of state authorities to collaborate in the implementation of the Mechanism's plans, as well as the recent tendency to process requests for protection from organisations, collectives and groups of defenders on an individual basis, without considering the collective dimension of the risk.

In light of these events, we urgently call on the Mexican State, at both the federal and state levels, to fulfil its obligation to protect human rights defenders, guaranteeing their physical and psychological integrity, as well as their right to carry out their work free from threats, attacks, and criminalisation. We urge public statements in support of the right to defend human rights, as well as thorough, impartial and effective investigations that prevent impunity and guarantee access to justice for victims and their communities.

We also urge the international community to keep its attention focused on the situation in Chiapas and to take concrete actions, within their respective mandates, to legitimise the defence of human rights, actively support those who exercise it, and ensure that the Mexican State complies with its international obligations to protect human rights defenders and to investigate and punish attacks against them.

We look forward to receiving your response to this letter and thank you in advance for your attention.

Kind regards.

Signing organisations,

• International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders.
• World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
• International Amnesty
• Asociación por la Paz y los Derechos Humanos Taúla per Mèxic
• International Service for Peace, SIPAZ
• Front Line Defenders
• Peace Brigades International - Mexico
• Protection International Mesoamérica
• Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL)

1 Mary Lawlor, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders. 30 July 2025.

2 The Observatory for Human Rights Defenders in Chiapas, accessed on 29 July 2025.

3 SweFOR, VV.OO. 26 April 2024. “Carta de Preocupación de organizaciones internacionales por la deslegitimación del CDH Frayba”

4 The Observatory for Human Rights Defenders in Chiapas, accessed on 29 July 2025.

5 Civil Society Organisations Space for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists. 25 July 2025. “Espacio OSC exige garantías de protección para directora del Frayba tras allanamiento”.

6 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. 27 June 2023. “IACHR: Ongoing Violence Against Human Rights Defenders in the First Four Months of 2023”.

7 Civil Society Organisations Space for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists. 24 September 2024. “Entregan informe a dos años del Grupo de Trabajo para el Fortalecimiento del Mecanismo de Protección para Personas Defensoras de Derechos Humanos y Periodistas”.

Recipients

Mtra. Rosa Icela Rodríguez Velázquez, Secretary of the Interior

Mtro. Félix Arturo Medina Padilla, Undersecretary for Human Rights, Population and Migration, Ministry of the Interior

Dr. Froylán Vladimir Enciso Higuera, Head of the Human Rights Unit and National Executive Coordination of the Federal Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, Ministry of the Interior

Mtra. Tobyanne Ledesma Rivera, Director General of the Federal Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, Ministry of the Interior

Maria del Rosario Piedra Ibarra, Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission

Dr. Cesar Estrada Pérez, Director General of International Affairs of the National Human Rights Commission

Lic. Galván García Ricardo, Director General of the Programme for the Protection of Journalists and Civil Human Rights Defenders of the National Human Rights Commission

Dr. Eduardo Ramírez Aguilar, Governor of the State of Chiapas

Mtra. Patricia del Carmen Conde Ruiz, Secretary General of Government and Mediation

Lic. Floralma Gómez Santiz, Human Rights Directorate of the Government of the State of Chiapas

Mtro. Jorge Luis Llaven Abarca, Attorney General, Attorney General's Office of the State of Chiapas

Lic. Jesús Ernesto Molina Ramos, Human Rights Prosecutor, Human Rights Prosecutor's Office of the State of Chiapas

Mtra. Claudia Irene Constantino López, District Attorney for the Highlands of the State of Chiapas

Lic. Horacio Culebro Borrayas, President of the State Human Rights Commission

With copy to

Humberto Henderson, Interim Representative of the Office of the High Commissioner

Maia Campbell, Deputy Representative of the UN in Mexico, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Mexico

Francisco André, Head of Delegation, Delegation of the European Union to Mexico

Embajador Gunnar Aldén, Swedish Embassy in Mexico

Embajadora Ragnhild Imerslund, Norwegian Embassy in Mexico

Embajadora Delphine Borione, French Embassy in Mexico

Embajadora Johan Verkammen, Belgian Embassy in Mexico

Embajador Wilfred Mohr, Embassy of the Netherlands in Mexico

Embajador Pietro Piffaretti, Swiss Embassy in Mexico

Embajadora Susannah Goshko, British Embassy in Mexico

Embajador Cameron MacKay, Canadian Embassy in Mexico

Embajador Ronald D. Johnson, U.S. Embassy in Mexico

Mary Lawlor, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders

Roberta Clarke, President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

Andrea Pochak, Rapporteur of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights