Enforced disappearances in Mexico: a conversation with the human rights defender Alejandro Durán

In Mexico, thousands of people disappear each year. According to the database of the National Search Commission of Mexico, more than 113,000 persons has gone missing and disappeared since 1962. The organization Paso del Norte is dedicated to finding the people and determining the circumstances of disappearances. The relatives of the disappeared and civil society in particular play a key role in determining the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared. However, this also puts them at risk. In 2022, at least three women searching for their disappeared children were killed as a result of their search, according to Amnesty International. Why are so many people disappearing in Mexico? Why the rate of impunity is so high, and why is Mexico in the so-called forensic crisis? How can the international community respond? How can relatives of the disappeared be supported? These are some of the questions we will be exploring during the discussion.

• Alejandro Durán comes from Ciudad Juárez and works with the organization Centro de Derechos Humanos Paso del Norte, which is accompanied by PBI in Mexico. The human rights defender has been providing psychosocial support to victims of serious human rights violations for the last ten years. These include, for example, survivors of torture and relatives of disappeared persons. His brother César Gonzalo Durán disappeared in the state of Chihuahua in 2011. Alejandro Durán then founded the collective Familias Unidas por la Verdad y la Justicia along other families.

The conversation will be moderated by Ana Srovin Coralli, a PhD Candidate and Teaching Assistant at the Graduate Institute, specialized in criminal justice and enforced disappearances.

• The conversation will be held in Spanish, with interpretation into English
• The event is organized in collaboration with the Centro de Derechos Humanos Paso del Norte, the Asociación Ginebrina de Estudiantes Hispanohablantes (AGEH) of the University of Geneva, and the Graduate Institute's Latin American Network Initiative (LANI)
• Please register here 

More information:

• Other event with Alejandro: Verschwindenlassen in Mexiko: Diskussionsabend mit Menschenrechtsverteidiger Alejandro Durán [in Spanish and German], Thursday 23 November 2023 in Basel
• Disparitions forcées au Mexique: le travail du centre des droits humains Paso del Norte, 23 mai 2022