Rosario Piedra Ibarra proposes to transform the CNDH into the “Office for the Poor”

EXCELSIOR (June 8, 2020).- The president of the National Commission for Human Rights, Rosario Piedra Ibarra, proposed transforming the CNDH into a ‘Procuraduría de Pobres‘ (Office for the Poor).

Therefore, she explained that, through a Constitutional reform to article 102, section B, of Mexico’s Carta Magna, she will request that her recommendations be binding, and to proceed as soon as possible.

In a statement on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the National Commission for Human Rights, Piedra Ibarra referred to the year 1947, when Mexican humanist Ponciano Arriaga proposed to create the “Office of the Poor”, which had the purpose of protecting those in most need. “

She argued that, at the time, this body, in addition to defending the human rights of people with limited resources against abuse by an authority, had the power to report and request compensation for the corresponding damage.

That is the tradition of the Ombudsman in our country, and which we must vindicate now, 30 years after the birth of the CNDH and the exhaustion of its operating model. Which has evidently failed in the enormous cost that it has represented for the people, and the limited results achieved, something that has been documented by countless national and international NGOs.

Rosario Piedra Ibarra added that the international tradition keeps human rights organizations, outside the competence of any court or jurisdictional body, but also of an effective incidence in the prevention and respect of human rights.

Therefore, she emphasized that it is time to leave behind a model that privileged the promotion and dissemination of human rights, but neglected the essence of its mission: the protection and defense of those most in need.