Amnesty International (Author): “The State of the World's Human Rights; Mexico 2025”, Document #2139358

Background

In March, the Congress of the Union passed a package of secondary laws to regulate the constitutional reform that had suppressed the National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information and Personal Data Protection. In August, civil society organizations warned that Transparency for the People, the new body under the Anticorruption and Good Governance Secretariat, had dismissed 99.6% of the appeals for review submitted.

The number of reported homicides decreased by 27.4% compared to 2024.

The government continued to deny that the country was being militarized, arguing that command of the National Guard rested with the president, that the security strategy was designed by the Ministry of Security, and that there was no breach of human rights in the country.

The first elections to the judiciary were held on 1 June, despite concerns about the independence of the judicial system. A total of 881 posts were elected at the federal level and nearly 2,000 in 18 states and in Mexico City. Only 13% of the electorate voted, and 22% of votes cast were void or incomplete. The Organization of American States claimed that the nine most voted candidates to the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation had been promoted through lists distributed by political parties and local government structures before the election.

The General Law to Prevent, Investigate and Punish Extortion was approved in November. Civil society organizations expressed concern that the law contained provisions contrary to human rights, allowing evidence obtained through means that violate human rights, such as torture, to be admitted in certain exceptional circumstances. Additionally, the law’s ambiguous wording enabled criminal prosecution of journalists and media outlets publishing information of public interest.

Right to a fair trial

In October, the Senate approved a reform of the Amparo Law (protection of constitutional rights) that included positive elements, such as the expediting of amparo proceedings but also negative ones, such as limitations on the granting of suspensions, continued use of mandatory pretrial detention, and new criteria to determine legitimate interest, which could restrict access to amparo for vulnerable individuals or groups.

Human rights defenders

According to a Front Line Defenders report published in May, Mexico continued to rank second worldwide in killings of human rights defenders, with 32 cases recorded in 2024, up from 30 in 2023. In a report published in April, the Mexican Centre for Environmental Law warned of an increase in the number of people killed for protecting the environment, with 25 cases in 2024 compared to 19 in 2023.

Civil society organizations were also targeted. In July, unidentified individuals raided the home of Dora Roblero, director of the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Centre. Over the previous 11 months, the organization had reported 51 incidents against its members, including harassment, intimidation and surveillance.¹

In September, the Mexico City government attempted to remove the fence surrounding the Women Who Fight Roundabout, which had been taken over in 2021 by a group of women who installed a statue symbolizing women demanding justice for feminicides, those searching for missing relatives, and prominent women in history. Removal of the fencing was stopped after various groups, activists and civil society organizations spoke out.

Freedom of expression

According to Reporters Without Borders, Mexico continued to be one of the most dangerous countries for journalists. Article 19 reported that seven journalists had been killed during the year for their reporting, and warned of an increased use of regulatory frameworks as censorship tools within the country. The organization registered 51 cases of judicial harassment between January and July, affecting 39 journalists and 12 media outlets, more than double that of the previous year (21).

Between June and September, Congress passed several laws on mass surveillance that made confidential information available to public institutions, including the armed forces.

Freedom of peaceful assembly

On the fifth anniversary of the police repression of the feminist protest of 9 November 2020 in the municipality of Benito Juárez, Quintana Roo state, local government representatives unveiled a memorial but failed to issue a public apology. Full reparation for the harm caused was therefore not attained.

In at least 14 of the country’s federal states, the authorities continued to commit human rights violations during demonstrations.² In Puebla, police cracked down on two women-led protests in August and September.

Extrajudicial executions

In March, a court sentenced four military officers to 40 years in prison for the extrajudicial execution of five young people in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas state, in 2023.

On 6 May, two girls aged seven and 11 died when members of the 42nd Infantry Battalion fired on a vehicle in the municipality of Badiraguato, Sinaloa state. Survivors of the incident rejected the initial official accounts that the shooting was in response to an attack on the military. In December, the National Human Rights Commission recommended that the authorities give reparation for the damage suffered as a result of unlawful use of force.

Torture and other ill-treatment

The Global Torture Index 2025 of the World Organisation Against Torture classified Mexico as a country where people faced a high risk of torture and other ill-treatment, noting that torture was widespread and occurred with impunity.

Following a court ruling, in February the Office of the Attorney General published the National Programme to Prevent and Punish Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, a programme developed with the participation of civil society organizations that had been pending since the 2017 enactment of the General Law to Prevent, Investigate and Punish Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

In a case involving a survivor of sexual torture, the Supreme Court of Justice ruled in June that the precautionary measures issued by international human rights bodies were binding on the Mexican state and that the jurisdictional authorities could supervise such measures.

Enforced disappearances

The number of missing people increased by 10.5% compared to the previous year. In December, the number of such cases stood at 133,500.

Given the poor response from the authorities, relatives of disappeared people – mostly women organized in collectives – undertook their own searches and found hundreds of human remains, some of them burned, and clandestine graves. These searches were high risk and those who carried them out faced threats, extortion, disappearance and murder.³ During the year, six searchers were killed (four women and two men). The CEDAW Committee recommended that the Mexican state formally recognize ”mujeres buscadoras” (women who search for disappeared people) as a special category of human rights defenders, monitor the specific violence they experience, guarantee gender-sensitive protection measures, provide comprehensive reparation for the damage suffered, and include them in truth-seeking and memorialization processes.⁴

Official figures for the number of clandestine graves located were not updated for 2025. Search collectives found mass graves in at least 10 of the country’s states. In March, the collective Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco (warrior searchers of Jalisco) found a forced recruitment camp, which potentially also functioned as an extermination camp, in the municipality of Teuchitlán, Jalisco state, shocking Mexican society. Evidence of killings, and hundreds of personal items such as shoes, backpacks and identity documents were found at the site. The authorities had been aware of the existence of the camp six months earlier, before it was brought to light by the search collective, but had failed to open investigations into enforced disappearances or look for any mass graves.

In April, the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances announced that it would for the first time activate the procedure of Article 34 of the International Convention against enforced disappearance with regard to the situation in Mexico, to determine whether enforced disappearances in the country were systematic or widespread and submit the matter to the UN General Assembly. In response, the Mexican president categorically denied the existence of enforced disappearances in the country, and the Senate called for the Committee chair to be sanctioned for “speculating” that widespread or systematic enforced disappearances were taking place. The National Human Rights Commission also denied that Mexico was experiencing a crisis of enforced disappearances and questioned the Committee’s decision on the activation of the procedure.

In June, Congress approved amendments to the General Law on Enforced Disappearance of Persons, Disappearance Perpetrated by Individuals and the National Search System, as well as changes to the General Population Law in relation to enforced disappearances. The changes focused on the mass cross-referencing of data through the creation of a single identity platform and an identity document including biometric data, which could pose a risk to privacy and be used for citizen surveillance. Moreover, these changes did not combat impunity or reinforce prosecutors’ offices or the National Centre for Human Identification to reduce the forensic backlog. According to research undertaken by civil society organizations, in the absence of reliable official data, there were 72,100 unidentified bodies in the country in 2023.

Also in June, the Supreme Court of Justice ordered the Office of the Attorney General to release the case file on the enforced disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa teacher training college in 2014. The military continued to deny family members information that could serve to access truth and justice.

In September, the Senate appointed the 13 members of the National Search System’s Citizen Council, comprising relatives of disappeared persons, experts and members of civil society organizations. The Council had been inactive for 16 months.⁵

Women’s and girls’ rights

As of November, prosecutors’ offices had opened 2,589 investigations into the killings of women, 672 of them classified as possible feminicides. These figures represented a decrease of 24.16% and 21.2%, respectively, compared to 2024. In addition, the authorities registered 3,637 cases of disappeared women during the year, of which 1,745 were under 19 years of age, an increase of 11.5% and 29.4%, respectively, compared to 2024.

In July, the CEDAW Committee expressed concern regarding the increase in gender-based violence by state and non-state actors, including criminal organizations, as well as the increased involvement of the military in public security and other areas, which had led to rising reports of gender-based violence against women committed by the military.

Sexual and reproductive rights

The states of Campeche, Nayarit, Tabasco and Yucatán adopted legislation decriminalizing abortion. At the end of the year, abortion was legal in 24 of the country’s 32 states.

In December, the Supreme Court of Justice revoked several norms that criminalized abortion and restricted access to sexual and reproductive health services in the state of Tlaxcala.

LGBTI people’s rights

Between June and July, the states of Baja California, Baja California Sur, Campeche and Mexico incorporated the crime of trans-feminicide into their respective penal codes. By the end of the year, the crime of trans-feminicide was recognized in six of the country’s 32 states.

The National Observatory of Hate Crimes Against LGBT Persons registered at least 17 trans-feminicides during the year.

In December, the Guanajuato Congress approved marriage equality and banned conversion therapies. By the end of 2025, all of Mexico’s federal entities had legalized same-sex marriage.

The Supreme Court of Justice twice ruled in favour of transgender people. In February, it ordered reparation for the harm caused to a number of trans women victims of discrimination who had been denied access to women-only bathrooms and required to provide official identification, on grounds that their presence in such spaces was a potential risk; the ruling included a fine for the company responsible. In June, it granted protection to a transgender refugee woman, ordering the National Institute of Migration to recognize her gender identity in immigration documents and to establish a simple and accessible procedure for adapting immigration documents to guarantee people’s gender identity.

Right to a healthy environment

During COP30 in November, Mexico announced new commitments to address the climate crisis, including, for the first time, a component on loss and damage, and the integration of social approaches such as climate justice, a gender perspective and a human rights approach. It also updated its NDC targets for 2035 under two scenarios: cutting emissions to between 332 and 363 million tons of CO₂ equivalent (MtCO₂e) with international support, or to between 364 and 404 MtCO₂e unconditionally.

Refugees’ and migrants’ rights

The Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance received more than 58,800 asylum applications during the year, the majority from Cuban (more than 28,700), Venezuelan (more than 12,100) and Haitian (more than 7,000) nationals.

In February, Mexico deployed 10,000 National Guard troops to the US border. Migrants and refugees travelling through Mexico continued to be forced to make illegal payments to Mexican authorities, criminal gang members or unidentified individuals at immigration checkpoints set up on roads throughout the country. They were also frequently subject to extortion and kidnapping and had difficulty accessing healthcare, education and employment opportunities.⁶

Civil society organizations expressed concern over the failure to issue visitor cards for humanitarian reasons to asylum seekers and victims of crime in Mexico, which placed these groups at greater risk and hindered their access to rights.

In September, in compliance with a court order, the then head of the National Institute of Migration apologized publicly to the families of the victims of the 27 March 2023 fire at the immigration detention centre in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua state, acting in a personal capacity. However, responsibilities remained unclear and no comprehensive reparations were provided.

Economic, social and cultural rights

According to a report published in August by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, 29.6% of the population experienced multidimensional poverty in 2024, a decrease of 6.3% compared to 2022. Extreme poverty also decreased from 7.1% to 5.3% over the same period. Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca were the states with the highest poverty rates.

Forced displacement

In June, the Ibero-American University’s Human Rights Programme published a report documenting an increase in internal forced displacement from at least 12,623 in 2023 to at least 28,900 in 2024. Of all displacements, 79% were due to violence, and 20% were due to social causes or natural disasters. Most occurred in the states of Chiapas, Sinaloa, Michoacán, Chihuahua and Guerrero, with 17,860 displaced people registered in Chiapas alone.

In September, the state of Oaxaca approved the Law to Prevent, Address and Comprehensively Repair Internal Forced Displacement, becoming the fifth state to have a specific law addressing the issue.

The State of the World's Human Rights; Mexico 2025