Based on years of human rights fact-finding in Mexico, DRI submitted a petition to for an official UN Inquiry. As a result, the United Nations has found "grave and systemic" human rights violations in Mexico's institutions for children with disabilities. The UN reports linked here includes legal findings and recommendations for reform that Mexico must take to meet its obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The UN also issued a detailed report of factual findings based on its visit to Mexico. To read the report in English or Spanish, click read more below.

DRI conducts litigation at the national and international level to enforce and expand the right of children and adults to live in the community with choices equal to others. Our cases seek immediate protections from neglect, denial of basic care, violence and trafficking and systemic changes in law and policies to address the root causes of segregation and abuse. See DRI's global docket of cases here.

Children and adults with disabilities throughout Mexico are confined to institutions, segregated from society, and exposed to these dangers – because of the country’s failure to create social supports that would allow people to lead a full life in the community. Mexico’s law strips people with disabilities of the right to make decisions about their own lives – leaving them unable to file complaints or demand accountability when they are abused.

This report is submitted to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (hereinafter “The Committee” or “CRPD Committee”) for the working group of the pre-session 12, which will be held from September 23 to 27, 2019, to determine the list of issues for the CRPD Committee’s evaluation of Mexico.

Children and adults with disabilities subject to arbitrary detention, abuse and early death inside Mexican orphanages and institutions (2019)

Behind the closed doors of Mexico City’s institutions for people with disabilities, atrocious abuses are taking place that amount to nothing less than torture. Children and adults are denied treatment and are left to languish covered in their own urine and feces in filthy dehumanizing conditions.

The present report is based on the results of a year-long study carried out by Disability Rights International (DRI) together with the Women’s Group of the Colectivo Chuhcan –the first organization in Mexico directed by persons with psychosocial disabilities.

For any criminal justice system to work effectively, it is essential to take into account the rights of persons with mental disabilities given that they are more likely than the rest of the population to be involved in criminal proceedings – either as defendants, victims or witnesses.During criminal proceedings, these persons with physical and mental disabilities face numerous obstacles to effective exercise of their right to justice.

From August 2009 through September 2010, DRI and the CMDPDH investigated psychiatric institutions, orphanages, shelters, and other public facilities that house children and adults with disabilities. This report documents violations of the rights of people with disabilities under the new United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and other human rights treaties ratified by Mexico.

The report is the product of three fact-finding investigations conducted in Mexico in July 1996, August 1998 and November 1999. During these missions, a team of attorneys and psychiatrists from MORI visited three long-term psychiatric facilities (Ramirez Moreno, Nieto, and Sayago) serving Mexico City and the State of Mexico.