Mexico

In Mexico, the prevailing patriarchal structures hinder equality and lead to discrimination against girls. In addition, more than half of the children live in poverty, which is a considerably higher rate than among adults. Furthermore, children are exposed to a variety of violence, at home, from street gangs and official forces. There are no sensible concepts for juvenile justice.

The Committee expresses deep concern about the persistent patriarchal attitudes and gender stereotypes that discriminate against girls and women, resulting in an extremely high prevalence of violence against women and girls in the State party.
The Committee urges the State party to accord the utmost priority to the elimination of patriarchal attitudes and gender stereotypes that discriminate against girls and women, including through educational and awareness-raising programmes.

The Committee is concerned about the high number of disappearances of children, especially girls from 10 years of age and reports of a very high number of feminicides of women and girls, the lack of official disaggregated data and the prevalent impunity in this regard.

Still, many children with disabilities do not have free access to health and rehabilitation services and do not receive education. To improve the situation, the Committee recommends to ensure that all children with disabilities effectively enjoy their rights to health and rehabilitation services, attend school and are free from violence and exploitation. Specific measures should be adopted to address the particular challenges faced by indigenous children in these areas.

Access to health services is not equal for all children, owing to the existence of various health systems providing services that differ in terms of coverage and quality. This situation results in a high percentage of children not having access to health-care services or having access only to poor quality health-care services. The Committee recommends to ensure the availability and accessibility of quality health services for all children, in particular rural and indigenous children, including by allocating adequate resources.

For the improvement of adolescent health, the Committee recommends to evaluate the consumption patterns of drugs by adolescents and strengthen the existing programmes aimed at preventing drug use and assisting children who use drugs. Those programmes should provide children, in particular in schools, with accurate and objective information as well as life skills education on preventing substance abuse — including tobacco and alcohol — and develop accessible and youth-friendly drug dependence treatment and harm reduction services.

Concerning mental health, the Committee recommends to adopt measures to provide quality access to mental health services with the aim of eliminating the prevalence of suicides and depression among adolescents.

The Committee is concerned that the State party has not taken sufficient measures to address air, water, soil and electromagnetic pollution, which have a grave impact on children and maternal health. The import and use of pesticides or chemicals banned or restricted for use in third countries, which particularly affect indigenous children in the State of Sonora, is also a reason of deep concern.

The Committee notes the constitutional reform raising the minimum age of employment to 15 years. However, it remains deeply concerned that hundreds of thousands of children, at times as young as 5 years old, continue to work and that a high percentage of them is involved in the worst forms of child labour, such as mining and agriculture, and does not receive a salary. It is further concerned at the insufficient measures taken to address child domestic labour, which particularly affects girls, as well as the involvement of children, especially children of migrant farmworkers, in agriculture.

The Committee is concerned about the lack of harmonization of the juvenile justice legislation in all states and the fact that children can be sentenced to between 5 and 20 years of imprisonment for the same crime, depending on the state where they live or have committed a crime and the precarious conditions in which children are placed in detention centres and the frequent cases of violence against adolescents. Among other things, the Committee recommends to ensure the provision of qualified and independent legal aid to children in conflict with the law at an early stage of the procedure and throughout the legal proceedings. Indigenous and migrant children should be provided with interpretation and/or consular assistance as required.

The Committee is deeply concerned about corroborated reports that hundreds of children have been sexually abused for years by clerics of the Catholic Church and other religious institutions. The Committee is particularly concerned about the general impunity that perpetrators have enjoyed so far, as recognized by the State party’s delegation, about the low number of investigations and prosecutions and about the alleged complicity of State officials, as well as about the lack of complaints mechanisms, services and compensation available to children.
The Committee is also concerned that the number of indigenous, Afro-Mexican and migrant children and children living in remote areas who are registered at birth remains low.