UN Torture Body Resumes Work, Eyes Progress in Mexico
GENEVA – UN torture prevention experts will return to Mexico from 25 to 30 January 2026 to consider steps taken by Mexico to strengthen anti-torture safeguards since their previous visit, and to assess the impact of those measures on protection for people in detention.
After having to postpone its visit to Mexico in 2025 due to the UN liquidity crisis, the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) will now undertake its third visit to the country. “We are there to examine implementation and impact of our prior recommendations, to see what works in practice and what still needs to be improved,” said Carmen Comas-Mata, Head of the SPT delegation.
The Subcommittee previously visited Mexico in 2008 and 2016. As in prior missions, the SPT delegation will visit places where people are or may be deprived of their liberty, and hold confidential interviews with detainees, other people deprived of liberty, and staff working in those facilities. Particular attention will be paid to the implementation of the Subcommittee’s recommendations from its 2016 visit, as well as to developments and challenges that have emerged since then.
The delegation will also meet with Mexican authorities, the national monitoring body known as the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM), and other stakeholders to assess the progress made by the authorities in preventing torture through legislative, policy, administrative and other measures. Where appropriate, the delegation will also conduct joint visits with the NPM.
“We also see this visit as an opportunity to continue to work constructively with the NPM and other actors involved in torture prevention,” Comas-Mata said.
“A comprehensive national system for torture prevention requires an independent, impartial and well-resourced NPM to carry out regular visits to all places of deprivation of liberty, and to operate in close cooperation with corresponding institutions and civil society,” she added.
Mexico ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) in 2005 and established its National Preventive Mechanism in 2007, which is housed within the country’s National Human Rights Institution, the Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos.
Under its mandate, the SPT may conduct visits to States Parties and carry out unannounced visits to any place where people are or may be deprived of their liberty.
Following the visit, the SPT will transmit a confidential report to the State Party, containing its observations and recommendations. The report will remain confidential unless and until the Mexican Government decides to make it public, as was the case with the reports following the 2008 and 2016 visits.
The SPT delegation will be composed of: Carmen Comas-Mata, Head of delegation (Spain), Marco Feoli Villalobos (Costa Rica), Maria Luisa Romero (Panama) and Martin Zinkler (Germany) and supported by two members of the Secretariat.
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/01/mexico-un-torture-prevention-body-returns-seeking-concrete-progress
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