Mexico

Supportive during the “Lucens process” and actively participated in consultations on the SSD.

February 2015: Engagement by GCPEA in Geneva and capital. Key concerns were the scope of the SSD (“situations of insecurity” and attacks on “education”).

April 2015: Meeting and exchanges in Geneva in April indicated support for the Guidelines but concerns with scope of the SSD and the process around the SSD in general.

May 2015: Meeting in capital by Courtney and STC early May had indicated that they would be willing to join provided that the scope of the SSD was clearly and unequivocally limited to situations of armed conflict and not more generally to situations of “violence”. Some confusion as to what comments they actually sent to Norway during the consultations, but problem seems to be that they still have concerns with the definition of “attacks on education” and for this reason did not join.

December 2015: The Mission in New York attended GCPEA’s report launch and showed interest in the SSD.

January 2016: Mike Bochenek from Human Rights Watch met with them in capital. MINUSMA is liaising closely with the Malian MoE regarding the tabling of the SSD for discussion with the government at one of the regular council of ministers meetings. They do not anticipate any push-back.

February 2016: Follow-up meeting scheduled with the NY mission.

March 2016: capital meeting with the MFA by HRW. Position remains unchanged, but some openness to continue dialogue. HRW met with officials from the MoFA in Mexico city. The meeting was an opportunity to renew dialogue on the SSD and emphasize the fact that it applies to situations of armed conflict only. Endorsement is unlikely by the WHS, but the MFA is open to continuing the discussion and was open to receiving suggestions of other opportunities for endorsement in the second half of 2016. The process for internal decision-making was also clarified, which will allow for a more targeted follow-up.

April 2016: Follow-up letter sent to Min FA.

September 2016: HRW (Bede) recommended Tony Lake (UNICEF) to prioritise Mexico for advocacy on SSD.

October 2016: Zama met with Buenos Aires embassy and rep attended BA briefing.

January 2017: Advocacy meeting with GVA mission. Said that their failure to endorse at the time was due to doubts about the process at the time. But see now that a good number of states have endorsed. We shared the challenge to get universal endorsement from LatAm in March.

March 2017: Attended Buenos Aires Conference on Safe Schools.

April 2017: Attended post-conference briefing for missions in New York. Intel obtained in Geneva suggests that endorsement by Colombia would increase the likelihood that Mexico endorses. GCPEA wrote a letter to the Foreign Minister.

May 2017: The Ministry of Defense of Argentina wrote to Mexico to encourage endorsement.

August 2017: Mr Blin representative of the mission of Mexico in Geneva said that he is awaiting a response regarding a request for a meeting in Geneva. He will let us know once he receives an answer form the capital.

October 2017: GCPEA met with the expert in Geneva. The MFA has observed the growing support for the Declaration and is interested in endorsing, but there are several internal obstacles to be overcome first. The MoD remains skeptical. The expert advised that peer meetings with endorsing states would be useful. GCPEA received advice that Mexico’s strongest alliance is the Pacific Alliance with Peru, Colombia, and Chile, and that they usually take the same position on issues. If Peru and Colombia endorse, that could make a difference. Also received advice that a national-level meeting with a group of NGOs, the ICRC, and the relevant Ministries would be useful.

February 2018: Save the Children Mexico’s read-out from the December meeting with the Mexican Mission in Geneva was as follows: while the reps at the Mission were very interested in learning more about how to protect students from violence, their stance was that Mexico is not interested in endorsement of the Declaration at this time. They fear endorsement would be perceived as a recognition of the existence of armed conflict in Mexico. They did express interest in receiving further information from Save the Children on what is going on in schools, and on learning more about how schools are affected by gang violence specifically. The team identified topportunities for continued advocacy:
• A meeting of the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children taking place in New York later this month. Mexico’s a pathfinder country as part of the Global Partnership, and Save the Children is supporting a couple of children who attend schools badly affected by violence to attend the meeting. They plan on discussing the need for better protection for education, including a call on Mexico to endorse the SSD.
• The general and presidential elections due to take place in June 2018. STC Mexico plans to gather the views of children on what issues political candidates should prioritise and what should be at the top of the new government’s agenda – these interviews start next week, and it’s anticipated that violence in schools will be a key issue raised by the children interviewed. The plan is to take these issues and complement them with key advocacy asks – including, if suitable, the ask to endorse the SSD.
•The UPR of Mexico in September 2018 – there are plans to develop a parallel report, in collaboration with other organisations. The parallel report will include information on the situation of schools, and the importance of taking steps to protect education from attack.

February 2018: Bede: Mexico is coming up for review before the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. Human Rights Watch is planning on making a submission. The idea is that it will strike a balance between speaking about attacks on teachers and students in Mexico, while separately talking about the Safe Schools Declaration for “armed conflict” situations, by making the point that as Mexico plans to increase its participation in UN peacekeeping (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-un-peacekeeping/in-historic-u-turn-mexico-to-join-u-n-peacekeeping-missions-idUSKCN0HJ2EI20140924) this is now relevant to them in that context.

February 2018: In advance of OPAC turns 18 event, GCPEA issued letter highlighting that Mexico has signed OPAC, Paris, and Vancouver, but not the Declaration,and calling for endorsement.

February 2018:In advance of the End Violence Solutions Summit in Stockholm on 14-15 February, GCPEA issued letter to Mexico, highlighting the Declaration and calling for endorsement.

July 2018: STC provded trainings on the SSD and SC’s work on the protection of schools in conflict. Both in Colombia, with programmes colleagues, the “border team” working on the humanitarian crisis at the border the Venezuela and the field staff in Arauca. And with other LAC colleagues – among them people from Honduras, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua. Mexico attended the webinar and asked for the reasons why Mexico didn’t endorse the SSD.

July 2018: UNSC Open Debate on children and armed conflict: 1)Co-sponsored resolution 2427 (2018). 2) joined the statement of Canada on behalf of the GoF which mentioned the Safe Schools Declaration.

November 2018: GCPEA met with the Ambassador, the advisor, and military attachés in the Mission in New York. They were interested to know if the Guidelines will impede their armed forces to use schools to provide humanitarian assistance in a situation of national disaster. GCPEA recommended that they could include language on use of schools as part of the humanitarian response after natural disaster in the letter of endorsement. They didn’t have any update on the endorsement process since it was the day before the new government took over. GCPEA followed up with letter addressed to the new Minister of Foreign Affairs.

January 2019: Has endorsed the Call to Action of Safe to Learn campaign.

February 2019: GCPEA met with the Ambassador and the First Secretary. The Ambassador was well briefed on the initiative. She said that, following the formation of the new government, the Interministerial Committee on International Humanitarian Law is not yet in place. She expected that the Declaration would be on the agenda of the Committee, but noted endorsement would be unlikely before the Spain conference. She was curious to know what we mean by attacks on education which she described as a “very broad concept”. She was interested to learn of the background to Mexico’s engagement in the consultations on the Declaration, and seemed reassured that the scope of the Declaration is limited to situations of armed conflict. She stated that Mexico shares the Declaration’s objectives, values, and the importance of protection of education. She described the new government as very open with a people-centered and human rights approach. The Ambassador shared that the Mexican government had passed an education reform law, which teachers are protesting against. Fear of teachers’ opposition was expressed as a possible obstacle to endorsement. She highlighted the fact that Mexico is not a party to Additional Protocol II of the Geneva Conventions which also plays a role on the decision to move forward on endorsement. Concerning the conference, the Ambassador suggested Mexico could send an observer to attend. The First Secretary was interested to know how countries report on implementation and what would be the major impediments to endorsement. GCPEA followed up in writing, sharing a letter for the Foreign Minister.

March 2019: We received an email from the Mission in Geneva, advising that Mexico will attend the conference as an observer by sending a representative of their embassy in Madrid. The expert mentioned that this is viewed internally as a positive step towards deeper engagement on the topic. They attended GCPEA side-event on “Better Protecting Women and Girls from Attacks on Education” in Geneva.

May 2019: Participated in the Third International Conference in Palma.

July 2019: Hosted the Safe to Learn event during HLPF.

March 2020: informal consultation on GA Res on International Day to Protect Education for Attack- -Violence against girls when going to, from and while in school PP11 Russia wanted PP11 to be deleted, as it relates to violence on girls (related to violence when going to and from and while in school) and did not see the relevance of this under the current resolution. The EU, UK, US and Mexico wanted to keep the language, however.

June 2020: call with the Counsellor at the Mexican Mission in New York. She was well briefed on the initiative and assured us that our advocacy letter for the CAAC debate had been transmitted to capital. highlights from our call:
 The question of endorsement has been already put as an item on the agenda of the Inter-ministerial Committee on International Humanitarian Law but things are moving slowly due to the COVID-19 crisis. She couldn’t make any promises but underlined that there were no particular concerns or impediments preventing the endorsement.
 Mexico will be most probably elected as a non-permanent member of the Security Council (they are uncontested). Protection of children would be a priority issue during their tenure of the Council and they are mindful that endorsement would solidify their commitment on the CAAC agenda. We emphasized that Mexico has signed OPAC, Paris, and Vancouver, but not the Declaration, and that endorsement would ensure their UN legacy.
 Mexico has a legislation which allows their armed forces to use schools in order to provide humanitarian assistance during national disaster. I emphasized again that the Guidelines would not impede them to do so and that they could include language on use of schools as part of the humanitarian response after natural disaster in the letter of endorsement. She was wondering if endorsement would require to change the provision in this legislation.
 She expressed interest in attending the Education under Attack launch and in receiving a copy of the report. Since the report includes Mexico as a country where GCPEA identified isolated attacks on education between 2015-2019, it would be good to discuss how to engage them after the EuA launch. The reference to Mexico in the previous or forthcoming report was not brought up.
 Mexico conveyed GCPEAs recommendations for the CAAC debate to capital and we expressed the importance of highlighting attacks on education, the military use of schools (including in the context of COVID where schools shouldn’t be used for military purposes while currently closed), the protection of women and girls and monitoring and reporting of attacks in their written statement.

June 2020: Nevena followed up with the Counsellor to share the invitation to the launch of Education under Attack and to congratulate them on the election for the Security Council. HRW in Mexico reports that he’s now found the contact information of the person at the Ministry of the Interior who deals with coordination with the Intersecretarial Commission. He’s going to give them a call and see if they know anything about the Safe Schools Declaration or who he could speak to directly within the Commission. HRW Mexico researcher was able to track down more information on where the Safe Schools Declaration is in internal consultations. He confirmed that the declaration is indeed in the plan of work of the inter-ministerial committee on international humanitarian law. And that they’re still discussing the technical document about the content of the declaration.He also got the name and contact details of someone on the foreign affairs side responsible for the matter: It is Salvador Tinajero, stinajero@sre.gob.mx

August 2020: Following GCPEA advocacy with the Mexico mission in New York, SC Mexico colleagues will follow-up at capital level. They will send a letter to the MFA seeking a meeting to discuss the issue. GCPEA shared relevant information to support this advocacy, including the letter that was recently sent ahead of the CAAC debate. Human Rights Watch also shared that the Declaration is in the plan of work of the inter-ministerial committee on international humanitarian law, and that they’re still discussing the technical document about the content of the Declaration. GCPEA will write a letter requesting a meeting with the focal point, and will coordinate with Mexico colleagues.

Oct 2020: GCPEA, together with Save the Children Mexico, sent letters to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs requesting a meeting to discuss endorsement of the Safe Schools Declaration.

December 2020: GCPEA (Nevena) and Save the Children New York (Andrea) met with the CAAC expert at the New York Mission. He was keen to hear any updates from our side on the Declaration and on any recent signatories, highlighting that these opportunities will be useful to move forward the decision making on the endorsement. GCPEA highlighted opportunities in the Council next year with both Norway and Niger keen to take the agenda forward and build on momentum from the Open Debate and PRST and the Open Debate on POC being one key opportunity to announce endorsement in May 2021. The CAAC expert clarified that any previous outstanding questions and concerns regarding the Declaration from capital had been answered and the holdup has been due to Covid-19. They are still waiting for feedback from the IHL national committee. Nevena highlighted ICRC’s open pledge and encouraged them to reach out to the ICRC Mexico on advice for endorsing, legal readings or support needed in the process. He advised that a follow up letter to the one GCPEA and Save had already sent at capital level would be helpful.

February 2021: GCPEA (Nevena) met with the Mission in New York to discuss endorsement of the Declaration. Mexico is very much considering endorsement and they were informed that that the upcoming UN SC Debate on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict (PoC) would be an excellent opportunity for Mexico to announce endorsement. The Safe Schools Declaration is an important tool to ensure the safety of civilians and preservation of the civilian character of educational facilities. It was also highlighted that there is noticeable gap in UN SC work on protection of higher education from attack that needs to be filled. Following the meeting, the Mission conveyed that the outlook is very positive.

October 2021: cosponsored UNSRC2601.

December 2021: positive statement citing the SSD at Arria formula meeting on the protection of education during armed conflict. Cited GCPEA research on attacks on schools and military use. Strongly condemn attacks on schools and their military use. Translation by me: “At the beginning of the year, Mexico joined the Safe Schools Declaration. We joined this initiative to support the international mechanisms to ensure the protection of education in armed conflict. Mexico is determined to work on active implementation of the Declaration with other Member States and civil society.” Highlighted child recruitment and gender and sexual based violence.

March 2022: Ukraine humanitarian briefing to UNSC 7 March: Mexico highlighted protection of civilian infrastructure.

April 2022: HRC Special session on Ukraine – “- Concerned about many deaths including women and children, destruction of schools, hospitals etc Sexual violence, enforced disappearances”

November 2022: Endorsed the Political Declaration on Strengthening the Protection of Civilians from the Humanitarian Consequences Arising from the Use of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas (EWIPA) on 18 November during an International Conference hosted by Ireland, the leader and penholder behind the Declaration.