Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, called on Mexico to take action against disappearances, which, according to Mexico’s national registry, now amount to over 100,000 people. According to a statement from the UN High Commissioner’s Office, more than 97 percent of these 100,000 disappearances occurred after December 2006, when Mexico transitioned to a militarized public security model. A fifth of those listed as disappeared are minors, and a fourth are women. In only 35 cases have the perpetrators been convicted.

In a statement released on May 17th, Bachelet said Mexico had taken meaningful steps towards taking action against disappearances by approving the General Law on Disappearances and creating search commissions in all states. Bachelet also lauded Mexico’s commissions to examine serious human rights violations that occurred between 1965 and 1990 and their commission to investigate the enforced disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa students in 2014. 

In June 2021, in a landmark decision, the Mexican Supreme Court recognized the importance of the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED). In November 2021, Mexico became the first country to accept a visit by the CED, which visited 13 states and attended more than 150 meetings with authorities, victims’ organizations, and civil society organizations. Bachelet urged Mexico to implement all the recommendations of the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances and all aspects of the General Law on Disappearances, including the creation of the National Forensic Data Bank and the National Program for Exhumations and Forensic Identification. Bachelet’s remarks followed the adoption of the CED’s report.