A UN expert panel on July 1 condemned the latest murder of a Mexican human rights activist, and called for a thorough, impartial and transparent investigation by state authorities.

Sael Silva Cisneros, a prominent lawyer and advocate for Afro-Mexican and LGBTQ rights, was killed in a roadside attack outside the town of Cuajinicuilapa, Guerrero state, on June 5, shortly after delivering a seminar titled "Afro-Mexican dissidences in Guerrero: history, justice and rights." Silva Cisneros had a history of campaigning for Afro-Mexican rights, and dcoumenting the systemic intersectional marginalization of this community within Mexico and abroad.

The town of Cuajinicuilapa is located close to a stretch of the southwestern coast of Mexico known as the Costa Chica, heartland of the Afro-Mexican population. The seminar was the latest in a series Silva Cisneros had conducted this year in towns and villages throughout the region.

Silva Cisneros had also worked as a researcher for the Supreme Court of Mexico, which released a statement following his murder, honoring his work and condemning "any form of violence that attacks the dignity, equality and human rights of individuals."

The UN experts reiterated Mexico's commitments under international human rights treaties to protect marginalized groups, especially those facing intersectional and overlapping forms of discrimination, as well as to dismantle the systemic forces that facilitate these abuses. They also urged Mexico to provide "truth, justice, full reparation and guarantees of non-repetition" for said abuses.

Currently, Mexico has one of the highest rates of attacks on human rights defenders, and has been previously criticized by the UN for its failure to protect activists despite the enactment of the Law for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders & Journalists in 2012.

From JURIST, July 2. Used with permission. Internal links added.

See our last report on the Afro-Mexican struggle.