According to the Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos (CMDPDH), every year tens of thousands of people are internally displaced in Mexico. Human rights violations, generalised violence, and disasters are among the main causes.
The phenomenon has been documented at least since 1972 as described in a comprehensive report by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH). The CMDPDH has been monitoring it systematically since 2014 (see its annual reports), but the Federal Government only officially recognised it in April 2019, with the publication of the study “Violence as a cause of forced internal displacement” by the National Population Council (CONAPO) of the Ministry of the Interior (SEGOB). Different efforts are underway to respond to internal displacement in the country. However, numerous challenges persist in regard to producing, analysing and using relevant information more systematically.
Against this background, in May 2019 partners from the government, civil society and the international community came together and requested JIPS support to strengthen capacity on improving data and analysis on internal displacement in Mexico.
Building capacity for improved displacement data in Mexico (2019 – ongoing)
In May 2019 JIPS received a request for support from partners in-country to help inform a national strategy for building capacities to improve displacement data among actors involved in the response to internal displacement. In November 2019, during a scoping mission to better understand the phenomenon, the legal context, and the information landscape, we met with government, civil society, and the international community at national and local level. We organised workshops in Mexico City, Chiapas, and Chihuahua, bringing together a wide range of partners, including:
Here is a snapshot of the scoping mission and the subsequent debrief meeting we organised in Geneva in December 2019 to share information and coordinate with our global-level partners:
The request for JIPS’ support follows shortly after an unofficial visit by the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of IDPs, Cecilia Jimenez-Damary, and in the context of recent engagements by the government with international actors, including OCHA, UNHCR, and IDMC. Mexico’s National Office on Statistics and Geography (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía, INEGI) is also involved in the Expert Group on Refugee and IDP Statistics (EGRIS).
During our first mission in November 2019, we organized and facilitated a series of meetings and workshops in three different States, as well as the first training in the country, focused on durable solutions analysis, utilizing the Interagency Durable Solutions Indicator Library.These, for the first time, brought all the different actors responding to internal displacement in Mexico together, to discuss how to jointly shape a coherent and shared approach. The collaborative nature of the mission and the activities planned in partnership with the government, civil society, and UN partners contributed to an inclusive and neutral space to engage on technical and often complex discussions related to data on internal displacement.
“CONAPO was very satisfied with the mission for several reasons: for the professionalism of JIPS’ advisors, for the cooperation between the Government of Mexico and the CMDPDH, and because it helped account for the challenges the country is facing with regards to internal displacement.” – Raúl Romo Viramontes, Director of population & regional sustainable development
As a result of our scoping mission in November 2019, partners adopted seven recommendations to build and strengthen critical capabilities:
