On February 11, 2014, 35 members of Parliament in Mexico have signed the Initiative that contains a draft decree amending the eighth paragraph of Article 21 of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States to harmonize it with the Rome Statute and it is anticipated that more MPs in Mexico will follow and support the initiative.
On 16-7 September 2013, PGA members Dip. Loretta Ortiz of the Labor Party (PT) and Dip. Elena Tapia of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) participated in the Sub-Regional Working Group on Challenges for the Effectiveness of the Rome Statute system in the Americas, which was held in the Chamber of Deputies of Uruguay in Montevideo. In such event, a specific Workshop on implementing legislation and the cooperation with the ICC was carried out where the parliamentarians could ask the experts questions regarding the implementation of the Rome Statute in their own countries. PGA pointed out that there was a potential legal barrier in the Constitution of Mexico to allow cooperation with the ICC.
After their active participation at the Workshop, Dip. Loretta Ortiz and Dip. Elena Tapia drafted a bill to modify paragraph 8 of article 21 of the Mexican Constitution and took several actions to promote the initiative and to support the domestic implementation of the Rome Statute in Mexico. Among those actions, on 31 January 2014, together with the International Federation for Human Rights, Amnesty International, the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights and the Development Center for International Justice, the named parliamentarians organized a seminar in which they received the support of other 35 MPs to co-sign the initiative.
This constitutional review initiative is now to be revised by the Congressional Committee on Constitutional Issues, which has a period of 40 working days (with an extension possibility) to rule on the matter.
PGA is most appreciative of these important efforts undertaken by Members of PGA in Mexico and expresses the sincere hope that PGA members in many other countries worldwide will promote similar actions.
