Alan Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to the Mexican government on co-operation with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights investigation into the disappearance of 43 teacher training students of the Escuela Normal in Ayotzinapa on 26 September 2014; and if he will make a statement.

Sir Alan Duncan

The Government has been clear in expressing to the Mexican authorities its deep concern over this case.

The then Prime Minister, the Rt Hon. David Cameron, raised the case with the President of Mexico during his State Visit to the UK in March 2015. The case has also been raised on numerous occasions by other British Ministers, including the then Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) during his visit to Mexico on 2 May.

We welcome the Mexican Government’s agreement to a formal follow-up mechanism with the Inter American Court on Human Rights and urge them to work constructively with the Court to implement the mechanism. Two years on from the disappearance of the students in Ayotzinapa, it is important for the Mexican Government to redouble its efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice.