Community-based people who have suffered abuses can become powerful defenders of their own and others’ rights. The Network of Community Human Rights Defenders (Red de Defensores Comunitarios por los Derechos Humanos) trains young Indigenous community members in Chiapas, Mexico. They receive training to monitor and defend the rights in their own community. Their communities choose them. After training, they become promoters of human rights who work in coordination with their communities.

Emergence of Indigenous Community Defenders

Chiapas is one of the Mexican states with the highest Indigenous population. Statistically, Mexican Indigenous populations are less educated, poorer and have worse health. They are also subjected to a variety of institutionalized discriminations. These limit their development. In the 1990s, political and military uprisings within the Indigenous populations led to a government response that exacerbated the negative situation. This allowed for human rights violations to occur.

Many international and Mexican non-governmental organizations (NGOs) got involved. They worked to try to stop these violations. In many cases these NGOs were located far from the rural areas. But the problems were occurring in the rural areas making advocacy difficult. Outside NGOs often did not understand the local context, which caused some problems. Mexican Indigenous populations also place great value upon the consensus of the community as a decision-making method.

Training Indigenous Defenders

In response, Indigenous communities in Chiapas began to organize and train community human rights defenders. These defenders are:

• trained promoters of human rights
• chosen by the community, and
• work in coordination with their communities.

Their fundamental role is to respond to human rights violation perpetrated by the Mexican state or its agents. But they also help with violations committed by community authorities should such an occasion arise.

Thirty defenders in fourteen different regions in Chiapas received training. The defenders are between eighteen and thirty-five years of age. Both men and women are able to take part. Before becoming defenders, all participants go through a yearlong training process. Once a month, they meet for an intensive session on human rights and penal issues, including visits to the justice and defense authorities. Sometimes prominent human rights activists are invited to speak at these sessions. The purpose of the training is to:

• build the defenders’ knowledge of human rights
• strengthen their self-confidence, and
• provide them with the practical skills, such as photography, videography and computer use, needed to perform their duties.

Advocacy and Support Mechanisms

Defenders monitor and present complaints to the government. They give information to the press and human rights monitoring groups. They seek the release or legal defense of people unjustly detained. They are able to locate detainees. They present requests of habeas corpus (the right to be brought before a judge to determine if an individual was lawful­ly detained) when rights are in jeopardy. They know how to file a request for precautionary measures. This is when human rights violations are imminent. They know who to approach to denounce violations when they occur. For cases that go before the courts or require long-term legal strategies, attorney advisors work collaboratively with the defenders.

In their communities, defenders engage in a range of work depending on existing needs. For example:

• collect testimony from victims and witnesses of human rights violations
• gather video and photo evidence of abuse, and
• determine appro­priate ways to intervene when a violation has occurred.

They also train other community members in this work. This approach has led to many successes. It has also increased the autonomy of indigenous communities by eliminating dependence on external actors such as NGOs.

For more information on this tactic, read our in-depth case study.