Mexico to Limit Military Tribunals for Abuses Against Civilians

In a unanimous decision, Mexico’s Supreme Court of Justice (Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación - SCJN) ruled yesterdaythat civilian judges in the country may prosecute members of the armed forces who commit human rights violations, according to El Universal. It also found that Mexican judges should seek to limit the number of cases tried in military courts in the future, advising justices to “apply criteria restricting the jurisdiction of military courts in future cases.”

The ruling was meant to bring the Mexican judicial system in compliance with the ruling in Radilla Pacheco v. Mexico, a 2009 Inter-American Human Rights Court decision which found that military courts should only handle internal military discipline cases, not cases of abuse against civilians.

While the ruling is a major human rights milestone, La Jornada points out that it only applies when the constitutionality of a military tribunal is in question, and will not automatically send all military abuse cases to civilian courts, as many human rights activists in the country would like.

Additionally, there may be loopholes in the decision for prosecutors, detectives and police, who are responsible for initially referring cases to the different courts. As Quetzalcoatl Fontanot -- spokesman for the Miguel Agustin Pro Human Rights Center -- told the Associated Press, these individuals might argue that the ruling does not apply to them since they are not part of the judiciary.

Still, according to the AP, the ruling does allow for victims to appeal to the Supreme Court to oppose the use of military trials in their cases, meaning that if enough of these appeals are successful, it would create a precedent under Mexican law which could severely limit their applicability.

Of course, as the  L.A. Times and BBC point out, the success of this ruling will inevitably be limited by the high level of impunity and corruption within Mexico’s judicial system, where only a fraction of crimes are followed by a criminal investigation, much less a conviction.

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