INSTITUTIONAL PROJECT

1. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

Mexico has opened itself to international scrutiny, adopting positive measures directed at generating a full guar-
antee of human rights. Nevertheless, the human rights situation continues to be an issue of concern and must
be made a priority on the national agenda.

Grave and systemic violations of human rights have become the norm, and owe in large measure to flawed
structures and practices which permit and foster them. What is more, recent years have brought serious set-
backs, particularly in the area of democratic freedoms, such that there is an inconsistency between the progres-
sive discourse maintained at the international level, and the domestic situation.

The establishment of several specialized agencies and programs at both the national and local levels has not
been sufficient to remedy the prevailing atmosphere of impunity, caused in grand measure by a lack of political
will. The foregoing reflects the weakness of our institutions to defend human rights in Mexico.

For its part, civil society is dispersed and, in certain cases, acting in contexts of atomization and confrontation.
This intensifies the need to construct a citizenry capable of demanding and asserting its rights.

Against this backdrop, the judicial branch must play a determining role, the justice system being the primary
guarantor of human rights under democratic rule of law.

Without a doubt, human rights violations and the ineffectiveness of our institutions in the face of abuses of power
have a grave effect on society. The key challenge, therefore, is to fortify rule of law and work toward a full de-
mocracy from within the field of justice, with human rights as the guiding principle of state policy. The same im-
plies social change.

2. STRATEGIC LITIGATION IN MEXICO

The adoption of the International Law of Human Rights by the domestic legal system renders the latter fertile
terrain for strategic human rights litigation.

Strategic human rights litigation seeks the recognition of human rights violations, determinations of responsibility,
full compensation for damages, and institutional reform.
Through strategic litigation of cases of human rights violations in national and international courts, the structural
patterns that allow or foster these violations are made legible (itself a service toward promotion and protection of
human rights).
Strategic human rights litigation is aided by appropriate documentation, data-collection and topic area research,
paving the way for public denunciation and the establishment of precedents defending human rights based on
international standards.

Finally, strategic human rights litigation promotes democratic practices such as transparent and efficient book-
keeping, in this case within the judiciary, at the same time that it serves as a mechanism of checks and balances
of the powers that be.

3. DESCRIPTION OF THE ORGANIZATION

i(dh)eas, Strategic Human Rights Litigation, A.C. is a civic not-for-profit organization, secular and non-partisan, a
pioneer in the use of strategic litigation as a tool for social change and state reform.

As such, i(dh)eas performs the work of monitoring, analysis, research, documentation, communication, educa-
tion and training in relation to strategic litigation and human rights -- fundamental tasks toward the achievement
of a national culture of full respect for basic rights principles.

At the same time, i(dh)eas lends its services to compatible civic organizations, seeking above all to strengthen
those without experience in legal defense strategies.

To achieve its goals, i(dh)eas establishes alliances with the victims of human rights violations, as well as with
national and international human rights organizations, judicial authorities, academic institutions, and finally com-
panies and private foundations.

4. AREAS OF CURRENT WORK

Justice and democratic rule of law

Equality, non-discrimination, and social rights
Immigrant and refugee issues
The rights of women
4. ORGANIZATION FLOWCHART

5. ADVISORY BOARDS

INTERNATIONAL

Federico Andreu-Guzmn
Sub-Director of Litigation of the Comisin Colombiana de Juristas
Colombia

Gastn Chillier
Executive Director of the Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS)
Argentina

Katya Salazar
Executive Director of Due Process of Law Foundation
USA

Francisco Sobern
Director of the Asociacin Pro Derechos Humanos (APRODEH)
Peru

Susana Villarn de la Puente

Former President of the Comisin Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH)
Peru
NATIONAL

Mariclaire Acosta Urquidi

Associate Researcher at the Centro de Investigacin y Docencia Econmicas (CIDE)

Sergio Aguayo Quezada

Academic Researcher at the Colegio de Mxico, A.C.

Emilio lvarez Icaza Longoria

Former President of the Comisin de Derechos Humanos del Distrito Federal

Jos Luis Caballero Ochoa

Academic Researcher at the Universidad Iberoamericana

Santiago Corcuera Cabezut

Member of the UN Working Group on Forced or Involuntary Disappearances

Clara Jusidman Rapoport

Honorary President of Incide Social, A.C.

Miguel Sarre Iguiniz

Academic Researcher at the Instituto Tecnolgico Autnomo de Mxico (ITAM)

6. ASSEMBLY

i(dh)eas has as its governing body an Assembly of Associates, comprised of:

Siria Yuritzi Oliva Ruz, lawyer for the Universidad Intercontinental (UICE) and scholarship recipient from the
Centro de Estudios de Justicia de las Amricas (Chile), lawyer and juridical director of the Comisin Mexicana
de Defensa y Promocin de los Derechos Humanos, A.C. (CMDPDH), and deputy coordinator of networking at
Sin Fronteras, I.A.P.

Fabin Snchez Matus, a lawyer trained at the Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad Nacional Autnoma de
Mxico, was a consultant for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Mexico (OACNUDH),
lawyer and general director of the Comisin Mexicana de Defensa y Promocin de los Derechos Humanos, A.C.
(CMDPDH), external advisor to the President of the Comisin de Derechos Humanos del Distrito Federal
(CDHDF), consultant in Mexico of the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) and is a member of
Ashoka Social Entrepreneurs and a professor at the Instituto Tecnolgico Autnomo de Mxico (ITAM).

Mario Santiago Jurez, a Doctor of Jurisprudence trained at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, was a con-
sultant to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Mexico (OACNUDH), co-coordinator of the
Masters program in Human Rights and Democracy at the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales
(FLACSO), adjunct researcher for the Second Visitation of the Human Rights Commission to Mexico City, mem-
ber of the Sistema Nacional de Investigadores de CONACYT Nivel C, and coordinator of the program in law at
the Universidad Autnoma del Estado de Hidalgo (UAEH). Currently, he is a professor and researcher at the
UAEH, a professor within the Masters program in human rights at the FLACSO and advisor to the National
Council of Discrimination Prevention Council (CONAPRED).

7. OFFICES

a) Executive Division

Responsible for the institutional representation of i(dh)eas, the implementation of institutional objectives in the
structure, organization and actions of the organization, and the coordination of operations among members of
the distinct areas, programs, projects, and those constituting the professional team.

Fabin Snchez Matus, executive director, fsanchez@idheas.org

b) Litigation Division

The Litigation Division has as its object the amplification and facilitation of access to justice, prioritizing the inter-
ests and needs of the victims of human rights violations through permanent collaboration with the organizations
that serve them and the defense groups that provide them with a voice.

In the same vein, the Division prepares and presents paradigmatic cases of human rights violations, providing
sound legal advice and due representation in courts of law, as well as proposes appropriate litigation strategies
to ensure enforcement of human rights standards in the cases in question.

Additionally, the Litigation Division offers training, legal representation and counsel, and develops in counterpart
organizations skills and experience in the use of strategic human rights litigation, such that they become inde-
pendent and enabled to lead initiatives of their own.

Finally, the Division shares experience and knowledge and builds networks, alliances, and collaborative agendas
in strategic human rights litigation.

Javier Cruz Angulo Nobara, director of litigation, jangulo@idheas.org

b) Research Division

Strategic litigation is closely linked with research, both theoretical and empirical the provision of key input for
the development of organizational goals.

The Research Division develops and coordinates, taking a multidisciplinary, comparative approach, the institu-
tional production of analysis, reflection and critique regarding the central themes of our work.
Research is aimed fundamentally at providing inputs to inform plans for and orientation of strategic litigation, as
well as to aid in dialogues with academic institutions, especially those research centers sharing a similar objec-
tive.

Moreover, the Division establishes amicus curiae for both national and international courts, contributing its exper-
tise in human rights and promoting the implementation of international standards.

Mario Santiago Jurez, research director, msantiago@idheas.org

c) Communications Division

The Communications Division is committed to the definition and implementation of the public relations plan, and
through it the communication of the achievements, progress and challenges facing the organization, employing,
to that end, the appropriate media and publicity tools with the aim of securing a strategic public position for
i(dh)eas.

Our times require swift and efficient processing of the information generated within distinct political, economic
and social spheres, such that it can be broadcast quickly through the media to a wide public, a public which at
times transcends national borders.

The growth and development of non-governmental or Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) is one of the most sig-
nificant phenomena of recent years on the panorama of international cooperation. The continued professionali-
zation of CSOs lends to the development and implementation of professional techniques and tools of communi-
cation.

Within i(dh)eas, communication is understood as a management tool in service of the institutional mission, allow-
ing the establishment and maintenance of a strong and advantageous position for our organization among oth-
ers.

Professional communication with regard to human rights is a vehicle to apprise society of the issues and funda-
mental principles of human rights, aiding in the creation of a true culture of human rights, lending to debate and
securing allies.

Alejandro Jurez Zepeda, communications director, ajuarez@idheas.org

8. PROGRAMS

A) Program on Immigrants and Refugees

In the area of immigration and refugee issues, i(dh)eas has as its aim the promotion and defense of the human
rights of migrants and asylum-seekers through strategic litigation of paradigmatic cases (especially those involv-
ing more vulnerable demographics: women and children), in order to change the structures that facilitate or en-
able these violations of rights and reverse this situation.
This goal is to be met through consolidation, in the long term, of four objectives, which in combination will con-
tibute significantly to the social movement at work on these issues in Mexico. These objectives are:

1.Increase legal and public actions that provide visibility to the situation of migrants and asylum-seekers by civil and
social entities that defend their human rights.

2.Strengthen the capacities and opportunities of these entities to make recommendations and impact policies adopted
by decision-makers.

3.Provide a more complete and analytical methodology for systematizing the violations of human rights of migrants
and asylum-seekers.

4.Pave the way for the implementation of a plan of intervention and communication between different key actors in the
field.

Based upon the foregoing, i(dh)eas offers itself as a reference organization, supporting other civil and social or-
ganizations in Mexico in the strategic litigation of cases of violation of the human rights of migrants and asylum-
seekers.

Edoardo Bazzaco, program coordinator, ebazzaco@idheas.org

Arel Palomo Contreras, representative on the southern border, apalomo@idheas.org

B) Ombudsgay program

In our country, identity politics have convened many actors in the struggle for recognition. Since the 1970s, these
actors have successfully established themselves within broader democractic movements and the fight for equal-
ity.

In Mexican society, the movement for the recognition of the rights of the LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-
gender and intersex) collective has made important advances. Nonethelesss, despite reconfigurations of strate-
gic alliances and demands, in the arena of public policy and legal norms there remains a significant gap.

The LGBTI movement is and has been emblematic for its incorporation, in past battles, of innovative tactics for
social change, and thus currently faces a more favorable context for the continuation of the fight for full enjoy-
ment of human rights and the satisfaction of other demands specific to the population, under the principles of
equality and non-discrimination.

At a moment of definition of new junctions which allow for new alternatives of visibility and advances beyond
those provided by traditional activism, as well as novel mechanisms for positioning the issues of a demographic
of varied identity, i(dh)eas, through its Ombusdgay program, presents the Mexican Center against Homophobia
(OMHO) to advocate for the rights of sexual diversity. It seeks to become a leader and representative in the field,
in a position to articulate and promote the rights of non-heterosexual people, including those who, for fear of so-
cial exclusion, have kept their sexual preferences private.
Our objective is twofold, combining seemingly opposed elements: to take the foundations of a discourse that
posits the construction of traditional citizenship through a universalist approach, and adding to this an emphasize
upon new mechanisms of collective action as derived from the experiences of the new social movements, bor-
rowing strategies of organization and action from these global collectives.

An Ombudsgay embodies a space between the activist community and the regular LGBTI population, assuming
an unprecented position between the public and the private, between daily life and political life. An Ombudsgay
creates a space of open dialogue for the culture, the media, political actors, and private interests, uncensored,
where words need not be minced. This means the inclusion by the LGBTI agenda of what formerly constituted
gaps in the social structure.

The Ombudsgay program does not replace any already existent effort, but rather launches new and far-reaching
actions:

1.Observation and awareness-raising of the phenomenon of LGBTI discrimination in the private sphere, including in
the family and workplace.

2.Utilization of the justice system and strategic litigation as a tool to make visible the systematic violation of the human
rights of the LGBTI community and to combat the problem at its structural base through legal sentences.

3.The insertion of the Ombudsgay initiative onto the agenda of the global LGBTI movement.

Thus, the key work areas of the program are thus: a) observation; b) advocacy; c) strategic litigation of paradig-
matic cases; and d) participation and impact in the global agenda.

The need to achieve a state of absolute respect for the rights of the LGBTI community is urgent, and implies the
monitoring and scrutiny of related phenomena in order to promote improved terms of relations both within and
without the population in question.

Alejandro Jurez Zepeda, program coordinator, ombudsgay@idheas.org

c) Research and Strategic Litigation Clinic (CILE)

Through theoretical and practical teachings on strategic litigation in cases of human rights violations, as well as
through thematically relevant research, the Clnica de Investigacin y Litigio Estratgico (CILE) seeks to gener-
ate a space of practice, as well as prepare and train students from distinct universities in the welding of legal
tools and focused research in order to use these skills and experiences as innovators in the legal field, creating
a critical mass concerned with the issues of human rights and the public interest.

The CILE also offers services and support to civil society organizations engaged in related topics. Thus the
Clinic intervenes into public space, presenting novel initiatives whereby the justice system becomes a catalyst
for social change.

Fabin Snchez Matus, coordinator of the CILE, clinica@idheas.org

Mario Santiago Jurez & Javier Cruz Angulo Nobara, instructors.