Children's Access to Justice for Environmental Rights | Mexico

This report looks at whether the laws and policies in Mexico make it possible for children to access their environmental rights.

In Mexico, a number of articles set the constitutional basis for environmental rights. Notably, the Constitution affords every person a right to “a healthy environment for their development and wellbeing” and establishes liability for environmental damage or degradation. The Constitution also contains the state responsibility for assuring that national development is conducted in an environmentally sustainable manner and its obligation to consider the preservation and productive use of natural resources. Further, the General Law on the Rights of Children and Adolescents (Ley General de los Derechos de Niñas, Niños y Adolescentes) explicitly protects the rights of children and adolescents to live in a healthy and sustainable environment, “and in conditions that enable their development, well-being, healthy and harmonious growth, physically as well as mentally, materially, spiritually, ethically, culturally and socially”. In 2018, a draft bill was presented to reform this law with the aim of making the Federation, the states of the republic and municipal public administrations responsible for promoting the protection, preservation and improvement of the environment with a child-friendly approach, but it was rejected. Although environmental rights are enshrined in the national legal framework, commentators have noted a significant gap in implementing the law.

Courts have applied and adopted intergenerational equity as a tesis (an abstract written expression of the criteria used to interpret legal norms, which becomes binding precedent after five instances of the same expression) but this concept remains an underdeveloped principle in environmental justice. Courts have also recognised the right of citizens and communities to exercise direct participation in decision-making relating to matters of public interest, including environmental issues.

Children and adolescents have been part of community-based processes of organisation, resistance and denunciation on environmental and health issues, which have contributed to many of the achievements in these areas. However, although freedom of assembly is a constitutionally protected right, certain States and Municipalities restrict the right to engage in peaceful assemblies by introducing criminal sanctions for protesters, including children over the age of 12, which could be subject to criminal sanctions for breach of the limitations to the right to peaceful assembly. Human rights organisations have raised concerns about the National Use of Force Law, fearing it may be used to suppress both political protest and free association. Children in areas which experience connectivity issues, especially those from indigenous communities and in rural and remote areas, are particularly affected by material barriers to the right to access to information.

This report was published in June 2023 and developed with the support of REDIM (Red por los Derechos de la Infancia en México) as well as finalised based on any feedback from the State. To learn more read the full report below, and please get in touch if this information was useful and you want to talk more.