Mexico, Federal District, Sunday, December 05, 1999

Kofi Annan.- Secretary-General of the United Nations Organization
Mary Robinson.- High Commissioner for Human Rights
Koichiro Matsuura.- Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
Federico Mayor Zaragoza.- Director of the Office of International Standards and Legal Affairs of UNESCO

Present


For 204 days the most important university in Mexico, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM) has been held hostage by a group of students and teachers that represent only a small and reduced percentage of the institution's academic composition. Originated by reforms to the General Rule of Payments of the University, this situation, a student strike, could have found an intelligent solution in several proposals of the former Dean, Dr. Francisco Barnés de Castro, and of a group of highly respected scholars that tried to promote the dialogue between the authorities and the self-proclaimed General Council of the Strike (Consejo General de Huelga, CGH). Even though, the strike has not ended and has only revealed the immense inability of both federal and state governments to protect fundamental human rights and constitutional guaranties. This is a terrible and dreadful situation since it affects a large sector of the university's student and academic population. As a member of this afflicted group, I have done a check on the legal bases of the movement and on the responsibilities of Mexican authorities and have found that negligence has been the daily practice for 204 days. I will first explain briefly the causes of this conflict, followed by the consequences and finishing with the legal bases of this presentation.

Due to an increase in the tuition (of $0.02 USD to $60.00), accepted by the University's Council, the legal organ in charge of internal reforms of the university, composed by students, academics and authorities, a group of students decided to start strikes through out several Faculties and Schools of the UNAM, briefly after published the decision of the CU (University's Council). A high number of Faculties and Schools accepted the strike, except by the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Engineering that were abandoned to prevent friction between anti-strike students and those members of the strike.

After about two months, the Dean, Dr. Francisco Barnés de Castro, convoked to an extraordinary session of the CU where the tuition was made a voluntary cooperation, theoretically ending the strike. The students did not end the strike and so several proposals were created, the most important developed by a group of neutral scholars known as the "eméritos" that was conciliatory and extremely intelligent. The CGH (General Council of Strike) did not accept the proposal since they considered it to be a scam of the Dean. And so the several attempts to approach the CGH by means of dialogue have all failed and have lead the University to its longest strike in history. The students that are part of the strike maintain the position that they will not stop until the authority grants them a six-point manifesto:

  1. The abrogation of the General Rule of Payments and the elimination of all fees (an absolutely free education).
  2. The derogation of the reforms imposed by the CU of June 9 of 1997 that would guarantee no restrictions to ingress in the university.
  3. The creation of a dialogue forum.
  4. No sanctions to the members of the strike.
  5. The recuperation of the lost scholar days by extending the calendar.
  6. No ingression exam.
The immediate consequence of the strike has been the loss of 204 days of our college education and of the scientific and humanistic investigation that is conducted in the UNAM. In my personal case I am a student of the career of physics and there are only 3 institutions that provide this career in Mexico City, being one of them the UNAM and the other two possibilities not available until September of the year 2000, creating a delay of more than one year in my academic formation. Also, as an artist that participated in the First National Historic Painting Contest, I have been affected since 2 exhibitions were not carried out because the UNAM could not print the catalogue and could not provide assistance due to the strike. Also, the damage to artistic and material patrimony is extensive and represents a severe economic affliction in a University that has by its self many problems in this subject.

After investigating international and local laws, I have reached the next conclusions:

  1. The strike has stopped and/or slowed down all scientific and humanistic research projects that were being conducted in the University and collaborations with other institutions. This constitutes a violation of the article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights since the university's authorities have not provided a satisfactory condition to develop normal academic labors
  2. The barricades that surround the National Autonomous University of Mexico constitute a violation of article 13 of the Universal Declaration and of article 11 of the Mexican Constitution since we, as students who follow the rules exposed in the General Statue of the UNAM, have the write to use and go into the buildings as long as we do not break any internal law.
  3. Since the UNAM is the most important center of cultural and academic activities of the country and the guardian of the National Library and several large cultural forums, the strike prevents us from taking part of these activities and of receiving formal education both in high school as in college there is a clear violation of article 26 and 27 of the Universal Declaration, of article 3 of Mexican Constitution and of several articles of the Organic Law of the University.
  4. The points 2 and 6 of the student manifesto of permitting free access to superior education without any academic reserves is an absurd request that goes against point 1 of article 26 since education has to consider only academic achievements. Besides, it is extremely unconscious to generate such an enormous economic burden on the taxpayers, especially in a country that has important social problems due to poverty.
  5. The slogan of the strike of "Education first to the prelature's sons, then to the bourgeois's sons" is a terribly ignorant phrase, with fascist connotations, that goes against perhaps the most fundamental right of all, that expressed in article 1 of the Universal Declaration, and represents an attitude not fit in an academic community.
  6. The lack of interest in the resolution of the conflict by part of Federal and Local governments and their negligence in attending human right violations is unacceptable. It is their Constitutional duty to stop this strike by pacific means since we have found many violations to laws by part of students and of authorities.
I must leave clear that we reach to the organizations above mentioned to promote the co-operation between university, local and federal authorities to achieve a solution to the conflict without the violation of the guarantees offered by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Mexican Constitution and local laws. In this attempt we have contacted Dr. Luis de la Barreda, president of the Human Rights Commission of the Federal District to whom a similar but more complete document was presented. I include a copy of this document that is a more precise legal investigation. I hope this letter serves as a starting point in the resolution of the conflict.

I appreciate your incalculable attention and hope you contact the parts involved.



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