[legal-professionals] ABA urges probe of Mexican attorney's murder

[***Orginally posted on the INTHUMRIGHTS@MAIL.ABANET.ORG listserv, Mod.***]

ABA URGES PROBE OF MEXICAN ATTORNEY'S MURDER
Letter to President Fox Is Part of a Widening Focus on Human Rights Issues

BY WENDELL LaGRAND

The ABA is urging the Mexican government to continue its investigation of 
last October's murder of Digna Ochoa y Placido, a leading human rights 
attorney.

In an April letter sent to Mexican President Vicente Fox, ABA President 
Robert E. Hirshon says the association "shares with you your outrage, and 
the outrage of the international legal community" over the murder of Ochoa, 
a 2000 recipient of the International Human Rights Award presented by the 
ABA Section of Litigation. Ochoa was gunned down in her Mexico City office.

The ABA supports the Mexican government's efforts to investigate Ochoa's 
murder and "commends the steps [the government has] taken to date in the 
field of human rights and judicial reform," Hirshon wrote in his letter to 
Fox. The letter also offers ABA assistance to achieve those objectives.

Hirshon, of Portland, Maine, sent the letter to Fox under the ABA's Rule of 
Law Letter Program. The policy-making House of Delegates initiated the 
program in 1975. It authorizes ABA presidents to communicate with foreign 
governments about the association's concerns for lawyers and judges 
striving to uphold human rights. Since 1990, ABA presidents have sent 36 
letters to the governments of 22 countries.

Ochoa's murder signifies the extreme risks that lawyers can encounter when 
advocating for human rights, and the ABA's response reflects the growing 
attention the association has given to human rights issues in recent years.

A number of ABA entities have always been involved in addressing human 
rights issues. And last year, the ABA created the Center for Human Rights 
to focus on this type of work.

"In light of everything going on in the world, there never has been a more 
important time for the ABA to have a thrust into the field of human rights, 
both domestically and internationally," says Steven T. Walther of Reno, 
Nev., who chairs the center's executive board.

The center "gives us a vehicle to magnify the talent that is already there 
by bringing the various entities together," Walther says. "It focuses on 
the long-range ABA projects."

Walther plans for the center to work both within and outside the ABA to 
enhance public education on human rights issues, advise the House of 
Delegates on those issues and provide appropriate technical assistance to 
outside rights organizations.

Two of the center's primary functions are coordinating the ABA's Trial 
Observer Program, as well as the Rule of Law Letter Program, Walther says.

Under the Trial Observer Program, an ABA president may appoint a lawyer or 
judge to monitor a trial or other legal proceeding in a foreign country to 
assess whether the proceedings are being conducted in a manner that assures 
due process protections recognized by international law.

The Human Rights Center will oversee both programs by providing expertise 
and support in hopes of raising their profiles, Walther says. The center 
will recommend trials to which the ABA should send observers and train 
lawyers and judges selected to be observers. The center also will 
disseminate reports written by the observers.

Information on ABA activities in the human rights law field is available on 
the center's Web site, http://www.abanet.org/humanrights. Among other 
information, the site lists programs relating to human rights issues 
sponsored by ABA entities and the International Bar Association.