SUBMISSION ahead of the Canada-Mexico Dialogue on Human Rights & Multilateral Affairs

‍The following APG submission to Global Affairs Canada responds to a request for input regarding proposed themes for the 2026 Canada-Mexico Dialogue on Human Rights and Multilateral Affairs. Click here for the pdf.

INTRODUCTION

The Americas Policy Group (APG) is a national network of Canadian civil society organizations that works with counterparts in Latin America and the Caribbean for human rights, social justice and environmental protection. The APG brings together international development and humanitarian NGOs, human rights organizations, labour unions, faith-based and solidarity groups, and research institutions. Support for the vital efforts of civil society organizations in Mexico – which have achieved significant changes and advances despite enormous, ongoing obstacles - is a continuing focus for our collective work.

‍The APG welcomes the invitation from Global Affairs Canada to provide input on proposed themes for discussion at the 2026 Canada-Mexico Dialogue on Human Rights and Multilateral Affairs.

‍We are disappointed that cooperation around human rights is not named in the Canada-Mexico Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, nor any of its Working Groups. We hope and urge that this is remedied. Meanwhile, we provide the following input in the hope that issues of vital importance in both countries will be discussed in the Bilateral Dialogue and prioritized in a transversal fashion.

‍We wish to underscore that serious human rights challenges exist in both Canada and Mexico, requiring policy commitments by the governments of both countries. At the same time, both countries are facing unprecedented risks given the foreign policy of the Trump administration, and U.S. threats to sovereignty, territorial integrity and the rule of law. Strengthened cooperation between Canada and Mexico for the protection of the full spectrum of human rights is needed now more than ever.  

GENDER EQUALITY

‍The APG welcomes that gender equality has been proposed as a core theme for the Bilateral Dialogue on Human Rights and Multilateral Affairs. This dialogue with such a strategic partner is an important opportunity for Canada to renew its commitment to the international promotion of gender equality as a cross-cutting priority.

‍We worry about the relative peripherality given to gender equality within the Canada-Mexico Action Plan limited to two sections — with 4 brief references to “gender” and “women” and zero references to 2SLGBTQQIA+ people. We have observed the deprioritization of the Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP) and are deeply concerned that gender equality seeking initiatives will lose further terrain amid significant cuts to foreign aid, undermining the long-term approaches that are essential to the promotion of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), combatting sexual and gender-based violence, and the empowerment of women and girls.

‍We are also concerned that the position of Ambassador for Women, Peace and Security - created to oversee the implementation of the United Nations Security Council Resolutions on women, peace and security – remains vacant. Lack of action to engage this role undermines Canada’s credibility in multilateral spaces and bilateral negotiations, raising questions about the type of defense and security that the Government of Canada is pursuing.

‍We call for the Bilateral Dialogue on Human Rights and Multilateral Affairs to recast the importance of mutual commitments to gender equality as a guiding principle that should inform every area of Canada-Mexico cooperation and collaboration, including the CUSMA renegotiations, as discussed below. Improved wages and working conditions are essential for women’s access to economic justice and so is the need for governments to facilitate women workers’ transition to the formal economy. Efforts towards this objective by the Sheinbaum government should be recognized and supported.

‍We note other urgent issues in both countries. In Mexico, despite welcome reform of the General Law on Women’s Access to a Life Free of Violence, aimed at strengthening the prevention, punishment, and eradication of gender-based violence, high levels of femicide continue. Women searching for disappeared people face serious, disproportionate risks, highlighting the need for access to emergency protection measures with a gender and intersectional approach. In Canada, Indigenous, Black and racialized women and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people are disproportionately targeted through online threats, violence and racist abuse. There has been insufficient progress towards the implementation of the 231 Calls for Justice highlighted in the National Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

‍We urge strengthened consultation and coordination with civil society organizations representing rights holders in both countries with the goal of more effectively confronting the threats they face and advancing solutions they have identified. We encourage Canada to prioritize providing assistance to civil society groups representing the disappeared, which are often led by female family members. This should include assistance with forensic examination of remains to facilitate identification of victims and other support, in accordance with their wishes.

‍FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, MEDIA FREEDOM, AND RIGHTS IN THE DIGITAL SPACE

‍Technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TfGBV)

‍Technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TfGBV) has become a global phenomenon and should be included in any discussion of rights in the digital space. TfGBV makes it increasingly unsafe for women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people to engage with technology and benefit from social media, in a world increasingly driven by technological changes. Survivors of TfGBV have consistently reported reduced participation in digital spaces, where people end up deactivating their accounts, reducing their engagement with technology or censoring themselves in online spaces, which has a domino effect on other rights, including their right to access information, health services and livelihood opportunities.

‍Given the impact of TfGBV in both Canada and Mexico, the APG urges both countries to work together collaboratively for prevention, protection and remedy, taking on board the following recommendations:

• Enact and implement comprehensive legislative and policy measures to recognise, prevent, document, investigate and address all forms of TfGBV and provide redress and support for survivors.

• Ensure that women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people are able to freely and safely exercise their right to freedom of expression in digital spaces, without fear of discrimination, harassment, intimidation and violence, in line with international standards and safeguards.

• Ensure there are swift mechanisms in place that focus on providing redress and support for survivors, including ensuring that internet intermediaries have human-rights compliant and transparent mechanisms to address harmful content and facilitate accountable reporting by survivors.

• ‍Proactively remove structural and systemic barriers to gender equality, including by undertaking legislative measures, social policies and educational programmes to eliminate gender stereotypes, negative social norms and discriminatory attitudes against women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people and create awareness about the phenomenon of TfGBV, its consequences and intersectional harms.

• ‍Provide capacity building and training to all staff within law enforcement agencies, judicial authorities and cybercrime units to ensure they adopt a gender-responsive, trauma-informed, survivor-centric and intersectional feminist approach to dealing with survivors. Law enforcement agencies must be provided with necessary human and financial resources to provide all necessary support to survivors and should be held accountable for any mistreatment of survivors.

• Ensure meaningful consultation with civil society organisations, human rights defenders and activists working on women’s rights, gender and sexuality, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression and Sex Characteristics (SOGIESC) issues and feminist approaches to technology, especially those from marginalized communities, in the process of any policy development, and its implementation and monitoring.

‍Freedom of Expression and Media Freedom

Respect for the right to peaceful assembly is an essential component for freedom of expression. For this reason, the APG urges that protecting the right to peaceful assembly be part of discussions at the Dialogue on Human Rights and Multilateral Affairs. Please see our observations and recommendations under ‘SECURITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS’ on page 10.

‍Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries for human rights defenders and journalists. The Space for Civil Society Organizations (Espacio OSC) has documented that 205 human rights defenders and journalists have been killed in Mexico between 2016 and 2025. During this period, there were also 28 attempted murders and 62 disappearances of defenders and journalists. Article 19 has warned of an increased use of regulatory frameworks as censorship tools, registering 51 cases of judicial harassment against 39 journalists between January and July 2025, more than double the rate the previous year. Impunity remains a defining feature of the violence against journalists in Mexico. Despite hundreds of recorded attacks and dozens of murders, FEADLE – Mexico's Special Prosecutor's Office for Crimes Against Freedom of Expression – secured just eight convictions for journalist killings between 2012 and 2023, and federal authorities have never convicted those who ordered the killings. Journalists most at risk tend to be based outside Mexico City, covering crime and the intersection of organized crime and political corruption for local and regional outlets.

The Protection Mechanism provides protection measures to about 2,500 defenders and journalists. This can include bodyguards, armoured vehicles and safe houses, but more often it takes the form of assistance hotlines, cameras and physical security measures such as fencing for homes and offices.

‍The Mechanism is understaffed (with just eight analysts), has excessive wait times, has seen its annual budget of about CAD $45 million cut, and needs to strengthen gender, community and intersectional approaches.

‍Defenders and journalists have been killed while waiting to be admitted into the Protection Mechanism, many have been killed because of insufficient protection from the Mechanism, and we have reasons to believe that there are defenders and journalists in the Mechanism because of threats linked to their opposition to Canadian megaprojects.

‍In January 2024, at the United Nations Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Mexico, Canada called on Mexico to: “Strengthen, from an intersectional and gender perspective, the federal Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, specifically in the areas of prevention, protection, investigation, and reparation.” We support this call, which remains relevant.

‍In May 2025, at the Canada-Mexico Dialogue on Human Rights and Multilateral Affairs, the discussion on “Freedom of Expression and the Right to Security” included “the risks faced by journalists and human rights defenders in Mexico and globally” and “Mexico’s human rights protection mechanisms”.

‍The APG urges: that the 2026 Canada-Mexico Dialogue on Human Rights and Multilateral Affairs moves beyond discussing the risks faced by human rights and journalists to measurable cooperation around strengthening the Protection Mechanism. This could include international assistance from Canada to increase the budget of the Protection Mechanism, a commitment to reduce wait times, an increase in the number of Protection Mechanism staff, an increase in the number of defenders and journalists protected, a strengthening of the protection measures provided to them, and a database that evaluates how successfully the Protection Mechanism is protecting human rights defenders and journalists, as well as reducing the overall level of violence against defenders and journalists

The APG calls on Canada’s Embassy in Mexico to more regularly implement the “Voices at Risk” guidelines to support defenders and journalists. One way to build confidence in this tool is for the Embassy to measure the number of times it has been implemented.

‍ECONOMIC RIGHTS

‍Strong labour and human rights are integral to fair and equitable trade. 

‍Given the instability of the North American economy while the CUSMA is under review, there is a strong risk of regression on labour rights, where employers could reinforce anti-union practices. Meanwhile, tariffs are impacting workers via factory closures and a halt to negotiations around contractual wage increases.

‍Whether under CUSMA or a new bilateral deal, raising the floor will benefit Mexican workers as well as Canadian workers, who will not be unfairly penalized for having decent labour standards and legitimate union protection.

‍The Canada-Mexico Comprehensive Strategic Partnership will lead to greater Canadian investment in Mexican industry, especially in sectors like mining, pipelines, railway infrastructure, ports and megaprojects that have historically been dominated by protection unionism, the repression of labour rights, high levels of workplace violence, a high frequency of worker injuries and threats against opponents and journalists. It is critical that there is strong investment in and cooperation around labour rights in tandem with the promotion and the safety of defenders and journalists, with particular attention to Indigenous defenders.

‍Canada must uphold its obligations to enforce commitments under the Labour Chapter of CUSMA, particularly given the significant presence of Canadian corporations in Mexico, many of which are complicit in supporting protection unions and do not ensure genuine freedom of association in their workplaces. 

‍As expressed by labour advocates in Mexico, Canada and the United States, the Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) should be expanded to apply symmetrically to all three countries. We also urge that the sectors to which the RRM is applied should be expanded to include energy, the service sector, agriculture and migrant workers. As well, the definition of “denial of rights” under the RRM should be expanded to include discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation or gender expression, as well as gender-based violence, child labour, health and safety, along with the floor of minimum standards of work. For more, see this submission to the CUSMA Labour Council by the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), a longtime APG member. 

‍Canada must engage seriously with cases filed under the RRM, following the timelines specified in CUSMA’s Labour Chapter, and not rely on the U.S. government to set precedents through its use of the RRM. This is particularly important in cases involving Canadian-owned corporations, where there is a growing perception by Mexican and Canadian unions and civil society, that the Canadian government is reluctant to challenge the conduct of Canadian firms in politically influential sectors, such as Orla Mining.

‍Canada and Mexico must work together to uphold the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, amended in 2022 to include “a safe and healthy working environment” in the ILO's framework of fundamental principles and rights at work. The lack of healthy and safe workplaces usually impacts women, unrepresented groups, and Indigenous people (for example, in mining and manufacturing). Mexico and Canada are bound by the new fundamental principle.

‍Canada and Mexico must also work together to ensure effective, consistent implementation of theILO Violence and Harassment Convention (C-190), which both countries have ratified and which recognizes the right of everyone to a world of work free from violence and harassment, including gender-based violence and harassment. 

Canada must again allocate staff from Employment and Social Development Canada, to serve as labour attachés based in Mexico, to directly monitor the labour relations environment in Mexico, and receive complaints made under CUSMA’s Labour Chapter. When complaints include allegations of violence, Canadian staff must apply a human rights framework to prioritize the protection of Mexican trade unionists at risk, up to and including offering asylum in Canada if necessary.

‍Canada should establish its own version of the U.S. “Independent Mexico Labour Experts Board”, which would report to Parliament.

‍Trade missions must include participation by labour organizations.

‍In order to comply with the legal obligations of both Canada and Mexico under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the APG urges:    

• ‍No new investment project be permitted to advance without the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous people who will be impacted.

• Revision of Article 32.5 of the CUSMA, to remove any ambiguity or conditions, and so that it reads: “This Agreement does not preclude a Party from adopting or maintaining a measure it deems necessary to fulfil its legal obligations to Indigenous Peoples.” For analysis of why the current general exception has been shown to be insufficient to protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples, see this submission by our colleagues at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

‍The APG also urges that access to Mexico’s federal Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists (referenced above under ‘Freedom of Expression’) is extended to trade unionists at risk of violence. Recent and ongoing situations in which trade unionists have experienced violence or threats of violence include local leaders of the Mineros union at the Canadian-owned Orla Mining’s Camino Rojo mine since 2024, and the workers on strike at the Tornel tire factory, where several picketers were injured by gunfire on March 18, 2026.  

‍The APG urges that mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence legislation be brought forward without delay, as other middle-power global partners like Europe have done. The CNCA’s model legislation is a reference.

‍ADDRESSING GLOBAL CHALLENGES IN MULTILATERAL SETTINGS

Repeated threats by President Trump to annex Canada, the U.S. military intervention in Venezuela and forced removal of President Maduro on January 3, threats of U.S. military action in Colombia, Mexico and Cuba, lethal U.S. military attacks on civilian vessels, and U.S. coercive measures to withhold fuel from Cuba are all egregious violations of international law. They set a dangerous precedent, undermining peaceful coexistence, human rights and the rule of law in the region.

‍The APG is heartened by a principled public statement by Mexico and five other countries on 4 January 2026. We urge Canada to use the Bilateral Dialogue for discussion with Mexico of joint diplomacy to defend the UN Charter and internationally recognized human rights in the face of unlawful U.S. threats and attacks. Specifically, the APG calls on Canada and Mexico to:

• Work together – including at the UN and in other spaces for multilateral action - to end the unlawful oil blockade and other punitive economic measures against Cuba that violate international law, as well as to expand Cuba’s access to humanitarian supplies.

• ‍Collaborate and cooperate in multilateral settings on diplomacy and action that reject and seek an end to egregious violations of international law by the United States, including:

• Ongoing lethal attacks on civilian vessels in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.

• Threats and attacks on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of countries in the Americas, including Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia and Cuba. 

COOPERATION IN REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL BODIES ON SHARED PRIORITIES

‍The APG calls on Canada and Mexico to work together in regional bodies like the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) to:

• Resist U.S. actions which threaten the security and sovereignty of member states.

• ‍Promote and protect gender equality and the full spectrum of human rights, including the rights of Indigenous peoples and labour rights.

• ‍Promote, protect and advance environmental sustainability and climate justice.

‍The APG also calls on Canada and Mexico to coordinate and cooperate to support implementation of the Tlatelolco Commitment, approved at the XVI Regional Conference on Women (held last August in Tlatelolco, Mexico City), that established a decade of action from 2025 to 2035 to accelerate achievement of substantive gender equality and the care society through political, economic, social, cultural and environmental transformations.

‍SECURITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS

‍Members of the APG urge that ‘Security and Human Rights’ should be added as a topic of discussion at the Bilateral Dialogue and wish to answer an important question raised at our meeting on March 27 about the role of the military in policing in Mexico. 

‍With a goal of combatting surging violence and the growing power of drug cartels, the Mexican military was deployed for internal public security operations in 2006, a public security strategy that remains in place 20 years later. This has coincided with an increase in disappearances, killings and extrajudicial executions. In 2024 and 2025, Congress passed laws transferring the National Guard – the main public security institution in Mexico – to the control of the Secretary of National Defence, along with other armed forces, further relinquishing control of public security to the military. The use of torture and other ill-treatment by Mexican police, prosecutors and soldiers has been described as a "widespread practice" by the World Organization Against Torture. 

‍The participation of the armed forces in public security tasks violates Mexico's international human rights obligations. These establish that the maintenance of public order should be reserved primarily for civilian police forces, which must be trained and equipped to make differentiated use of force and firearms, in accordance with the principles of necessity and proportionality. This was affirmed by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in 2018. 

‍The APG recognizes the complicated policy challenges, given the geographical expansion, territorial contestation and power of violent criminal organizations in Mexico, equipped with army grade weaponry exported from the U.S. 

‍Given that security and defense are a shared priority for both Mexico and Canada, the APG urges that the Bilateral Dialogue on Human Rights and Multilateral Affairs underscore the importance of engaging with civil society in both Mexico and Canada to find non-military alternatives that support the rights, safety and wellbeing of everyone. This will require financial commitments, as well as cooperation to promote gender equality and economic rights. 

‍Security during the World Cup

‍Concerns about security are a top priority for Canada and Mexico as both countries prepare to host the World Cup. 

‍President Sheinbaum has announced that almost 100,000 security personnel will be mobilized for the World Cup, partly in response to violence following the killing of El Mencho. Reportedly, 20,000 military personnel will work alongside 55,000 police and a range of private security companies. 

‍In Toronto, plans have been announced to deploy members of a specialized police task force with semi-automatic rifles at key locations in the city, including places of worship, tourist attractions, high traffic public spaces and critical infrastructure to "prevent, detect and disrupt" extremist violence and terrorism. 

‍It is essential that security strategies do not violate human rights, including the right to freedom of association.

‍In Mexico, families searching for relatives subjected to enforced disappearance have called for a protest against ongoing impunity at the opening match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The families are planning a human chain but say they will not block fan access to the stadium.

‍The right to peaceful assembly has come under increasing pressure across Mexico. Amnesty International has documented the use of criminal proceedings against land, territory and environmental defenders for their participation in protests without complying with the principles of legality, necessity and proportionality. In recent years, authorities in at least 14 states have responded to peaceful demonstrations with unlawful force, arbitrary detention, and rhetoric designed to delegitimize protesters' causes. This repression is disproportionately directed at

‍Indigenous peoples, racialized communities, and women claiming their human rights, while vague criminal offences such as "riot" and "obstruction of public works" are routinely used to criminalize the exercise of the right to peaceful assembly. 

‍The APG urges a commitment by Canada and Mexico to protect the right to peaceful protest by ensuring that policing of assemblies complies with international standards on legality, necessity, proportionality, and accountability, including the UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials and the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms. Military forces should not be involved in the policing of public assemblies, since they are trained to fight against enemies and not to protect and control civilians. ‍