UNAM recognizes defenders of migrants

The awardees are: Alma Anaya, Cook County Commissioner, Chicago, Illinois; Sadot Azzua, Migrant and Refugee Community Liaison with the Austin, Texas Police Department; César Espinosa, pro-immigrant activist, “dreamer” and founder of Immigrant Families and Students in the Fight (FIEL), in Houston, Texas; and the Federal Institute of Public Defender, of Mexico City.

Also the Institute for Women in Migration, in Mexico City; Jaime Lucero, founder of Casa Puebla in New York and the Fuerza Migrante group, from the same city; the Latino Organization of Trans in Texas; Raquel Rubio-Goldsmith, Professor Emeritus at Pima Community College and the University of Arizona, Tucson; as well as Shalom Alaikum-Jewish Aid for Refugees, from Vienna, Austria.

On behalf of the National University, the Secretary General, Leonardo Lomelí Vanegas, affirmed that this house of studies recognizes in the trajectories and dedication of distinguished personalities and institutions “bravery, courage and effort in the defense of human rights of a vulnerable sector of the world population”.

Likewise, it called on society and the different levels of governments to close ranks in the defense and protection of the individual guarantees of migrants.

In addition, he declared that globalization is not only commercial; that there are treaties that guarantee the rights of people in transit, provide them with security and recognize their contribution in the construction of modern nations. “That migration is adequately regulated but, above all, that the human rights of migrants are fully guaranteed.”

Lomelí Vanegas recalled that Mexico had been a nation of expulsion and transit for migrants and now it is also their destination. “We have to strive as a country so that the same treatment that we demand for our compatriots in other countries of the world -and especially in the United States- we give to all migrants in our territory.”

When speaking, the General Advocate of the UNAM, Alfredo Sánchez Castañeda, recalled that the Alfonso García Robles recognition was established in 2017 and pointed out that, just as in the second part of the last century, the arms race and the nuclear threat constituted a danger to humanity, today, the ignorance and denial of the human rights of migrants are a daily and lacerating concern for humanity.

According to the International Organization for Migration, in 2020 there were 281 million international migrants in the world, and by the end of 2021 approximately 89 million people were estimated to be forcibly displaced, of whom 41 percent were girls and boys, he said.

In a remote format and on behalf of those who received recognition, Raquel Rubio-Goldsmith explained that the border with the United States has become militarized and is on the verge of a humanitarian tragedy that concerns us all. There, the right to life is violated, people disappear and there are thousands of unidentified bodies. She also spoke out for opening the borders to human mobility, just as they are open to trade.

He thanked the recognition that bears the name of the only Mexican recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, and said: “We need another Alfonso García Robles who brings peace, justice and human rights to the Americas for all people who move from From one place to another. In Tucson we thank you for the efforts that all of you make and the focus that UNAM gives to put this in front of everyone.”

Similarly, Netzaí Sandoval Ballesteros, general director of the Federal Institute of Public Defender, asserted that the awards are not the purpose of that institution, but they are a source of motivation, of legitimacy for their work. “It is a valuable and well-deserved recognition of our specialized advisors and advisors, who day after day carry out their work as human rights defenders.”

He commented that in that Institute they support migrants with legal advice and asserted that migrating is a human right, behind which are inequality, poverty, discrimination, stigma, violent conflicts that lead entire families to flee their place of residence. origin and be criminalized.

Present at the ceremony were the acting presidents of the Governing Board and the Board of Trustees of the National University, Juan Alberto Adam Siade and Jonathan Davis Arzac, respectively; the Secretary of Institutional Development, Patricia Dávila Aranda; the coordinator of Academic Projects, Jaime Martuscelli Quintana; and the researcher at the Institute for Legal Research and member of the Board of the Institute for Women in Migration, Alethia Fernández de la Reguera Ahedo.

In addition, members of the Governing Board and the general secretaries of the executive committees of AAPAUNAM and STUNAM, Bertha Guadalupe Rodríguez Sámano and Carlos Hugo Morales Morales, among others.

#Positively UNAM
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