The Human Identification Center will be born without its own resources

The opinion approved on Wednesday by the Senate to create the National Center for Human Identification establishes that for its operation it will not have its own resources this year, but that its implementation will depend on an already authorized federal subsidy that is destined to the state search commissions and so far it has been insufficient.
“The expenditures that, where appropriate, must be made by the dependencies and entities of the federal public administration and any other public entity within the scope of their competences, to comply with the provisions of this decree, must be covered by their respective budgets approved for this fiscal year and subsequent, so that their respective regularizable budgets will not be increased, “so that their respective regularizable budgets will not be increased, ” points to one of its transitory articles.
In this way, the initial budget that will be needed for the creation of the center, as reported by the Undersecretariat of Human Rights during the presentation of the initiative, is contemplated within the federal subsidy that is destined to the local search commissions.

“For its creation in 2022, greater budgetary resources will not be necessary, since subsidies from the National Search Commission (CNB) will be reassigned to finance the adaptation of a physical place for the center, the construction of the temporary shelter center, as well as the equipment of specialized laboratories and the training of forensic personnel,” reads the document presented. 
There are one thousand 729 million 815 thousand 554 pesos of federal resources granted to the local search commissions between 2019 and 2022, of which, in addition, it is contemplated to channel money to the genetics laboratory, the body protection center, the forensic mobile laboratory, the Administration and Control System of Forensic Pantheon and Corpses, the facial reconstruction system, the anthropometric measurement software, the cooling vehicle and the conservation chamber for anatomical segments. 
This, in a context in which the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearance (CED) has pointed out as remarkable the creation of the National Search Commission and local commissions in all states, in the same way that it has underlined its concern about the insufficiency of resources they have so far.

“The committee regrets that, despite the efforts of the State party, the National Commission and local commissions often lack the necessary resources for their functioning,” its report states. The document explains that the Ministry of the Interior (Segob) sends the funds to the local search commissions and grants them federal resources to subsidiarily support their search and strengthening actions.
“This situation translates into different levels of commitment from state authorities and significant inequalities. When funds are not sufficient, commissions have to cancel scheduled activities or look for alternative forms of financing. In this regard, the committee has received information that, in some cases, commission staff have provided their own resources or requested support from victims, for example, to finance fuel, or have had to avoid motorways,” the report adds.

✅ An agreement is approved that calls for the launch of the National Center for Human Identification.
— Senate of Mexico (@senadomexicano) April 27, 2022

The austerity coup
“The budget is central because we have seen in other cases, and from there comes a lot of concern, how austerity has been used as an argument for not necessarily allocating adequate resources. For example, we saw it in the elimination of trusts in relation to the Executive Commission for Attention to Victims, and we would hope that it was not the case on this occasion,” says Sofía de Robina, a member of the Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center. 
He points out that the facts have shown that the budget allocation to the National Search Commission has not been sufficient given the dimension of the crisis, since there was an increase in 2020 and then it was stagnant. 
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has assured that there is no “financial ceiling” in the budget allocated for human rights issues, and that they have all the resources they need. But in reality, from 2019 to 2021 the government and Congress reduced each year the budget allocated to the National Search Commission and the Undersecretariat of Human Rights, by up to 40%.
It will be for next year…
From the perspective of the Pro Center, for the creation of the National Center for Human Identification not only the budget is central. So is the effective implementation and coordination that requires the collaboration of state governments and prosecutors’ offices. 
“We see very relevant that the Undersecretary of Human Rights (Alejandro Encinas) and the Commissioner of Search (Karla Quintana) are giving priority to this type of measure, but our concern is that a measure that could be relevant in the facts effectively fulfills its objective and, above all, with the urgency of having schemes that work in the face of the crisis of missing persons and unidentified remains,” points out Sofia de Robina. 
Because this year there is already an authorized budget, he points out that it would be in the allocation of the next one when it should be clearly established what the budget will be for the particular center. 
“Let’s hope that at that time it has the support that we have now seen: that it has been approved unanimously is a relevant sign that it is being seen as a priority, and hopefully that this will be maintained at the time when the budget for next year will be allocated, and that it will be guaranteed from what is required to really materialize this center and implement it,” Adds.
In the same way, it recalls how very relevant efforts of the past, which are conceived with families and based on the need for an urgent response to the crisis, remain only as legislation, such as some of the tools determined by the General Law on Forced Disappearance of Persons, Disappearance Committed by Individuals and the National System for the Search of Persons since 2017, and until today they have not been created. One of them, the National Forensic Data Bank, which corresponds to the prosecutor’s office, would be fundamental for what is sought with the center to be a reality.
Political Animal published that this instrument has not been created in more than four years, as provided for in the General Law on the matter. Therefore, to analyze the human remains of the more than 52,000 deceased people who remain unidentified in Mexico, not counting those who are added every day, it would take 120 years or more, since forensic services are insufficient, there is no public policy of human identification in relation to the disappearance of people and several instruments provided for in the law have not yet been created.
Sofía de Robina stresses that, based on what was reported by the National Commission itself to the CED, it is notorious that practically all the federal subsidy goes to the states and so far it has been insufficient, which is a sign that many state governments are not seeing the issue with the seriousness and relevance it deserves.  
“These figures allow us to see how it is still necessary to allocate a budget much more in line with the needs and the crisis, which guarantees that an innovative, important idea that must be accompanied as a valuable effort is really something more than a good intention and materializes in concrete results for families,” he concludes.
After the initiative to create the center was approved on Wednesday and sent to the Executive for promulgation, the same Senate also approved a point of agreement, promoted by Senator Geovanna Bañuelos, of the PT, to urge the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) so that the National Search Commission has the necessary resources to locate girls alive, children and adolescents reported missing and report monthly on their actions. However, the approved letter is not binding.
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Original source in Spanish

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