COUNTRY OVERVIEW AND CONTEXT

Mexico is a representative, democratic, secular and federal republic, made up of 32 free and sovereign states – plus Mexico City – in all matters relating to their internal regime, united in a federation established according to the principles of the Political Constitution (PC) (Article 40). The Federation divides its power into the legislative, executive and judicial branches. The legislature comprises two chambers, the Deputies and the Senate (Article 50), the executive is represented by the President of the United States of Mexico (Article 80), and the judiciary is represented by the Supreme Court of Justice, the Electoral Court, the Collegiate and Unitary Circuit Courts, and the District Courts (Article 94).

Mexico is considered to be an upper middle-income country (USD 1.221 trillion by 2018) with a gross domestic product (GDP) of USD 20.772 per capita. Alongside Chile and most recently Colombia, Mexico is one of the three members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Latin America. It is also an active member of the Organization of American States, having ratified the American Convention on Human Rights in 1981 and accepted the jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Right s in 1998. By 2019, the total estimated population of girls, boys and adolescents (hereinafter ‘children’) in Mexico is 39.8 million, of which 50.9 per cent are boys and male teenagers and 49.1 per cent are girls and female teenagers. The highest percentage (71.8 per cent or 28.6 million) reside in urban localities, while the remainder (28.2 per cent or 11.2 million) reside in rural areas. Likewise, 4.6 million are indigenous, 767,000 have some form of disability and 398,000 are considered to be Afro-descendants.

LEGAL STATUS AND PROCESS OF INCORPORATION OF THE CRC

According to the Mexican Political Constitution (PC), the ‘Supreme Law of the Union’ is composed of the Constitution itself, the laws of the Congress of the Union that emanate from it, and all the treaties celebrated by the President of the Republic with the approval of the Senate. Accordingly, the PC mandates the judges of each state to comply with the Constitution, laws and treaties, despite the contrary provisions that may exist in the constitutions or laws of the states (Article 133º).