Human Rights for a Just Energy Transition in Mexico | Monitoring Report

The Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR) jointly with a network of national partner organizations participated in the making of the report: "Derechos Humanos para una transición energética justa" (Human Rights for a Just Energy Transition) which analyzes some of Mexico's energy policies decisions taken in recent years. This report seeks to contribute to the national debate on energy policy and sets forward key messages and policy recommendations to guide the Mexican State towards a national energy transformation that meets with human rights and gender equality principles and standards.

The recent decisions to reform the energy sector undertaken by the Mexican government have detonated a heated and often polarised debate over how the energy sector should be organized and managed to simultaneously meet growing energy demands, ensure energy security, and the protection of the environment. Thus, after providing background information on the energy policies and reforms advanced by previous government administrations, the report reviews the current situation and the rights violated or at risk of being violated by the national energy policies advanced by the Mexican State. It also highlights the population groups that are disproportionately affected by current energy policies, especially those that historically have suffered from structural conditions of discrimination and vulnerability.

Finally, the report concludes with key policy recommendations aimed at promoting a just energy transition with a human rights and intersectional gender perspective that supports the measures that could and should be adopted in Mexico in the face of the global climate emergency.

GI-ESCR welcomes the publication of this collective report and highlights the importance of incorporating an intersectional non-discrimination and gender-sensitive policy in the energy sector, in order to prevent it from contributing to the exacerbation of structural conditions of gender inequality in the country. To be just, energy policies and frameworks need to take into account women’s specific needs, experiences, and contributions in the articulation of energy and climate change policies.