Mexico: Creation of the Presidential Commission on Indigenous Peoples and Afrodescendants
On January 17, 2025, the creation of the Presidential Commission on Justice and Regional Development Plans for Indigenous and Afro-Mexican Peoples was published in the Official Federal Gazette.
The Commission will be composed of the heads of 29 federal executive agencies and offices, under the executive leadership of the head of the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples. They will not receive any compensation for this task.
The decree includes a national and international legal foundation, citing, among other normative texts, the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States (Article 2, Section A, Subsections I and II), which states that “within the framework of free determination and autonomy, indigenous peoples have the right to decide, in accordance with their normative systems and in line with the Constitution, their internal forms of government, coexistence, and social, economic, political, and cultural organization.”
According to Article 2 of the decree, the Commission will design, agree upon, coordinate, implement, monitor, and evaluate the Justice and Regional Development Plans to ensure the rights, well-being, and sustainable development of indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples, as well as strengthen their cultural and natural heritage. Key areas of focus for the Commission include indigenous autonomy and governance, territories, natural resources, biodiversity, and the environment.
Article 6 outlines a comprehensive list of functions to be carried out, including the design, coordination, and implementation of public policies related to the country’s indigenous and Afrodescendant populations. The Presidential Commission will remain active until the end of the current administration, on September 30, 2030, with funding provided by the federal budget.
The Commission must ensure and respect the status of indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples and communities as public law subjects, particularly their exercise of free determination and autonomy, and their own forms of government and social, economic, and cultural organization, as provided for in the Constitution.
Similar initiatives have been promoted in other countries in the region in the past, with limited success. The challenges have typically stemmed from authorities’ inability to dedicate the necessary time and resources to these issues while fulfilling other responsibilities.
It is expected that Mexican authorities have anticipated ways to overcome these limitations, which could enable the effective integration of an ethnic perspective into the country’s public policies.