Lawmakers established new procedures for creating the National Registry of Victims, together with the budget necessary for 2014, an aspect that was left undetermined in the original law.
In addition, the Senate amended the legislation in March to increase the list of reasons for which citizens can apply for compensation.
In giving the reasons for the amendments, the president of the Justice Committee, Ricardo Fidel Pacheco Rodriguez, argued that reform of the General Law of Victims brings redress of the rights of thousands of Mexican victims of organized crime. He said that recognition of the guarantees had been only a statement, so that the changes were needed to create clear rules about what to do at each level of government to guarantee them.
"The victims' rights under the Constitution need to be supplemented consistently in regulatory law that effectively accorded respect for and acceptance of the rights of the victims," he said in presenting the bill.Article 4 of the law considers anyone to be a victim who has suffered moral, physical or mental damage to their property or rights, either in his person directly or indirectly.
Furthermore, Article 6 states that the damage can be bodily, moral or material, loss of life or income and the resulting costs for the victim. The Act incorporates the notion of reparation, the Institutional Revolutionary Party lawmaker stressed.
Presenting the position of the National Action Party (PAN), Rep. Karina Labastida Sotelo said the new law establishes the principles that the government should recognize to respect human rights.
"Today the legal system for the protection for victims of crime is being strengthened," she said.She acknowledged that any legislation can be improved, so that, in her view, the reforms made to the Victims Act address and resolve some of the shortcomings that had been previously noticed.
In this regard, Margarita Tapia Fonllem, of the Democratic Revolution Party, said that the adopted reforms constitute a recognition of the reality denied to the families of thousands of people killed, missing and displaced as a result of the drug war.
The government of President Felipe Calderon had delayed the legislation´s promulgation for months after Congress passed it in April of last year, arguing that it had gaps that prevented determining the responsibilities of the federal, state and municipal governments.
However, President Enrique Peña Nieto announced upon his inauguration that one of his first decisions was to promulgate the law, subject to the modifications that were subsequently made in Congress and that were approved Tuesday. Spanish original