Angel Cabrera Silva
Legal Activism
Cases, Projects and Strategic Litigation
Financial Autonomy and Indigenous
Self-Governance in Michoacan, Mexico
In Mexico, indigenous communities are not generally allowed to manage public funds. They are governed by municipalities. This changed in 2016, when the community of Pichataro was judicially recognized the right to a "Direct Indigenous Budgeting". Ever since, dozens of communities have mobilized this right to gain financial autonomy.
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Since 2019, I joined Emancipaciones Lawyer's Collective and work alongside various communities striving to adopt a Direct Indigenous Budgeting. I have provided legal counsel to the indigenous authorities of Arantepacua, San Angel Zurumucapio, Santa Fe de la Laguna, Janitzio, Carapan, among others. Most recently, I represent La Cantera before the Inter-American System and the Mexican Supreme Court.
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Additionally, I work with the Front for Autonomy of Indigenous Councils - an inter-community organization. Alongside the Front, we work to include indigenous financial autonomy in local legislation and accompany their implementation by state authorities.
For more about this work, follow my specialized blog "Huellas del Autogobierno".
Justice for Migrants' Disappearances in
Central America, Mexico and the US .
Over 75,000 migrants have disappeared in the migratory corridor that connects Central America, Mexico and the U.S. To tackle this crisis, Mexico created the Mecanismo de Apoyo al Exterior (MAE) - a mechanism for families of disappeared migrants living in Central America to have access to the Mexican justice system. This mechanism was created in 2016, but its implementation remains flawed and incomplete.
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Boston University's International Human Rights Clinic is part of a coalition working to address this crisis. As clinical instructor (2021-22), I supervised this project. With our team of student attorneys, I collaborated with the Fundacion para la Justicia y el Estado de Derecho in a legal strategy before the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances. This strategy aims to improve the MAE by setting forward a legal framework that accounts for the"shared responsability" of all states involved in the crisis.
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For more about this work, consult the website of BU's Human Rights Clinic.
Economic, Social and Environmental Rights before the Inter-American System
The Inter-American Human Rights System is developing an increasingly rich jurisprudence on Economic, Social and Environmental Rights. As academic coordinator of the Int'l Human Rights Clinic of the University of Guadalajara (2017-2020), I developed and implemented projects that contributed to this emerging line of judicial precedents.
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In collaboration with Due Process of Law Foundation and a regional coalition, our team of clinical students contributed an amicus brief in the case of Lhaka Honhat v. Argentina. This amicus foregrounded arguments about the rights to land, food and a healthy environment and was cited multiple times in the decision by the Inter-American Court.
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In alliance with the Instituto de Derecho Ambiental, our clinical team documented the effects of industrial pollution in the Santiago River, Mexico and prepared a request for precautionary measures to the Inter-Am. Commission on Human Rights. This strategy sought to protect the rights to life, health and healthy environment of affected peri-urban communities. These precautionary measures were successfully granted in 2020.
Shadow Reports to UN Human Rights Mechanisms
The International Human Rights Clinic of the University of Guadalajara sought to document local human rights issues through perspectives that were underrepresented in global forums. As coordinator of the clinic (2017-20), I oversaw the preparation of two shadow reports that were submitted to UN mechanisms.
Our first report documented the situation of unaccompanied migrant children that were put under the tutelage of Mexico's system of state-funded child care homes. This report was submitted to Mexico's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in 2018. The problem was picked up by Chile and other stakeholders in the UPR results.
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Our second report documented the discriminatory effects of Mexican labor laws against women that were also primary caretakers of their families. This report was submitted to the CEDAW Committee as part of Mexico's 2018 periodic report. The issue was included in the Committee's Concluding Observations.