In 2025, the Office of the University Ombudsman, Equality and Gender Violence Response, at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) celebrates 40 years since its creation.
Also in 2025, REDDU, the Mexican Ombuds Network, turns 20.
In May, these two international partners of ENOHE jointly celebrated their respective anniversaries during a three-day conference in Ciudad de Mexico.
The participants came from higher education institutions from within the country, from numerous Mexican provincial states.
Diego Garcia Ricci, the new president of REDDU, was that network’s most prominent representative.
Guadalupe Barrena Nájera, UNAM’s ombudswoman, was the spiritus rector of the event. She is a member of ENOHE’s Board and International Relations Committee.
President of ENOHE, Jean Grier, was among the online conference speakers as an international guest.
The anniversary commemorated four decades of UNAM’s commitment to promoting and sustaining the operation of the university’s ombuds office. The office acts as a voice that speaks to sustain a constructive and frank dialogue to contribute to fulfilling the university’s institutional objectives.
At the same time, the conference commemorated 20 years of the Mexican national ombuds network REDDU. A special commemorative ceremony was chaired by Leonardo Lomeli Vanegas, the rector of UNAM.
The conference content
The three-day conference included keynote addresses, working groups, topical plenary discussions as well as practical case workshops. The main topics dealt with were, among others:
- models of accreditation of university ombuds offices
- self-care of university ombuds staff
- aspects of academic freedom and integrity
- issues like bullying and harassment
- the prevention of gender violence
- sexual diversity
- free development of personality and inclusion of persons with disabilities
Historical reminiscences
In 1985, on 29 May, the University Council of UNAM approved the creation of the Office of the University Ombudsman. An initiative of the then rector Jorge Carpizo.
The Ombudsman’s Office was established as an autonomous body independent of any university authority, to promote respect for the rights of students and academic staff. It was the first university ombudsman in all of Latin America and a precursor to the national and state human rights commissions in Mexico.
For 40 years, UNAM’s Ombudsman Office has served a huge number of advice-seeking people. Just in the last five years, it has heard from nearly 20,000 people. This has only been possible with the strong institutional support that has provided the defensoría with the tools it needs to carry out its work.
The Mexican University Ombuds System
All of Mexico’s defensorías share the principles of independence, objectivity, impartiality, and confidentiality. Public and private universities create these bodies to have a voice within the respective organisations, in order to offer a free and independent point of view.
These bodies’ vocation is to contribute to the construction of ever more just institutions, so that in classrooms and laboratories, in stadiums as well as in concert halls, the university community can live intensely and can fulfil its roles of educating, researching and promoting citizens’ rights and cooperative culture.
Complaint procedures of ombuds give feedback and enable institutional learning and are henceforth an integral part of university governance structures and bodies these days.
Input from ENOHE
ENOHE President Jean Grier’s keynote on “40 Years of the Ombudsman in Universities” focused on historical examples, structures and challenges of the profession from a European perspective. Jean’s resentation is available via Youtube. The video is a report on the whole conference. Jean’s speech is between time codes 10:20 and 48:16 and the interaction with the audience under “Questions and Answers” from time code 49:00 to 1:19.27. The presentation includes an English transcription.
ENOHE started cooperating with Mexican institutions at its annual conference in Antwerp in 2007. At this conference the then REDDU secretary general Leoncio Severino Lara Sáenz introduced views on the ombuds profession from Transatlantia. Numerous joint activities have followed since then.
In June 2019, ENOHE ombuds associates in León, Spain, signed the León Declaration, with its main aims to:
- identify areas of common interests
- establish a public electronic forum
- encourage to participate in respective networks
- support the development and safeguarding of these networks
REDDU in May 2022 signed this declaration during a ceremony at the University of San Luis Potosí.