The Transfer of Foreign Persons Criminally Convicted: An effective mechanism to achieve social reintegration

Abstract

The purpose of transferring persons sentenced abroad is to effectively achieve the social rehabilitation or reintegration of those individuals who have been sentenced in a State of which they are not nationals, so that they may serve their sentence in the State of their origin or in which they habitually reside. For them to be transferred, a series of requirements must be met, as contemplated either in the international conventions signed by the States involved (the one that condemns and the one that will receive its national to serve the sentence) or in the National Law on Penal Enforcement (LNEP), when there is no such convention. Foreign persons deprived of their liberty in compliance with a sentence imposed on them constitute a vulnerable group within another that represents a sector whose human rights are frequently violated. Therefore, their repatriation to the State of origin to serve their sentence is a human right that every State must guarantee, so it is not surprising that it is contained in both the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States (CPEUM) and in various international conventions, both bilateral and multilateral.