The "Agreement announcing the call for the 2024 Promotion Contest in the Technical-Administrative Branch of the Mexican Foreign Service" aims primarily to inform members of the Foreign Service (SEM, by its acronym in Spanish) the terms for participating in the Promotion Contest for the position of Administrative Coordinator.
Regarding contestants from the rest of the administrative ranks, the Secretary, through the Personnel Commission, will consider the list in order of preference regarding gender and ranks that have obtained the highest grades based on the determined number of contested positions.
The regulation enacts various provisions of the Career Plan of the Mexican Foreign Service (SEM) published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on April 5, 2024. Its purpose is to ensure that career members of the SEM acquire necessary knowledge and experience to professionalize their performance in the service of the State, in terms of public administration and diplomatic activities, with a perspective of gender equality and substantive equality and non-discrimination.
The Career Plan states that promotion is a process of career personnel promotion that allows access to the immediate higher rank, after having fulfilled the regulatory requirements and having successfully passed the exams, as specified by the regulations, and the review of the file.
Promotion contests will be disseminated through calls from the head of the Secretariat, upon recommendation of the Personnel Commission, to career personnel at least every two years and must be published in the Official Gazette of the Federation. The holding of contests will be subject to the availability of vacant positions, as established by current regulations.
The Secretary of State will approve other promotions of career personnel, upon recommendation of the Personnel Commission. Merits, academic preparation, experience, and seniority of the personnel will be taken into account in the evaluation.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs promotes the mainstreaming of gender perspective in all areas and in its Mexican Foreign Service. Thus, Article 1-TER, second paragraph, of the Mexican Foreign Service Law, states that this agency will promote participation on substantive equality terms in any procedures established in said Law and its Regulations.
Therefore, the SEM Career Plan establishes that the Personnel Commission will seek equal opportunities and treatment between women and men to approach the achievement of substantive equality, promoting women's empowerment and the fight against all forms of discrimination.
The foregoing is supported by the framework of the constitutional reform to articles 2, 4, 35, 41, 52, 53, 56, 94, and 115, known as "parity in everything," which must ensure that the integration of public administration bodies, both at the federal, state, and municipal levels, as well as in autonomous organisms, complies with the principle of 50% women and 50% men.
In that order of ideas, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs conducted a "Diagnosis on affirmative actions aimed at achieving gender parity in the admission and promotion in the Mexican Career Foreign Service," approved by the Personnel Commission of the Mexican Foreign Service at its Third Extraordinary Meeting on May 9, 2024, which determined that the distribution index of women is far from the gender parity established by national and international regulations.
Among the recommendations of the aforementioned Diagnosis, it is indicated that promotion contests in 2024 should be held with a higher percentage of positions for women (equivalent to 60% per rank) or parity in ranks where this is not possible, in both branches of the Mexican Foreign Service, which is implemented through this regulation.
In order to provide certainty and legal security to the career personnel of the Technical-Administrative Branch of the Mexican Foreign Service regarding the aspects that will be taken into account in the 2024 Promotion Contest, and with the aim of contributing to the excellence of the permanent staff of the Foreign Service, in accordance with the provisions of the Mexican Foreign Service Law and its Regulations, as well as with the Career Plan of the Mexican Foreign Service, the Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will issue the proposed regulation.