Two years later, he was elected to head the Human Rights Commission of the Federal District [es] (CDHDF), serving two four-year terms.

[1][page needed] Álvarez Icaza has taught graduate courses at a variety of schools, including the UNAM, Universidad Iberoamericana, and the Center for Humanities Teaching and Studies of the State of Morelos.

[3] On 19 July 2012, Álvarez Icaza was chosen to be the executive secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) for a four-year term, taking the post on 16 August.

[6] On 27 February 2017, Álvarez Icaza announced he was launching a political movement in Mexico City, known as Ahora (Now), initially with the goal of putting citizen candidates on the ballot in 2018 and as a vehicle for an independent presidential bid.

[12] On 23 August 2018, Álvarez Icaza announced he would serve as an independent senator and not join the caucuses of any of the parties that ran him for Senate, noting that he is not a member of any of them; additionally, the other Ahora candidates elected, Ana Lucía Riojas Martínez and Carlos Morales Vázquez, would enter the legislature as independents, though they ran on the PRD and PAN lists, respectively.