RIGHTS-ARGENTINA: OAS Commission Warns of Authoritarian Threat

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Aug 7 2002 (IPS) - The alarming rise in poverty and plunge in confidence in the political class are creating a climate of unrest in Argentina that could give rise to responses that are “incompatible” with respect for individual rights and freedoms, warned the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

A delegation of the human rights commission of the Organisation of American States (OAS) drew up a report at the end of a nine-day visit to Argentina, stressing the need for the government of Eduardo Duhalde to curb the economic and social decline in order to preserve fundamental rights.

The current government has a great responsibility to keep the crisis from becoming even deeper and from giving rise to situations of social violence and institutional crisis, which would have grave consequences for the future of all Argentinians, states the IACHR report.

The delegation also said it approved of Duhalde’s categorical refusal to call out the armed forces to deal with questions of internal security.

Near daily protests and ongoing unrest have become the status quo in a country where half of the population has fallen into poverty and unemployment has soared to nearly 25 percent.

The IACHR made its conclusions public Tuesday after more than a week of meetings with representatives of the Duhalde administration, provincial officials, legislators, civil society organisations, health professionals, and account-holders whose savings have been frozen in the banks since December to prevent capital flight.

All of the sectors consulted expressed “scepticism and dismay over the magnitude of the endemic shortcomings of the judiciary,” the main guardian of people’s rights, said the IACHR delegation.

“The commission has received information on the profound impact of the country’s unprecedented social and economic crisis,” the report stated.

In addition, “authorities and representatives of civil society informed us of the chronic problems of public finances, the crisis of juridical security, the four years of recession with the resultant unemployment, and the dramatic rise in extreme poverty and social exclusion,” the delegates added.

The executive secretary of the IACHR, Santiago Cantón, said the commission normally receives around 500 complaints a year from across the hemisphere.

But some 2,000 complaints referring to the freeze on bank deposits – known here as the “corralito” or “playpen” – alone have been lodged in the last four months, in the context of the Argentine crisis, he pointed out.

The commission’s periodic visits to OAS member countries are aimed at seeking friendly solutions to complaints that have been filed, and to make assessments that serve as an “early warning” to ward off future conflicts, said Cantón.

The IACHR rapporteur on Argentina, Robert Goldman, told IPS that the meetings held over the past nine days were “the best in seven years of visits,” due to the government’s willingness to cooperate, which he said was “noteworthy and exceptional with respect to other visits.”

But this time around, the commission found an “unprecedented” and “dramatic” panorama, the result of the accelerated deepening of the crisis in the past seven months, which has led to a “veritable collapse” of the social fabric, said Goldman.

The delegates also gathered a number of denunciations of torture and excessive use of force by the police, especially in the central province of Buenos Aires.

The police in the province of Buenos Aires were the object of around 1,000 complaints of human rights abuses against minors, in which there were an “insignificant” number of court convictions, said the delegation.

But the IACHR delegates said they found goodwill on the part of the governor of the province of Buenos Aires, Felipe Solá, and underlined his decision to set up a Human Rights Secretariat in the province, the country’s most populous.

Local authorities intend to implement a prevention programme to “eradicate” torture, they said.

Although members of the IACHR regularly meet with human rights groups to discuss traditional human rights issues, this is the first time that the range of complaints gathered also encompasses a number of reports of violations of economic, social and cultural rights, said Cantón.

The members of the IACHR met with representatives of organisations of savings account-holders, who filed a complaint with the commission over violations of their property rights, due to the government’s refusal to lift the restrictions on bank withdrawals.

They also met with the heads of physicians’ associations, who expressed great concern over the health system emergency they are facing, as reflected in the increase in infant malnutrition, the reappearance of tuberculosis, and the severe shortages of medicines and basic materials in the hospitals.

“Patients come to doctors’ visits sick, but also hungry and without the possibility of access to the most basic medicines free of charge,” the president of the Union of Health Professionals of the province of Buenos Aires, Jorge Jacobsky, explained to the commission.

Jacobsky visited the IACHR with representatives of associations of diabetics and people with transplanted organs, whose survival depends on medication and ongoing treatment.

Social activists also said the commission concurred with their complaints of the “criminalisation of social protest,” as seen in the bloody crackdown on demonstrators by government forces, and intimidation and threats against activists.

“In a scenario of conflict, the enemies are the social organisations, which is why the repression is increasing, and poverty is penalised,” Argentine Nobel Peace laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel told IPS after meeting with the IACHR delegates.

The commission said hearings may be held in Washington to expand on the report on the situation in Argentina.