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Title: Argentina Human Rights Practices, 1995
Author: U.S. Department of State
Date: March 1996
ARGENTINA
Argentina is a federal constitutional democracy with an executive branch
headed by an elected president, a bicameral legislature, and a separate
judiciary. The President, Carlos Saul Menem, was recently reelected to
a second term which runs until July 1999. His Justicialist Party won a
majority of seats in both houses of Congress.
The President is the constitutional commander-in-chief, and a civilian
Defense Minister oversees the armed forces. Since the end of
conscription in 1994, the armed forces are composed of volunteers only.
The responsibility for maintaining law and order is shared by several
law enforcement agencies. The Federal Police report to the Interior
Minister and the Border Police and Coast Guard report to the Defense
Minister. Provincial police report to the individual provincial
governors.
Provincial policemen continued to commit human rights abuses.
Argentina has a mixed agricultural, industrial, and service economy that
continued a dramatic turnaround after decades of mismanagement and
decline. An economic reform and structural adjustment program, begun in
1989, led to 3 years of high growth with sharply reduced inflation, and
spurred competitiveness. An extensive privatization program, largely
completed at the federal level, is now underway in the provinces.
However, as a result of privatization and private sector adjustment, the
national rate of unemployment rose to a record 18.6 percent in 1995.
The high cost of living has affected those on low fixed incomes the
most, although the entire country benefited from the end of
hyperinflation. Poverty has sharply declined since implementation of
the adjustment program.
The Constitution, revised in 1994, incorporates nine international human
rights conventions and also provides for a wide range of freedoms and
rights which the Government generally protected. There continue to be
instances of extrajudicial killings and physical mistreatment of
detainees by local police. However, provincial authorities
investigated, tried, and convicted a number of police officials for such
abuses. The judicial system is subject to inordinate delays, resulting
in lengthy pretrial detention. Societal discrimination and violence
against women are also problems. Revelations of extrajudicial killings
by former military officers who served under the 1976-83 military
government sparked a national debate over a full accounting for those
who disappeared during that period. The debate included an
unprecedented public acknowledgement by the army commander that the army
committed grave human rights violations at that time. The Government
and the armed forces said, however, that they have no information about
those who disappeared beyond that collected by the National Commission
on Disappeared Persons in 1984 and the Interior Ministry's
Subsecretariat for Human Rights since then.
RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom
from:
a. Political and Other Extrajudicial Killing
There were no reports of politically motivated extrajudicial killings.
However, provincial police were responsible for a number of other
extrajudicial killings. Under Argentina's federal system, the
provincial police are not subject to federal government authority.
Provincial governments have, however, investigated, and in some
instances, detained and tried officials. In January in the province of
Buenos Aires, a local judge ordered the detention of two police officers
and one other person in the shooting death of a 19-year-old youth who
came upon the officers while they were stealing a tape player from an
automobile. In February a judge charged a policeman with manslaughter
after he shot a 20-year-old youth fleeing arrest without giving him the
opportunity to surrender. In Villa Mercedes, a judge ordered the
preventive arrest of five policemen accused of beating a 22-year-old to
death while he was in police custody. In another incident in Florencio
Varela, a judge ruled that the death of a 16-year-old boy was due to
resisting arrest and released a policeman accused of beating the youth.
Police, however, opened an internal investigation into the matter.
Another youth died from a beating in Batan Prison in Mar del Plata. The
authorities arrested six guards and a prison doctor in that incident.
Several cases from previous years have remained in the public eye. One
army officer and two noncommissioned officers are standing trial in
Neuquen for the 1994 murder of Omar Carrasco, a young army recruit who
was beaten to death during a hazing incident. Two other noncommissioned
officers are accused of obstruction of justice and the investigation has
widened to examine the role of higher ranking military officers in the
case. In January police captured an ex-policeman wanted for
participating in the kidnaping and murder of a Bolivian woman suspected
of drug trafficking; another former policeman and five others are being
held for trial in Buenos Aires province. In September the Cordoba
policeman accused of killing Miguel Rodriguez in 1994 was convicted and
sentenced to an 8-year prison term. Ten days later, a key prosecution
witness in the case, Sergio Perez, was killed in a confrontation with
police officers. The police say he was shot in a firefight, but friends
of Perez who were at the scene say he was deliberately shot in the back
at point-blank range. A local judge is investigating.
There were no new developments in the case of the 1994 death of Diego
Rodriguez Laguens or in the 1987 murder of three teenagers.
b. Disappearance
There were no reports of politically motivated disappearances.
In February a former navy lieutenant commander disclosed to the press
that during the 1976-83 military regime, he and his fellow officers of
the Navy Mechanics School had participated in drugging political
prisoners and throwing them, still alive, out of airplanes over the
Atlantic Ocean or the Rio de la Plata. Although his revelations were
not new, he was the first former military officer to publicize the
story. The resulting storm of controversy led to demands by human
rights groups and relatives of victims of the "Dirty War" to demand a
full disclosure of the identities of all those who disappeared at that
time. In March a federal court, responding to a petition brought by the
families of two French nuns who were kidnaped and disappeared in 1977,
ordered the executive branch, including the three branches of the armed
forces, to provide lists of those who disappeared. The navy officer
convicted in absentia in France for the disappearance of the nuns was
forced to request early retirement. The Government and the individual
branches of the armed forces replied that no such lists exist.
However, on March 31 the Ministry of the Interior did release a list of
290 names of persons who disappeared, supplementing the list of 8,961
originally prepared in 1984 by the National Commission on Disappeared
Persons. The names on both lists were compiled based on voluntary
public testimony from friends, relatives, and other witnesses.
Nevertheless, human rights groups continued to accuse the Government of
failing to produce a complete list of persons who disappeared. In an
unprecedented and widely praised speech on nationwide television in
April, army commander Martin Balza acknowledged that the army committed
reprehensible crimes during the military regime. He stated that no one
in the army should be obliged to carry out immoral orders, and those who
do so should be severely punished.
Under new legislation passed in 1995, the Subsecretariat for Human
Rights began to process compensation claims by families of those who
disappeared during the Dirty War. Those whose claims are validated are
eligible for one-time payments of $200,000.
For the first time since the end of military rule, a federal judge
ordered the detention of an ex-navy officer and his wife for the illegal
adoption of a baby boy born in captivity to a Uruguayan couple abducted
and killed by security forces in 1977. The judge also issued a warrant
for the arrest of a police doctor who allegedly arranged the delivery of
the child to the couple. The doctor, who was a fugitive for several
months, surrendered to law enforcement authorities in September. This
case arose from an investigation by the Grandmothers of the Plaza de
Mayo, a human rights group that has been working to reunite the
offspring of disappeared couples with their nearest natural next-of-kin.
The group is working with the National Commission on the Right to
Identity, and the Interior Ministry's Subsecretariat for Human Rights in
the search for children of couples who disappeared during the military
regimes. The grandmothers helped return 2 children to the families of
their birth parents, bringing the year's total of reunited families to
32.
In a more recent case, investigators unearthed the remains of Andres
Nunez, a La Plata youth who disappeared in 1990 after local police
arrested him. Seven policemen are in custody in this case; four others
are fugitives.
c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment
The Constitution prohibits torture and the Criminal Code provides
penalties for torture which are similar to those for homicide, from 8 to
15 years in prison. Nevertheless, police maltreatment of detainees
remains a serious problem. In Entre Rios province, a teenager accused
local police of severely beating him while in custody following his
detention in connection with a street brawl. The case was being
investigated. In another instance of police misconduct, authorities
arrested three Entre Rios policemen for having abducted and raped a 23-
year-old woman. An additional 10 agents were dismissed from the force,
the chief of the unit and his deputy were relieved of duty, and 33 other
officers were transferred to other assignments as a result of the
incident. There were no new developments in the investigation of the
1994 beating of Juan Carbajal.
In order to reduce such abuses, the Interior Ministry conducted courses
designed to heighten awareness about human rights issues for public
officials, and the Justice Ministry attempted to educate the public
about the legal rights of detainees. The Interior Ministry's
Subsecretariat for Human Rights and the United Nations Center for Human
Rights sponsored courses to educate and sensitize federal law
enforcement officials. This human rights training first began in 1994.
Prison conditions are poor in a number of overcrowded jails where the
facilities are old and dilapidated. In Buenos Aires province, for
example, no new prisons have been built for 26 years, and the prisons
are filled to a level that is 40 percent above capacity. Human rights
groups say this problem is serious and that some prisons are virtual
powder kegs of discontent. To help relieve the overcrowding, the
Government has solicited bids for the construction of two new prisons in
the province to be opened by late 1996 or early 1997. The new prisons
are designed to incorporate modern penal technology; they will be more
secure and offer better living conditions for inmates.
d. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile
The Penal Code places limits on the arrest and investigatory power of
the police and the judiciary, but provincial police often ignored these
restrictions as indicated in the cases cited above. Human rights groups
find it difficult to document such incidents, because victims are
reluctant to file complaints.
Police detain teenagers and young adults sometimes overnight, sometimes
for an entire weekend, without formal charges. They do not always
provide such detainees the opportunity to call their families or an
attorney. These detainees are released only upon a complaint from
relatives or legal counsel.
The law provides for the right to bail, and it is utilized in practice.
Nonetheless, the law allows pretrial detention, and the slow pace of
criminal trials results in lengthy pretrial detention periods. Many
untried prisoners are serving more time in prison than they would have
served if they had been convicted and had received the maximum sentence
for the crime for which they were arrested. In 1994 Congress passed a
law that set a 2-year limit on pretrial detention. After 2 years,
detainees would be granted 2 days of credit toward their sentences for
every 1 day served before sentencing. In 1995 the Supreme Court ruled
that the measure applies not only to those who had not been sentenced,
but also to those whose pretrial detentions exceeded the stipulated 2
years prior to their sentencing.
The law does not permit involuntary exile, and it is not practiced.
e. Denial of Fair Public Trial
The Constitution provides for an independent judiciary. While it is
nominally independent and impartial, its processes are inefficient,
complicated, and, at times, subject to political influence. The
judicial system is hampered by inordinate delays, procedural logjams,
changes of judges, and incompetence. Allegations of corruption are
widely reported, especially in civil cases.
Trials are public and defendants have the right to legal counsel and
defense witnesses. A panel of judges decides guilt or innocence. In
1992, some federal and provincial courts began deciding cases using oral
trials in lieu of the practice of written submissions. Oral trials are
less time consuming, and they have helped to reduce the number of prison
inmates awaiting trial (see Section l.d.). A Ministry of Justice report
indicates that 44 percent of those held in federal prisons have been
tried and sentenced compared to 38 percent in 1991. Nevertheless,
lawyers and judges are still struggling to adjust to the new procedures,
and substantial elements of the old system remain. For example, before
the oral part of a trial begins, judges receive written documentation
regarding the case which, according to prominent legal experts, can bias
a judge before oral testimony is heard.
Constitutional reforms in 1994 provided for a blue-ribbon Council of
Magistrates which would have responsibility for federal court
administration and the selection and removal of judges. However, due to
disagreement over the composition of the Council, Congress missed the
August 1995 deadline for the Council's enabling legislation.
International human rights groups have alleged that Fray Antonio
Puigjane, a Capuchin priest, is a prisoner of conscience. Fray Puigjane
was convicted and sentenced to prison as a co-conspirator in the 1989
attack on the La Tablada military regiment when some 39 individuals were
killed.
There were no other reports of political prisoners.
f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or
Correspondence
The Constitution prohibits such practices. Government authorities
generally respect these prohibitions, and violations are subject to
legal sanction, although in practice, local police have the right to
stop and search individuals without probable cause.
Section 2 Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
a. Freedom of Speech and Press
The Constitution provides for freedom of speech and the press, and the
Government respects these rights in practice. An independent press and
a functioning democratic political system combine to ensure freedom of
speech and of the press, including academic freedom.
There was one reported attack on a journalist: Guillermo Cherashny, a
reporter for a weekly newspaper, El Nuevo Informador, was shot and
wounded near his home in Buenos Aires. The case has not been resolved,
and the motive for the attack is unknown.
The Government proposed legislation to stiffen libel and slander
penalties and fines for those convicted of defamation. However, media
and political criticism of the legislation was so strong that the
Government withdrew the proposal. An attempt by a Justicialist Party
senator to introduce legislation that would have imposed severe
penalties on those convicted of disseminating "secrets of state" met a
similar fate; the executive branch itself rejected the proposal.
However, in September a federal judge issued a warrant for the search
and seizure of documents from several leading Argentine newspapers, La
Nacion, Cronica, and La Capital de Mar del Plata to obtain information
about journalists' sources in a 2-year-old libel case. The Association
of Newspaper Organizations (ADEPA) condemned the action as a violation
of constitutional guarantees of freedom of the press but also noted that
it was an exception to the rule of judicial prudence in press freedom
cases.
b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association
The Constitution and law provide for these rights and the Government
respects them in practice.
c. Freedom of Religion
The Constitution provides for freedom of religion and the Government
respects this right in practice.
d. Freedom of Movement Within the Country, Foreign Travel,
Emigration, and Repatriation
The Constitution and law provide for these rights, and the Government
respects them in practice.
The Government recognizes as refugees those persons who meet the 1951
U.N. Convention on Refugees as modified by its 1967 Protocol. The
Refugee Eligibility Committee is responsible for determining a refugee's
status, and a U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees representative can
attend and participate in Committee hearings but cannot vote.
Section 3 Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to
Change Their Government
Since its return to democratic government in 1983, Argentina has held
periodic free and fair elections to choose federal, provincial, and
municipal office holders. Universal suffrage for those age 18 and over
is obligatory in national elections. Political parties of varying
ideologies operate freely and openly. The revised Constitution provides
that all adult citizens shall enjoy full participation in the political
process, and they do so in practice.
In May President Carlos Menem was reelected; this time to a 4-year term.
His Justicialist Party won a majority of seats in the Chamber of
Deputies and the Senate. The election campaign was conducted in a fair
and open manner; all political parties had full access to the
communications media. Representatives from the major parties were
stationed at polling places to insure an honest vote count.
A September gubernatorial election in Santa Fe province was marred by
technical problems, and the leading opposition candidate for the Radical
Civic Union Party denounced irregularities. The Santa Fe election
tribunal thereafter conducted a vote count by hand to determine the
winners.
The Constitution stipulates that the internal regulations of political
parties and party nominations for elections be subject to affirmative
action requirements to assure that women are represented in elective
office. A 1993 decree implementing a 1991 law required that a minimum
of 30 percent of all political party lists of candidates be female. As
a result, the presence of women officials is increasing. The number of
women in the Chamber of Deputies doubled from 34 to 63 when the new
Chamber was installed in December. Between 1991 and 1995, the number of
women representatives increased 420 percent (from 15 members to 63).
Two women, or 4 percent, are members of the Senate, which is in the
process of adopting direct election procedures under the 1994
Constitution. Women are also assuming positions of greater authority in
provincial and local governments.
Section 4 Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human Rights
A wide variety of human rights groups operate without government
restriction, investigating human rights cases and publishing their
findings. Government officials are generally cooperative and responsive
to their views.
Section 5 Discrimination Based on Race, Sex, Religion, Disability,
Language, or Social Status
The Constitution and federal law guarantee equality for all citizens.
The 1988 Antidiscrimination Law establishes a series of penalties
ranging from 1 month to 3 years' imprisonment for anyone who arbitrarily
restricts, obstructs, or restrains a person based on "race, religion,
nationality, ideology, political opinion, sex, economic position, social
class, or physical characteristics." There is no evidence of any
systematic effort to abridge these rights by the Government or private
groups.
Women
Violence and sexual harassment against women is a problem; insensitivity
among police and judges sometimes discourages women from reporting
assaults, especially in domestic violence cases. In response, the
Congress approved a law aimed at helping victims of family violence by,
among other things, excluding the perpetrator from his home for up to 48
hours. The National Women's Council has been working with the
enforcement authorities to include material on handling cases of
violence against women in their police training curriculum. More than
40 public and 80 private institutions offer educational programs of
prevention and provide support and treatment for women who have been
abused. In November 1993, President Menem signed a decree against
sexual harassment in the Federal Government.
Women still encounter economic discrimination, a situation that has been
aggravated by the infusion of large numbers of women into the workplace
in the last 10 years. According to a 1994 government report, women
occupy a disproportionate number of lower paying jobs. Within each job
category, women are concentrated in the lower ranks and receive the
lowest salaries. Often they are paid less than men for equal work, even
though this is explicitly prohibited by law. Female labor leaders
pressed their male counterparts for affirmative action programs within
the trade union movement to counteract this. Women are also found
disproportionately in the informal sector which effectively denies them
work-related economic and social benefits enjoyed by those in the formal
sector.
The National Women's Council and the Presidential Women's Advisory
Cabinet, created in 1992 and 1993 respectively, worked on a 3-year
government action plan (1993-95) to promote equal opportunity and
participation of women in society. Provisions in the revised
Constitution have greatly increased women's participation in politics.
Children
The 1994 Constitution incorporates the U.N. Convention on the Rights of
the Child. The Ministry of Interior's Human Rights Subsecretariat works
with United Nations Children's Emergency Fund and other international
agencies to promote children's rights and well-being.
Historically, Argentina has had numerous programs to provide public
education, health protection, and recreational services for all
children, regardless of class or economic status. Child abuse and
prostitution are problems but have not increased in recent years,
although the National Council on Children and the Family believes that
those affected tend to be younger than previously. The Council, which
the Government
established in 1990, works actively with federal and local agencies to
improve child protection programs. Sixteen out of 24 provinces, the
federal capital, and the Federal Government have child protection laws
on the books.
People with Disabilities
A 1994 law aimed at eliminating physical barriers to disabled persons
regulates standards regarding access to public buildings, parks, plazas,
stairs, and pedestrian areas. An increasing number of street curbs in
Buenos Aires have been modified to accommodate wheel chairs. However,
few buildings and public areas in the capital or other cities offer easy
access to persons with disabilities. Federal law also prohibits
discrimination against people with disabilities in employment. Since
the establishment of the National Program Against Discrimination in
August 1994, the largest single group of complainants has been disabled
persons.
Indigenous People
The revised Constitution provides for the right of minorities to be
represented in government and incorporates international agreements
intended to promote their economic, social, and cultural rights.
Estimates of the size of the indigenous population vary from 60,000 to
150,000, but the National Statistical Institute put the figure at below
100,000 as of 1992. Most live in the northern and northwestern
provinces and in the far south. Their standard of living is
considerably below the average, and they have higher rates of
illiteracy, chronic diseases, and unemployment. Indigenous groups are
sometimes involved in disputes over tribal lands which tend to be
prolonged due to an inefficient court system unable to expedite
conflicting land title claims.
Religious Minorities
Although ongoing concerns over anti-Semitism exist, overt acts of
religious discrimination decreased during the year. The Government
extradited Erich Priebke to Italy to stand trial for crimes committed as
a Nazi officer. The investigation into the July 1994 bombing of a
Jewish cultural center continued. In December an investigating judge
ordered the arrest of new suspects, including some active duty military
personnel suspected of connections to an arms and explosives sales
operation.
Section 6 Worker Rights
a. The Right of Association
With the exception of military personnel, all workers are free to form
unions. Estimates regarding union membership vary widely. Most union
leaders believe it to be about 40 percent of the work force; government
figures indicate union membership at 30 percent. Trade unions are
independent of the Government or political parties, although most union
leaders are affiliated with President Menem's Justicialist Party.
Unions belong to either the General Confederation of Labor, its
dissident wing the Movement of Argentine Workers, or the Independent
Congress of Argentine Workers.
Unions have the right to strike, and members who participate in strikes
are protected by law. From August 1994 through July 1995, there were
327 strikes or other forms of labor conflict. Approximately 70 percent
were in the public sector, most of them as a result of delay or
nonpayment of salaries by local governments. The General Confederation
of Labor and a number of nonaffiliated unions staged a partial general
work stoppage and mass rally to protest the record level of unemployment
(18.6 percent) and the Government's labor and social policies. The
Government recognized the unions' right to protest and did nothing to
interfere.
Unions are members of international labor associations and international
trade secretariats and participate actively in their programs.
b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively
The law prohibits antiunion practices, and the Government enforces it.
The trend towards bargaining on a company level, in contrast to
negotiating at the national level on a sectoral basis continued, but the
adjustment has not been easy for either side. Both the Federal
Government and a few highly industrialized provinces are working to
create mediation services to promote more effective collective
bargaining and dispute resolution.
The Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and
Recommendations of the International Labor Organization (ILO) asked the
Government to comment on a number of complaints brought by the Union of
United Maritime Workers and the Congress of Argentine Workers over
hiring practices, workers' compensation, rest periods, and wage
protection.
There are no export processing zones.
c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor
The Constitution prohibits forced labor, and there were no reports that
it was practiced.
d. Minimum Age for Employment of Children
The law prohibits employment of children under 14 years of age, except
in rare cases where the Ministry of Education may authorize a child to
work as part of a family unit. A small number of children work with
their parents harvesting fruits and vegetables. Minors aged 14 to 18
may work in a limited number of job categories but not more than 6 hours
a day or 35 hours a week. The law is effectively enforced except in
some isolated rural areas where government enforcement capabilities are
poor.
e. Acceptable Conditions of Work
The national monthly minimum wage of $200 (200 pesos) is insufficient to
sustain a family of four.
Federal labor law sets standards relative to health, safety, and hours
of work. The maximum workday is 8 hours and workweek 48 hours. As part
of its economic restructuring program, the Government has enacted into
law reforms aimed at giving small and medium enterprises greater
flexibility in the management of their personnel. The Government is
also proposing to modernize the system of worker compensation.
Occupational health and safety standards are well developed, but federal
and provincial governments lack sufficient resources to fully enforce
them. In spite of union vigilance, the most egregious cases of inhuman
working conditions concern illegal immigrants who have little
opportunity or sufficient knowledge to seek legal redress. In March,
for example, provincial authorities of Entre Rios province discovered a
camp of illegal agricultural workers, most of whom were from Paraguay,
working under deplorable conditions for minimal pay. The authorities
provided medical and other forms of temporary assistance and disbanded
the illegal camp.
Workers have the right to remove themselves from dangerous or
unhealthful work situations, after having gone through a claim
procedure, without jeopardy to continued employment. Nevertheless,
workers who leave the workplace before it has been proven unsafe run the
risk of being fired; in such cases, the worker has the right to judicial
appeal, but this process can be very lengthy.
(###)
[end of document]
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