We filed a complaint against a company in the Techint Group for the disappearance of two human rights defenders in Mexico
The complaint was filed jointly with their families and organizations from Mexico and Luxembourg. We requested that urgent and necessary measures be taken in the search for lawyer Ricardo Lagunes Gasca and Antonio Díaz Valencia, who have not been heard from since mid-January. They disappeared after a community assembly regarding the Ternium company’s failure to make payments to the community for its mining activity.
UN universal periodic review: What is Argentina’s human rights situation?
Argentina will be reviewed in the United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday, January 23. It will have to report to its peers on compliance with its international commitments on human rights matters. CELS, along with other organizations, produced reports as prior contributions for the assessment and recommendations to be produced by this mechanism. We will also be present at the session in Geneva.
Brazil: the threat of the anti-democratic far right
The move to action by these groups is a call for reflection and urgent action. What happens when democracies provide the tools and possibilities for some groups to seek to limit or do away with those same democracies? And what tools do we have to defend democracy in the face of attacks like this one?
Sheraton case: a new trial begins
On November 25, the fourth stage of the trial began for crimes against humanity committed at the clandestine detention and torture center that operated out of the Villa Insuperable sub-station, Buenos Aires Province.
Criminalization of LGBTI+ people: petition before IACHR to guarantee rights
On October 28 we took part in the thematic hearing as members of the LGBTI+ Litigators of the Americas Network alongside other organizations from the region. We put in an urgent call for reform of Argentina’s drug law and repeal of the misdemeanor codes that allow the criminalization of sex trafficking in public spaces.
At the final hearing before the Inter-American Court for the AMIA bombing, the Argentine State acknowledged its responsibility
On October 13-14, the final hearing was held in Montevideo, Uruguay in the case filed by CELS and Memoria Activa in 1999 charging the Argentine State with international responsibility for the attack on the AMIA Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires.
Indigenous peoples: the state fails to meet its commitments and backslides in response to racist pressure
Despite having the right to ownership and possession of their ancestral territories, this right is not enforced nor are there policies in place to guarantee that Indigenous people can live out their lives in keeping with their identity. The progress made in recent decades has not been sufficient. State response is often couched in rhetoric and stigmatizing stereotypes. The growing number of complaints is linked to this historic debt.
Right to protest: meeting of Latin American organizations
On July 25-27 we held an event in Buenos Aires to debate current reality in our region with colleagues from Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Honduras, Ecuador and Mexico.
Trelew Massacre: after 50 years, former marine Roberto Bravo was convicted in the U.S.
In a landmark ruling, a Miami court found Roberto Bravo guilty of the shootings of Eduardo Capello, Rubén Bonet, and Ana María Villarreal de Santucho and the attempted extrajudicial execution of Alberto Camps in August 1972. The sentence in the civil trial orders Bravo to pay USD 24 million in damages to the four plaintiff families. CELS assisted with the litigation process and accompanied the victims’ families.
Roberto Bravo trial: day 5
On the last hearing, plaintiffs’ counsel and the defense presented their arguments. After 2.5 hours of deliberations, the jury returned a verdict finding Mr. Bravo liable on all charges and awarding $24.25 million in total damages.
Roberto Bravo trial: day 4
In this fourth hearing, a forensic physicist, a conscript and Raquel Camps, daughter of Alberto Camps, victim of the massacre, testified.
Roberto Bravo trial: day 3
Defendant Bravo resumed the stand for hours of questioning by his counsel, recalling that he began working at Almirante Zar Naval Base in January 1972. On August 15, 1972, the day of the Rawson Prison break, while on vacation with his family in Buenos Aires Mr. Bravo got a phone call ordering him back to base.
Roberto Bravo trial: day 2
The day concluded with the Defendant, Mr. Bravo, taking the stand for several hours. Certain details of Mr. Bravo’s testimony were not consistent with his prior sworn statements about the events at Trelew, including what soldiers were present, who opened the cell doors, how many shots were allegedly fired by a prisoner, and the position of each solider when the shooting commenced.
The trial of former marine Bravo began
The Florida State University College of Law International Human Rights Clinic monitored the trial of former Argentine naval officer, Defendant Roberto Guillermo Bravo, represented by Neal R. Sonnett, P.A. and Haber Law P.A., beginning June 27, 2022, and provides this neutral report of trial events.
Continental actions for migration with rights and dignity
A group of organizations in the region urge the governments that signed the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection to put these commitments into action to defend the rights of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees.
CELS files as amicus curiae in the case of CAJAR vs. Colombia
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights is reviewing the lawsuit filed by the “José Alvear Restrepo” Lawyers Collective Corporation (CAJAR) for the illegal intelligence work, threats and persecution suffered by its members over the past 30 years. The case represents an opportunity to sanction illegal and arbitrary intelligence actions and practices that States deploy against social organizations and human rights activists and demonstrates the need for clear rules to regulate and control intelligence activities.
