We have prepared a new special report about the Argentina’s government main measures taken over the past 10 months, which have raised concerns both nationally and internationally.
The Supreme Court of Justice of Argentina —in a ruling dated September 17, 2024 — upheld the convictions of Enrique Mathov and Rubén Santos, who ordered the repression of protestors on December 20, 2001. This decision sets a unique precedent in Argentina and the region, confirming that political leaders bear criminal responsibility for the consequences of their orders to repress.
From Temblores and CELS we prepared this special report that includes key information, data, complementary material and recommendations. The objective is to contribute to the debate about how and when they can be used.
During a public hearing requested by human rights, labor, and social organizations, representatives from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the United Nations expressed their concerns about the use of force, arbitrary detentions, the Ministry of Security’s protocol, and the stigmatization of demonstrators and social organizations.
In the past six months, protesting in Argentina has become a crime. Those who take to the streets to demonstrate risk being victims of repression, arbitrary detentions, imprisonment, and serious charges. Police violence is not investigated. In Buenos Aires alone, 665 people have suffered injuries—including vision loss—and 80 people have been detained. We have prepared this special report analyzing the various policies and strategies of Milei’s government to discourage, obstruct, and harass those who want to protest in the streets.
This came after the repression of thislast week’s protest against the “Bases and Starting Points for the Freedom of Argentines” Bill in Congress. More than 30 people were arbitrarily detained and later accused by the prosecution of serious crimes against democratic order, echoing the government’s accusations of terrorism and an attempt to overthrow the government.
Together with human rights defender organizations, we asked that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) take precautionary measures in favor of press workers, human rights defenders, and protesters. We expressed our deep concern about the recurrence of disproportionate security operations that result in people being detained and seriously injured.
The special rapporteurs expressed their concern over the Ministry of Security resolution and proposed legal reforms criminalizing protest. They called on the Argentine State to comply with international human rights standards.
Jointly with trade unions, social movements, human rights organizations, and entities focused on social, trade, environmental, indigenous, migrant, transfeminist, religious, children’s, student, and political causes, we have requested international mechanisms to demand the Argentine State stop the implementation of new regulations that seek to restrict and repress public protest. These submissions were also supported by 15,000 individual signatures.
With over 20 international and regional organizations we questioned the irregular and disproportionate use of these weapons by security forces and their serious consequences on health and human rights of people who exercise their right to protest.
Mass mobilizations to protest for higher wages were further heightened by demonstrations against the constitutional reform proposed by the government of Jujuy. The government responded by quashing the demonstrations and criminalizing protesters, resulting in dozens of injured and arbitrary arrests. This new constitution passed in record time restricts the enjoyment of human rights and seeks to avoid social demonstration against the active expansion of mineral extractivism.
This week, human rights organizations submitted a letter to the Constituent Convention expressing our concern about the proposed human rights setbacks in the province’s constitutional reform. The process has been conducted with unreasonably tight deadlines, lacking the necessary participation and debate, and raising concerns about its legality and legitimacy. This reform will have a detrimental impact on the right to protest, among others.
In Latin America there have been numerous violations of the rights of women and LGBT+ people in the context of protests, which affect their ability to exercise their right to expression, assembly and demonstration, as well as the exercise of their role as defenders of human rights.
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?
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.
We submitted our complaint against the Argentine State for the process of harassment and criminalization that Sala and the Tupac Amaru organization have suffered since her arrest in 2016. Government policy in Jujuy reaches much further, seeking to demobilize and limit the right to protest.
The publication is a compilation of stories showing how the use of FRT impacts the rights and everyday lives of citizens across 13 countries in the Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia.
Nine months after the institutional breakdown in Bolivia, we denounced the de facto government and its impunity for extrajudicial executions and other grave human rights violations.
CELS endorses letter addressed to the UN in which family members of victims of racial police violence and human rights organizations worldwide ask for independent inquiries.
The protests erupted in response to the killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis on Monday. INCLO condemns the disproportionate use of force against protesters and calls on police to act in accordance with international standards on the use of force and the management of assemblies.
Organizations from across the Americas warn the Human Rights Committee about the risks of regressive standards of protection on the right to protest.
Since the beginning of the demonstrations in Chile, over 2800 protesters have been injured, among which 1180 by rubber bullets and pellets.
The mission visited Santiago, Valparaíso and Temuco to meet with human rights and civil society organizations and other groups, as well as state institutions. The initial result is a report that provides a survey of human rights violations and recommendations for the Chilean state.
On the pretext of the upcoming G20 meeting in Buenos Aires, the government is promoting the notion of “internal enemies” and trying to justify greater levels of persecution of political dissidence and repression and criminalization of protest.
While repressing the October 24th protest, the police detained social and political activists. In addition, the national government threatened to deport the migrants who were detained.
Argentina is consolidating rollbacks in some key areas of social contestation, with cases of violent police responses to public assemblies, increased judicial persecution of activists and organisers, and a political discourse supporting them both.
In a unanimous ruling, the Argentine Supreme Court enjoined the judiciary of Jujuy province to urgently adopt the measures needed to safeguard the life, personal integrity and health of Milagro Sala, as ordered by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
The repression of social protest carried out by Nicaraguan security forces and para-police groups has left at least 273 people dead and 1800 injured in the last three months. What started with demonstrations against a pension reform has ballooned into a human rights crisis.
Joint research by the International Network of Civil Liberties Organizations (INCLO) and the International Human Rights Clinic of the University of Chicago Law School (IHRC) offers practical guidance on how law enforcement can protect human rights when policing protests.
“Enough is Enough”: 95 civil society organizations call on the UN Human Rights Council to urgently launch a Commission of Inquiry to investigate violence against protesters in Palestine.
The SiPreBA media workers trade union and CELS published a report documenting cases of people injured, detained and charged with crimes while documenting protests in 2017.
Seven people remain detained over incidents related to the protests of December 14 and 18, in the framework of criminal cases filed at the federal level. These prolonged detentions based on weak arguments imply very worrisome processes of criminalization. This situation also worsens the deterioration of conditions in which criminal processes unfold, hindering the right to defense.
A fresh round of content published on our Right to Protest platform covers ground across the world: from Kenya, Hungary and Australia to Peru, Canada and Argentina. The threats to this fundamental right can be seen on the street, with violent repressions, and in terms of state surveillance and judicial persecution. This online project was developed by openDemocracy, CELS and INCLO, with support from the ACLU.
A violent and intimidating police operation. Arbitrary detentions. Federal criminal charges. Political support for police violence. No specific legal framework for regulating the intervention of federal security forces in protests. Threats by political authorities, violent actions by security forces and their judicial validation – all of these are ways of limiting the right to protest.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) indicated that “the conditions of extreme gravity, urgency and risk of irreparable damage” set forth in the American Convention on Human Rights have been met.
At a working meeting convened by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), representatives of Amnesty International and CELS warned that the risks she runs have intensified.
We echo the request of Santiago Maldonado’s family to wait until the proper identification procedures have been carried out. The Argentine state must fulfill its obligation to guarantee an investigation that leads to truth and justice.
We are unveiling an online platform that brings together original articles, videos and interviews on the right to protest, at a time when demonstrations are proliferating worldwide and states often respond with violence. This project was developed by openDemocracy, CELS and INCLO, with support from the ACLU.
The Chamber of Appeals and Control of Jujuy province revoked Milagro Sala’s house arrest today, without revealing the grounds for its decision and in utter breach of the precautionary measure ordered by the IACHR. The federal state, guarantor of Argentina’s international obligations, must take all the steps needed to fully comply with IACHR Resolution 23/2017.
A follow-up report is presented to the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances regarding the Argentine state’s response to the disappearance of Santiago Maldonado.
A press conference was held in Esquel, 35 days after Santiago Maldonado’s disappearance. The participants emphasized the investigation’s shortcomings in the first crucial days, the violent security force operation in which Santiago disappeared, and the hypotheses used to try to divert the case.
Today marks 10 days since Santiago Maldonado was last seen trying to escape from an operation by Argentina’s Gendarmerie in the territory of the Pu Lof Cushamen indigenous community, in Chubut province. Human rights organizations convened a massive rally in the Plaza de Mayo today to demand that he be found alive.
The amicus brief submitted by CELS calls on the Supreme Court to bear in mind that Carlos Fuentealba’s death occurred during a protest and that it is the state’s duty to guarantee the free exercise of this right.
Michael Power of South Africa’s Legal Resources Centre, Homer Venters from Physicians for Human Rights, and Matthew Cagle from the American Civil Liberties Union share reflections on state responses to social protest.
This is an opportunity for the high court to reverse the impunity in this case and send a clear message on how the state must guarantee the right to protest.
The Argentine state was called to appear before the IACHR to give its response regarding the repression and criminalization of social protest in Jujuy. In that province criminal, misdemeanor and administrative proceedings are used to limit the right to protest, freedom of expression and freedom of association.
State measures that seek to restrict protests through regulation, criminalization and the use of force have a negative impact on democratic life. This study analyzes the issue in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela.
Joint press release by CELS, Amnistía Internacional and ANDHES.
Based on testimony lacking any credibility, the federal judiciary handed down a disproportionate sentence to a social activist for an episode in which she did not participate.
A hearing will be held before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) regarding violence against the Nam Qom community in August 2002 and the lack of state response.