Argentina must protect social mobilization, not silence it

More than 35 international and regional organizations call on the argentine government to comply with its international obligations on the right to protest and to investigate the police action on March 12. They also express their solidarity with the demand of decent pensions and concern about the rise of authoritarianism in Argentina.

  

Repression as policy: Violence, arbitrary detentions, and the use of dangerous weapons in Argentina

The mobilization outside Congress demanding a pension increase on March 12 was violently repressed in a large-scale operation involving five security forces. Security Minister Patricia Bullrich had warned in advance that there would be repression. Tear gas, rubber bullets, and arbitrary detentions marked a day in which the government justified its actions by invoking the narrative of an “attempted coup.”

  

IACHR Hearing: State denies responsibility for December 2001  killings and repression 

The Argentine State withdrew its previous acknowledgment of responsibility for the repression carried out in 2001, which it had accepted in 2023. Officials declined to answer questions regarding the State’s new assessment of the events that occurred in December 2001. The events of December 19 and 20, 2001, were an extreme manifestation of state violence following the unjustified declaration of a State of Siege.

  

Supreme Court upholds historic convictions of political leaders responsible for repression

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.

  

Repression at the Congress: we call on the IACHR to protect the right to protest

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.

  

With more than 1,700 signatures from organizations, we condemn the protocol against protest before the UN and the IACHR

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.

  

Limitations on the right to protest in Jujuy

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.

  

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.

  

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.

  

Using the G20 as an excuse to justify state violence

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.

  

Grave human rights crisis in Nicaragua

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.

  

One month since the repression of December 14

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.

  

Protest, social movements and state crackdowns

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.

  

The right to protest is in danger

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.

  

In defense of the agreements forged in democracy

On Monday, December 4, the 2017 Annual Report edited by Siglo XXI will become available. The prologue, which we are sharing in advance, calls attention to decisions, measures and events that adversely affect critical items on the human rights agenda as well as protection mechanisms. The government response to grave incidents, repeated incidents of repression and discourses about present-day threats and episodes from the past put the human rights consensuses achieved in Argentina on alert. These have been compounded by judicial decisions that take aim at some of the pillars of democracy. This situation requires safeguarding human rights principles from the dynamic of overall polarization.

  

The Right to Protest worldwide

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.

  

Human rights crisis in Venezuela

The Venezuelan government did not protect the right to life and restricted the rights to freedom of expression, of assembly and of political participation. The United States government imposed new legal and financial sanctions on the country. The situation requires the international community’s active commitment to support Venezuela in finding a sovereign way out of the crisis.