Concerns and questions: the record on human rights
Friday, December 9, 2016
Concerns and questions: the record on human rights
When Mauricio Macri was elected just over a year ago, human rights organisations said they would wait and see, willing to give the incoming president’s administration a chance to form its human rights policies. But on the one-year anniversary of his inauguration — which happens to fall on the National Day of Human Rights — the organisations’ patience is starting to wear out. They say they are ready to to mobilise in protest against the government’s policies.
While the Let’s Change (Cambiemos) government has continued many of the human rights policies put into effect by previous administrations, tensions have grown as the year has advanced. Many of the most recently proposed policies or legislation have led to criticism from activists.
The dismantling of key areas inside ministries that were set up to investigate and assist crimes against humanity trials, tougher anti-protest measures and “tough-on-crime” policies — such as the support for more stricter custody laws and plans to make it easier to deport immigrants that break the law — have sparked protests from human rights activists at every turn.
The boiling-point finally arrived last Saturday, when President Mauricio Macri once again ignored calls from the United Nations (UN), the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IAHCR) and Amnesty International asking the government to take action facilitating the immediate release of jailed Túpac Amaru leader Milagro Sala. Human rights groups unanimously decided that they had finally had enough and called for a “march of resistance,” set to take place tomorrow, in protest against what the groups call “setbacks” in human rights that have occurred this year.
‘Terrible’
“The administration’s record in its first year in power is terrible,” said Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo President Estela Barnes De Carlotto at a press conference last week.
More:
http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/224022/concerns-and-questions--the-record-on-human-rights