PRESS RELEASE Nº
20/00 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
Requests
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), at a plenary
meeting during its 109th special session, decided to request the
Government of the Argentine Republic to adopt precautionary measures to
protect the petitioners in Case No. 11,137, who have been imprisoned and are
engaged in a hunger strike. They are Isabel Fernández, Claudia Acosta,
Gustavo Messutti, José Moreira, Sergio Paz, Claudio Enrique Veiga, Roberto
Felicetti, Miguel Angel Aguirre, Claudio Rodríguez, Luis Díaz, and Carlos
Motto. Over
three years ago, the Commission adopted Report 55/97, in which it presented
its findings and conclusions on the case and issued the following
recommendations: IX.
RECOMMENDATIONS
438.
Based on the foregoing
conclusions, THE INTER-AMERICAN
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS, recommends
to the Argentine State:
i.
That it provide the necessary mechanisms and guarantees to undertake
an independent, complete, and impartial investigation into the events
beginning January 23, 1989, and analyzed in this report, for the purpose of
identifying and punishing all the persons who may be responsible for the
human rights violations mentioned in the conclusions set forth in Chapter
VII supra.
ii.
That, pursuant to its
obligations under Articles 2 and 8(2)(h) of the Convention, it take the
necessary actions under its constitutional system, to make fully effective,
in the future, the judicial guarantee of the right to appeal for persons
tried under Law 23.077. iii.
That in view of the above noted violations of the American
Convention, it take the most appropriate measures to repair the harm
suffered by the persons identified in paragraph 436 (A) and 436 (B). Since
Report 55/97 was sent to the Argentine state, the Commission has taken
repeated steps to ensure the implementation of its recommendations. As part of these efforts, the Chairs of the IACHR have
visited Argentina, where they have met with Government authorities serving
under both former President Carlos Menem and current President Fernando de
la Rúa, who expressed their unequivocal intent to implement the
recommendations issued in the Commission’s report.
In addition, the IACHR has held follow-up hearings on the
implementation of its recommendations during the 100th, 106th, and 108th
sessions, held, respectively, on October 6, 1998, March 2, 2000, and October
12, 2000. Nevertheless,
now more than three years after the Commission’s report, the
recommendations have yet to be applied.
Under
Article 29 of its Regulations, and without prejudice to other measures it
may consider necessary, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, at a
plenary meeting during its 109th special session, issued the
following request to the Argentine Government:
The immediate adoption of the necessary
measures to implement fully the recommendations of Report 55/97. The
IACHR continues to evaluate the implementation of its Report 55/97 by the
Argentine Government and has granted the Government a period of 10 days in
which to report on any measures it has taken.
Washington,
D.C., December 11, 2000 |