Document #1111014
AI – Amnesty International (Author)
Women and girls who were pregnant as a result of rape continued to face major obstacles in getting access to legal abortions. Excessive use of force by the police and inhumane prison conditions remained serious concerns. Legal proceedings against those responsible for past human rights violations during the military regimes continued.
In June, Argentina became the first country in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage. In July, President Cristina Fernández passed a decree to implement legislation passed in 2009 to prevent and punish violence against women. In December, following a process of national consultation, a National Human Rights Plan was made public.
The CEDAW Committee and the UN Human Rights Committee called on Argentina to amend legislation criminalizing abortion in some cases. Misinterpretation of the Criminal Code resulted in pregnant rape survivors facing serious obstacles in getting legal abortions. The status of the long-awaited Guide for the Integral Attention of Non-Punishable Abortion Cases was put in doubt and there were concerns that the lack of clear institutional guidelines on abortion would continue.
The UN Human Rights Committee, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights expressed serious concerns at reports of torture and other ill-treatment in prisons and police stations, particularly in Buenos Aires and Mendoza provinces. In January, a Provincial Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture was approved by legislators in Chaco province. However, a similar national mechanism, which is required under the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture, had still not been put in place by the end of the year.
Excessive use of force by security forces leading to injury and deaths was reported. In separate incidents in June and October, two teenage boys were shot dead by police officers in Río Negro province.
According to official data, by the end of the year, 110 people had been convicted for their role in human rights violations committed under the military regimes of the past; 820 more were facing criminal charges; and 13 trials were continuing. Despite progress in bringing to justice perpetrators of past human rights violations, a report by the Supreme Court admitted that there had been some delays, in particular in provincial courts.
Concerns remained at the failure to implement the 2006 national emergency law which temporarily suspends the execution of eviction orders or the removal of Indigenous communities from traditional lands until an appropriate nationwide survey has been carried out.
An NGO report published in early 2010 identified 120 land-ownership and environment-related conflicts in the Chaco area of northern Argentina, affecting over half a million people, mainly from peasant and Indigenous communities.
Despite growing evidence of the negative impact on health of chemicals used on soya and rice plantations in several northern provinces, by the end of the year no systematic epidemiological study or investigation had been initiated to evaluate the extent and gravity of the problem.
In September, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favour of the extradition of Sergio Galvarino Apablaza Guerra to Chile where he faced charges in connection with the murder of Senator Jaime Guzmán and the kidnapping of Cristián Edwards in 1991. However, in October, a federal judge closed the case for his extradition after the National Commission for Refugees granted him refugee status.
© Amnesty International
Amnesty International Report 2011 - Zur weltweiten Lage der Menschenrechte (Periodical Report, German)
Amnesty International Report 2011 - Zur weltweiten Lage der Menschenrechte (Periodical Report, German)