Human Rights in Argentina - History

History

The history of human rights in Argentina is affected by the Dirty War and its aftermath.

According to the Nunca Más report issued by the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (CONADEP) in 1984, about 9,000 people were "disappeared" between 1976 and 1983. According to a secret cable from DINA (Chilean secret police) in Buenos Aires, an estimate by the Argentine 601st Intelligence Battalion in mid-July 1978, which started counting victims in 1975, gave the figure of 22,000 persons. This estimate was first published by John Dinges in 2004. Estimates by human rights organizations were up to 30,000. The Montoneros admitted losing 5,000 guerrillas killed, and the ERP admitted the loss of another 5,000 of their own guerrillas killed. By comparison, Argentine security forces cite 775 deaths of their own. In contrast, there were 13,500 victims of left-wing terrorism in Argentina. There is no agreement on the actual number of detenidos-desaparecidos. In an interview with Buenos Aires daily Clarin in 2009, Fernandez Meijide, who formed part of the 1984 truth commission, claimed that the documented number of Argentines killed or disappeared was closer to 9,000. The Asemblea por los Derechos Humanos (APDH or Assembly for Human Rights) estimated the number of disappeared as 12,261, which included "definitive disappearances" and PEN detainee survivors of the clandestine detention centres spread throughout Argentina. The total figure of official prisoners was 8,625 and of these PEN detainees 157 were killed after being released from detention. Between 1969 and 1979 left-wing guerrillas accounted for 3,249 kidnappings and murders. CONADEP also recorded 458 assassinations (attributed to the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance) and about 600 forced disappearances during the period of democratic rule between 1973 and 1976.

The laws of Obediencia debida ("Due Obedience") and Punto Final ("Stop") known as the laws of impunity were annulled by the Supreme Court on June 14, 2005 using the concept of crimes against humanity, after on April 19, 2005 the Third Chamber of the Spanish National Court sentenced the naval officer, Adolfo Scilingo, for crimes against humanity, which was confirmed by the Spanish Supreme Court on October 1, 2007. The principle used by the sentence was ratified by the European Court of Human Rights in the case Petr Kislyiy against Estonia on January 17, 2006 and Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling in the Case of Almonacid on September 26, 2006. The fact that these statements recognize the application of this concept of international law in ordinary courts is a milestone in the history of international human rights. This situation led to the opening of some trials in Cordoba, Corrientes, Tucumán and Buenos Aires and there are several on the procedural schedule. Sentences confirmed the implementation of the concept of "crimes against humanity", but investigations were not adequate to international law, or have joined the investigation and prosecution procedures as consistent with the types of crimes arising from international criminal law. This affects, using ordinary criminal law standards, the type of testing needed and who may be charged. There procedural certainty is impossible to substantiate the thousands of lawsuits pending across the country and to keep the current procedure.