Human Rights in Latin America - Essay Example

Human Rights in Latin America Introduction 1 Human rights as a basic agenda Man as a social animal have deviated its of living from other animals and has built up certain norms and regulation which are dedicated towards delivering an environment where man can sustain it in a proper manner1. The human beings possess significant interests and so they possess rights2 .The environment thus created also helps them in encountering the basic freedom which will not hurt their conscience and morality. The rights basically generate a field of rule governed interaction which concentrates under the control of the right holder3. The notion of human rights is an arena which can be associated with the above stated abstract concept4. Human rights are basically rights that are considered to be as intrinsic attributes5 to all the human beings devoid of their nationality, sexual orientation, color of the skin, language as well as other status. All human beings are the entitled to equal rights without any discrimination and the rights are all associated with each other with their independent existence and bearing the attributes of indivisibility6. The universal human rights are rights which are actually exhibited as well as stipulated by the law, by various general principles as well as various other sources of international law7. On the other hand the international human rights are rights which are basically obligations laid down by several governments of nation8 which direct towards acting in certain ways for the purpose of promoting as well as protecting human rights as well as the fundamental freedoms of individuals or groups9. 1.2 Human rights violation But despite the establishment of legal framework of human rights and rising concerns there has been mass scale violation of the human rights in different corners of the world10. There lies a basic tension among the philosophy of the human rights and the way in which it is basically understood within the domain of social sciences11 .On an international basis there has been legislation of Human Rights Act of 1998 as well as the European Convention on Human Rights but there has been wide spread violations of human rights12. Human rights violation comes in various forms13 where the individuals are denied of their basic entitlements be it moral, physical or mental. Human rights violation creates a way in which the human beings face treatment as if they are less than human and they do not deserve respect or dignity. The instances of human rights violation include torture, slavery, ethnic discrimination, deprivation from educational facilities as well as basic amenities of life, rape, enforced sterilization, medical experimentation as well as deliberate starvation. These policies are quite often implemented by the governments which restricts controlled power of the state being an important part of the international law. There are various underlying laws that restricts various crimes against humanity which is the principle of non discrimination and application of certain rights in an universal manner14. 2. Aims and objectives of the paper 2.1 Human Rights region- Emphasis on Latin America Latin America is one of the regions which have encountered rapid human rights violation. In the recent times the major focus may have been on the elections of Mexico, Venezuela as well as United States of America but it has been also seen that there has been almost a slow death of the human rights system of Latin America. In this paper we will be discussing the extra judicial killings as well as the issues of property rights and some other related issues in Latin American countries. The paper will be directing towards critically evaluating the legislation and policy documents which are adopted by the political organs within the region. Discussions will be made on the extent to which there is consistency within various political organs on the human rights issues in the region. The other part will be directing towards analyzing the judicial decisions on the issues of the human rights which will be discussed herein. Consideration will be also made to the extent to which the judicial decisions reflect the standards of human rights developed at the legislative and political levels. There will be also discussions made on whether the judicial bodies provide less, same or greater protection of human rights as compared to the findings at the policy levels with inclusion of appropriate reasoning. 3. Military Coup and extrajudicial killings In majority of the Latin American countries there has been rigorous military coup which has taken place in the countries eradicating various democratically elected governments often due to the fear by the national as well as the international elites leaning more towards the Left. In a fierce military coup socialist President was killed. After that the country of Chile has evolved as a strengthened democracy with election of the first female Latin American head of the state who has been elected on the basis of her own merit rather being known as the successor to a dead and disabled husband. Secondly, General Pinochet whose tenure of rule has been from the period of 1973- 1990 and during his tenure he was responsible for the torture as well as killings of a large number of people. He has been stripped of his parliamentary immunity and has been put into trial and executed15. 4. Legislation and policy documents-Critical evaluation Latin America has encountered a well known pattern of extra judicial killings16 which have either been tolerated or promoted by the state. In this discussion a deep focus will be entailed on the Latin American Country of Columbia17. Colombia is a Latin American country which has been an increasingly annoying center of extra judicial killings18 with the Columbian military being charged for the first time in the year 200819. Human Rights activists state that these extra judicial killings have found their incidence in almost 32 out of 33 Columbian provinces. Bodies of around 2000 suspected people of extra judicial murder have been suspected in a graveyard called la Macarena20. The UN Human Rights Council, NGO and IGO has also reported that an estimate of more than two thousand victims from extra judicial killings have been encountered within the time span of 2002-200821 and it has been also been encountered that the figure has been more than 3000. The Amnesty International Reports stated that the killings22 are ongoing along with seventeen cases occurring in the first six months of the year 2011. In the light of Columbia’s extra judicial killings have been attributed to the phenomenon of false positives 23where the military forces stand in the way of executing innocent civilians then they report these people as enemy combatants who were killed in battles in combats for boosting the kill counts. From the analysts point of view the extrajudicial killings are executed for two major reasons. Firstly it is done in order to gain promotions, vacations as well as other benefits for the military personnel. Secondly the reason is that big numbers of extrajudicial killings helps in reinforcing the perception that the government plays a significant role in fighting against the terrorists. The Reports of Amnesty International directed that the victims who are killed in the extra judicial killings are majorly members of indigenous communities, people of African descendant, peasants as well as community activists who are mainly defenders of human rights as well as members of trade unions. From the reports of National Indigenous Organization of Columbia there have been reports of killing of around 111 indigenous community24 members dying from various violent reasons and other deaths occurring from extra judicial killings. The claims from the human rights group state that the victims mainly belong from the poor families who are either unemployed or are challenged mentally25. This is indeed a hardcore violation of human rights and they are so weak socially that they in many instances fail to seek justice and inequalities committed against them. The IACtHR has stated that these situations of extra judicial killings generate a climate which is incompatible with the effective protection of the right to life. The right carries immense significance with the American Court of Human Rights which exists as an essential corollary for the realization of the other rights. In particular under the Article 4(1) this is not only prohibited arbitrarily towards deprivation of a person of his or her life (negative obligation) but also a duty which resides upon the state in taking all appropriate measures26. There has been some measures taken by Columbian government which has been approved towards the victims and there has been also establishment of Land Restitution Law which directs towards the fact that the property which is stolen must be returned to the rightful owners27. There has also been prosecution of greater military personnel by the Columbian government since the year 200828. In July 2011, around eight Columbian soldiers were given 28 to 55 years prison terms in charge of murdering two of the young men in the district of Santander in the year 2008. There has been also conviction of six army officers in the early 2012 being charged of murdering mentally challenged day laborers29. The army officers have been sentenced to a minimum prison for 35 years. But viewing from a critical angle it can be stated that the government has not contributed in a proper manner for correcting abuses and this inaction has propelled various infringements on land rights. From the point of view of Amnesty International the people working towards land restitution remained largely unprotected as well as vulnerable towards extrajudicial killings which undermine the proper implementation of the law. Various interventions by other human rights organizations state that although victims as well as Land Restitution Law have been passed and being enforced the actual process of returning the stolen land has not been effective. In Columbia there has been an increase of extrajudicial killing in the first six months of 2011 representing a great increase over the period of 201030. One of the major problems lies in the fact that a large number of cases have been justified before the military justice system which possesses a tendency towards closing the investigations devoid of hearing the cases in a proper manner. The United Nations also found that there were large scale inconsistencies regarding the happenings within the accounts of military authorities and a tendency towards some officials in discrediting and stigmatizing victims and also in obstructing justice. It has been also found that majority of the cases have been brought before the civilian courts at around 3000 estimated cases. But among them only around 170 of them have been facing proper verdicts from court. In a troubling move, the President Juan Manuel Santos have recently supported various legislation that will be diverting the current civilian cases to the jurisdiction of the military. The government has also passed the Framework for peace Legislation which will allow the human rights abusers which include members of the security forces towards benefitting from defacto amnesties. The watch Director for the Americas stated that it off particularly troubling for many human rights organizations, the government has passed the “Framework for Peace” legislation, which could “allow human rights abusers, including members of the security forces, to benefit from de facto amnesties.” The government has asserted that the amnesty will not be covering the crimes that are being carried on by the armed forces outside the conflicts which include espionage, murder and corruption31. However, the government asserts that the amnesty will not cover crimes committed by armed forces outside the conflict, such extrajudicial executions, espionage or corruption. The ABA rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) portfolio which applied to after conflict cases and human rights programs are directed towards neutralizing the phenomenon of extra judicial killings. The United States Department of Bureau of Democracy Human Rights and Labor (DRL) has selected ABA ROLI in order to execute a new program which is directed towards combating the occurrences of various political assassinations and kidnappings which fall under the purview of extra judicial killings. This law is rigorously dedicated to the Latin American country of Philippines. This program is highly different from the other initiatives which have taken place in the country. ABA ROLI has been vested the power of hosting five summits in areas where majority of the political killings have occurred for the purpose of discussing the application of the Writ of Amparo and are dedicated towards training the prosecutors in the fundamental crime scene preservation. The evolution of the ABA ROLI’s new program in the Philippines was the outcome of inspiration by a 2007 national symposium which was convened by the Chief Justice Reynato Puno. One of the major results of the new program was being adopted by the Supreme Court of the Writ of Amparo (Recursode Amparo).This a legal mechanism that helps the victims of the extra judicial killings or that of various disappearances. But at the time of granting of the Writ of Amaparo there is a requirement of a government agency like that of the police or the military which stand in the way of conducting due diligence for the purpose of ensuring that a missing person is not within their custody. The general denials are basically forbidden and the responding agency is aligned towards detailing of various steps when it took towards searching for the person. Due to the fact that Writ of Amparo is still an imperfect legal vehicle there has been a much problem for the citizens in understanding the limitations or of the issuance of the wrtmarks at the beginning of a case but not at the end. ABA ROLI also directs towards hosting around five regional summits for the purpose of increasing the understanding of the legal tool. Through the holding of the symposia in the regions where the problem is acute the speakers addresses unique challenges for the citizens of a particular region. More people working actively in the field are also able to attend. There is an increase in the attention of media from the forums withheld by the local press helping in exposing the problem to a much wider audience32. United States of America has been a major contributor of assistance to Columbia for the purpose of neutralizing the extra judicial killings. There has been a mammoth program of military assistance which amounted to more than US $ 1.3 billion. Despite the poor human rights records as well as continuous international concern, US administration has extended eligibility for military as well as military as well as training and practice. There has been Congressional support towards direct military assistance for the operation of Columbian operation against various armed rebels shifting the resources or focus from counter narcotics towards paradigm of counter terrorism with the enabling of the supply of more weapons33. 5. Property rights and Latin America In the year 1946, the Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and the Protection of Minorities was being established as a subsidiary organ of the Economic and Social Council and the Commission on Human Rights34.The Latin American countries are targeted towards liberalizing their economies towards encouraging domestic growth as well as attract foreign investment. For the purpose of successful accomplishments the process requires parallel reforms within the civil service, national institutions as well as the legal and fiscal frameworks of the countries concerned. The World Bank has directed towards provision to a large number of Latin American countries for the purpose of modernizing of the mining sectors with the provision of loans and technical assistance to five countries which are namely Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru. The Latin American Mining Law directs towards treating security of title as the top priority. The law directs that the right of the title holder will be directed to the right of the title holder in order to transfer both exploration as well as concessions of exploitations to some other investor or any other third party. Mainly there are three distinct types of mining law regimes within the countries of Latin America. These laws are basically administrative, adjudicative as well as contractual laws. The mining rights are being established and are extinguished through administrative proceedings of the mining ministry in the countries of Mexico, Peru and Brazil. In Bolivia and Chile it is done by the judges via adjudicative proceedings35. It has been found that in most of the Latin American countries the indigenous people of the area are widely discriminated in the areas of property rights. In majority of the Latin American countries today the legislation on indigenous rights is quite sophisticated36. Paraguay as for instance possess an indigenous Communities Statute since the year 1981 which grants inter alia the right towards obtaining land necessary for the purpose of development and also wide autonomy in the land management. Within the Constitution itself there are specific indigenous rights being recognized and their status as ethnic groups along with separate cultural identities being acknowledged. Paraguay is one of the 17 Latin American countries that are devoid of a precise body of regulations in enforcing legislations with no clear legal establishments37. In this respect it can be also stated that the foreign companies with large incidence of population burden, urbanization are finding lands for the purpose of growing staple foods and Latin America is one of the major places where they find good scope of expansion and there has been a wide scale discrimination in association with the indigenous people in the Latin American countries. With the exemplification of the leasing trend, a Chinese Food Corporation made several arrangements with the provincial government of Rio Negro in Argentina for the purpose of renting huge tracts of land for the purpose of production of genetically modified staple crops for the purpose of exportation to China. With the protection by their own government the agricultural food leases are turning towards a phase of neocolonialism in the Latin American countries. In the first instance it could be stated that the agreement seemed quite equitable with the Chinese paying an amount of USD 1.45 billion to the government of Rio Negro for the purpose of badly required system of irrigation for the purpose of securing the sources of food for the next 20 years38. 6. Judicial decisions It has been found that a large scale tax exemptions, environmental hazards as well as inadequacy in the legislative restrictions adversely affecting the lack of legislative restrictions with continuous neglect of the indigenous people of the area. This agreement has been met with immediate public rejection from the groups like Consejo Asesor Indígena (CAI), Viedma and the Mapuche people. Within the existing legislation, the government focuses on the special acknowledgement as well as respect of the indigenous people and their lad rights. There has been amendment enacted to Article 75(22) of the constitution of Argentina which directs towards guaranteeing respect for cultural identity as well as securing of all the rights of the indigenous people towards their lands. In the year 2006, the government of Argentina ratified the convention of International Labor Organization (ILO) No. 169 which incorporates the global standards of the indigenous people’s right within the Argentine Law. In the current situation, the Mapuche people are directed towards taking legal actions for the purpose of terminating the project on the basis that there has been no prior consent from the provincial government prior to the signing of the law39. With respect to the judicial decisions of extrajudicial killings in Columbia, High Commissioner Navi Pillay stated that, “The systematic, protracted and widespread taking of hostages, kept under the most inhuman conditions, could be considered as a crime against humanity40” The High Commissioner stated that the hostages are to be released readily without any conditions. In Columbia the High Commissioner of Human Rights visited President Alvaro Uribe as well as other ministers of various departments41. In the districts of Bogota as well as Arauca, the high commissioner encountered accounts of people being arrested and detained for two years or more. And these arrests and detainment were seldom found to be not on well founded accusations. The High Commissioner also warned against arbitrary detention as well as arrests for the purpose of ensuring that accusations being made are well founded. The High Commissioner also voiced various grave violations of the international humanitarian law which takes place in the context of various internal armed conflicts that has plagued the country for over four decades. Depending on the issue of various extrajudicial executions, High Commissioner also urged the ministry of Defense for the purpose of doing continued working so that central orders are enforced at the operational level. The High Commissioner also supported President’s decision for dismissing three army generals as well as 24 other officers who were alleged of illegal killing of civilians42. 7. Conclusion The detailed study of the paper provides an idea that human rights in Latin American countries is not maintained in a proper manner despite various legislation provided by the domestic government and the international actors and increasing concerns over human rights violation. The human rights issues that are discussed in this paper are extra judicial killings and property rights of the indigenous people. There is a wide scale increase in extra judicial killings and violation of property rights and reluctance of the domestic government can be attributed to the same. The judicial decisions in the recent cases are showing positive signs of relief for the human rights victims which can be said to be a positive dimension. However a large scale improvement is necessary for the Latin American countries in protecting the human rights. References 1. Arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial killings in Colombia concern UN rights chief, accessed 14 January, 2013 2. A Land-Grabber’s Loophole, 2011 < http://www.coha.org/a-land-grabbers-loophole/> accessed 14 January, 2013 3. 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