Argentina
22.08.01
Urgent Interventions
Argentina: The Economic Crisis, a structural challenge to the enjoyment of all human rights
ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS CONCERN
Case ARG 220801.ESCRC
Economic Crisis in Argentina: a Structural Challenge to the Enjoyment of All Human Rights
The International Secretariat of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) joins its member organisations – Las Abuelas de la Plaza de Mayo, El Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS) and El Servício de Paz y Justicia (SERPAJ)- in expressing concern about the possible impact that the current economic crisis, and the measures foreseen by the government to handle it, might have on the enjoyment of all human rights throughout the country.
As the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed on August 22nd 2001 to lend Argentina an extra 8 billion dollars to address the financial crisis, raising IMF loans to the country to 22 billion dollars, OMCT would like to remind the Argentine government of its obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Indeed, the Argentine government, as a State party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, continues to be bound by its legal obligations under this instrument when negotiating with the IMF. In other words, the Argentine authorities are bound under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to ensure that the decisions taken in Washington with the IMF will not have a negative impact on the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights in the country.
In this regard OMCT would like to recall that in its 1999 concluding observations on Argentina, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recommended that the government “when negotiating with international financial institutions, take into account its Covenant obligations to respect, protect and fulfil all of the rights enshrined in the Covenant”.
Brief Description of the Current Situation
The granting of loans from International Financial Institutions (IFIs), and in particular the IMF, is dependent on the implementation of a drastic ‘zero deficit plan’. The ‘zero deficit’ plan, approved by the Argentine Senate, calls for radical cuts in public sector salaries, spending costs including social spending and tax increases. Among other measures, the “zero deficit plan” includes the reduction for a renewable three-month period of civil servants’ salaries by 13 percent. Pensioner earning more than USD 300 (30 percent of pensioners) will also see their pensions diminish by 13 percent with a minimum pension of USD 300 guaranteed. Unemployment benefits will also be cut by 13 percent with a guaranteed minimum USD 150 benefit. This affects 120,000 unemployed people. Finally, family benefits of 1,530,000 private sector workers earning less than 1,500 pesos will also be cut by 13 percent. This reduction represents a cut of 20 million pesos per month and will affect benefits for the disabled, children education and childbirth.
A group of eight Argentine NGOs – including las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, El Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS), and El Servício de Paz y Justicia (SERPAJ), all members of OMCT network– have denounced to parliament the ‘zero deficit plan’ as unconstitutional and as compromising economic and social rights.
Moreover, in 1999, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recommended that Argentina be aware that social security provisions should guarantee workers an adequate minimum which cannot be reduced or suspended, especially in times of economic crisis.
While OMCT does not take a stance on the merits of economic restructuring as such, and the necessity of such reforms in Argentina, we believe that the current measures envisaged by the government might deepen the existing disparities and inequalities prevalent in Argentine society and therefore seriously prevent the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights such as the right to work, the right to education, the right to health, the right to social security, the right to food and the right to adequate housing. In this regard, OMCT recalls that the Maastricht Guidelines underline that the adoption of any deliberately retrogressive measure constitutes a violation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The Maastricht Guidelines also stress that the reduction or diversion of specific public expenditure, when resulting in the non-enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, and not accompanied by adequate measures to ensure minimum subsistence for everyone, also constitute a violation of the Covenant.
Social unrest accompanying the crisis and the response of the Argentine authorities already has and is likely to lead to further violations of civil and political rights. In this regard, the current crisis poses an important challenge to the enjoyment of all human rights throughout the country. On June 17th the police, lifting a piquete in the northeastern province of Salta, killed two individuals and injured thirty persons. The province of Salta is one of the poorest with 60 percent of the population living below the poverty line and 17 percent living in total destitution. Demonstrations in different provinces claiming overdue salary payments were also violently repressed by the police, killing five persons and injuring twenty-five.
The Centre for Legal and Social Studies CELS has denounced the increasing level of institutional violence in Argentina in the Inter-American Human Rights Commission for the perceived attempt by its government to criminalize street protests and to use judges to repress demonstrations, ignoring the right of protest expressed in the Constitution. CELS argues that violations of human rights are condoned by an executive power, which encourages police brutality. The Centre recorded a 100 percent increase in 1999 of the number of persons killed by the police in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area; moreover, the total number of civilians killed by the police has remained at this level throughout the year 2000.
Background Information to the Current Crisis
While Argentina experienced its longest period of stagnation during the second half of the 1980s and the 1990s, the situation has significantly deteriorated in the last three years.
Stabilisation programmes have been applied since 1989 under the impetus of international financial institutions. Since 1991 a structural reform plan has been implemented. It basically consists in the liberalisation of the economy (deregulation, suspension of export-promotion regimes and of regional preferences, labour market flexibility), the reform of State institutions and policies, the privatisation of public enterprises and the reduction of the number and size of State agencies.
The World Bank authorised loans to the Argentine government including a clause that guaranteed that specific social programmes would not be affected by structural adjustment policies. However, in 1999 the Centre for Legal and Social Studies CELS complained to the Inspection Board of the World Bank that the pro-Huerta programme suffered drastic budgetary cuts, which jeopardise its existence. The programme is destined to help people whose basic needs are not met by giving them seeds and information on raising subsistence crops. CELS regarded this as a violation of the right to food. In this regard, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights noted in its 1999 concluding observations on Argentina that “adjustment to a more rational economic order has been difficult for Argentine society” and that while “the government has succeeded in stabilizing the value of the currency the implementation of the structural adjustment programme has hampered the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, in particular by the disadvantaged groups in society”. According to World Bank figures, 29 percent of Argentineans against only 22 percent ten years ago and 43 percent of children live in poverty. Amongst those poor, a third do not have access to running water, half of them lack adequate sanitation and 7 percent of them cannot cover their basic needs.
While the current crisis has produced record high unemployment figures of 17.5 percent, the period between 1995 and 2000 showed unemployment figures steadily above 13 percent. Moreover, underemployment figures are fixed between 40 and 50 percent of the workforce. In some provinces, mostly in the northeast, un- and under-employment figures have reached 60 percent, prompting a situation of high unemployment.
High unemployment, lack of opportunities, development of temporary employment, reduced labour benefits, underemployment, the segmentation of the labour market, the expansion of the services sector and of the informal economy as well as the drastic decrease of employment in the public sector, are all trends which have created extremely precarious labour conditions and left workers unprotected. Between 1980 and 2000, there were 8,694 labour walkouts, averaging 414 per year, but they have diminished steadily. However, trade unions are reluctant to press demands for fear of losing their own jobs. Nevertheless, President de la Rúa faced a record seven general strikes in his first 19 months in office. About 50 percent of strikes occurred in the public sector, a measure of the conflicts raised by restructuring.
Since 1997, a wave of social protests and demands has been steadily growing throughout Argentina. Roadblocks have become the leading form of protest. Between 1997 and 2000, there were 957 piquetes or cortes de rua (roadblocks), mainly in the provinces of Jujuy, Salta, Tucumán, Rio Negro, Neuquen and Buenos Aires. In the first half of 2001 there has been a three-fold increase in roadblocks against the same period last year (from 142 to 447 roadblocks). Former employees of State enterprises, of public administrations and temporary or informal workers, who do not have access to labour benefits or to social security initiated these roadblocks. They were demanding proper social aid for unemployed and the rejection of the ‘zero deficit’ adjustment plan.
With regard to the right to adequate housing, a tide of homelessness has swept Latin America's most affluent capital city. The number of destitute - i.e. people surviving with less than USD 1.60 per day - in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area rose from 324,81$0 in 1991 to 921,000 in 2000 in an area totalling 12 million inhabitants. Within the city boundaries the homeless population has doubled between 1997 and 2000. Charities and aid organisations put the figure far higher as government surveys do not include persons residing in shantytowns or 'misery villages'.
Moreover, thousands of individuals also called 'afternoon homeless', commute to the city from poor suburbs every day. Most will spend a few nights on the streets of Buenos Aires in order to look for an elusive employment, often staying in block-long employment lines. Others will shift through refuse to collect recyclable materials such as aluminium cans.
Action Requested
Please write to the Argentine authorities urging them to:
i. take all necessary measures to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of the peoples involved in demonstrations and guarantee an immediate investigation into the circumstances of police brutality during demonstrations, identify those responsible, bring them before a civil competent and impartial tribunal and apply the penal, civil and/or administrative sanctions provided by law;
ii. take all necessary measures to guarantee that the implementation of the measures foreseen to address the crisis do not negatively impact on the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights throughout the country;
iii. take all necessary measures to ensure, as recommended in 1999 by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, that the social security system guarantees workers an adequate minimum pension and that this pension should not be unilaterally reduced or deferred in times of economic constraints;
iv. take all necessary measures to ensure, as recommended in 1999 by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, that its obligations to respect, protect and fulfil all economic, social and cultural are taken into account when negotiating with international financial institutions;
v. guarantee the respect of human rights and the fundamental freedoms in accordance with national laws and international human rights standards and in particular the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Addresses
S.E. Doctor Fernando De la Rúa, Presidente de la República, Casa Rosada, Balcarce 50, Buenos Aires, CF Argentina; Fax : (+ 54-11) 331 6376, (+ 54-11) 4344-3789, (++54 11) 4334-3700/3800 ; E-mail : postmaster@presidencia.gob.ar, Spyd@presidencia.gov.ar
Dr. Jorge Enrique de la Rúa, Ministro de Justicia y Derechos Humanos, Ministerio de Justicia, Sarmiento 329 5 piso, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Tel: 4328-6038/4328-6039 Int 2561/2561; Fax: (+ 54-11) 4328-5395
Dr. Domingo F. Cavallo, Minister of the Economy, Ministerio de la Economia, Buenos Aires, Argentina; E-mail: secpriv@mecon.gov.ar
Don Rafael Manuel Pascual, Presidente de Honorable Cámara de Diputados, Av. Rivadavia 1864, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Fax: (+ 54-11) 4954-1085 ; E-mail: rpascual@diputados.gov.ar
Subsecretaría de Derechos Humanos, Ministerio del Interior, Casa de Gobierno, Balcarce 50, Buenos Aires, Argentina; E-mail: sdh@wamani.apc.org
Doctor Julio Salvador Nazareno, Presidente Corte Suprema de Justicia de Argentina,Buenos Aires – Argentina; Fax: (+ 54 11) 437 11 540, (+ 54 11)43710721
Sr. Ministro del Interior, Casa de Gobierno, Balcarce 50, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Fax :(+54-11) 331 7354, (+ 54-11) 3129328 ; E-mail : postmaster@minte.gob.ar
Defensor del Pueblo de la Nacion, Dn. Eduardo Mondino, Montevideo 1244, C1018ACB – Ciudad de Buenos Aires; Tel. 0810-333-2762 ; Fax : (+ 54-11) 48 19 1581; E-mail: defensor@defensor.gov.ar
Human Rights Secretariat, Subsecretaria de Derechos Humanos, Dra. Alicia Pierini, Ministerio del Interior, Moreno 71 1 piso 5, Buenos Aires C.F., Argentina; Fax: (+ 54-11) 343 2326
Geneva, August 21st 2001
Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.
Case ARG 220801.ESCRC
Economic Crisis in Argentina: a Structural Challenge to the Enjoyment of All Human Rights
The International Secretariat of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) joins its member organisations – Las Abuelas de la Plaza de Mayo, El Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS) and El Servício de Paz y Justicia (SERPAJ)- in expressing concern about the possible impact that the current economic crisis, and the measures foreseen by the government to handle it, might have on the enjoyment of all human rights throughout the country.
As the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed on August 22nd 2001 to lend Argentina an extra 8 billion dollars to address the financial crisis, raising IMF loans to the country to 22 billion dollars, OMCT would like to remind the Argentine government of its obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Indeed, the Argentine government, as a State party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, continues to be bound by its legal obligations under this instrument when negotiating with the IMF. In other words, the Argentine authorities are bound under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to ensure that the decisions taken in Washington with the IMF will not have a negative impact on the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights in the country.
In this regard OMCT would like to recall that in its 1999 concluding observations on Argentina, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recommended that the government “when negotiating with international financial institutions, take into account its Covenant obligations to respect, protect and fulfil all of the rights enshrined in the Covenant”.
Brief Description of the Current Situation
The granting of loans from International Financial Institutions (IFIs), and in particular the IMF, is dependent on the implementation of a drastic ‘zero deficit plan’. The ‘zero deficit’ plan, approved by the Argentine Senate, calls for radical cuts in public sector salaries, spending costs including social spending and tax increases. Among other measures, the “zero deficit plan” includes the reduction for a renewable three-month period of civil servants’ salaries by 13 percent. Pensioner earning more than USD 300 (30 percent of pensioners) will also see their pensions diminish by 13 percent with a minimum pension of USD 300 guaranteed. Unemployment benefits will also be cut by 13 percent with a guaranteed minimum USD 150 benefit. This affects 120,000 unemployed people. Finally, family benefits of 1,530,000 private sector workers earning less than 1,500 pesos will also be cut by 13 percent. This reduction represents a cut of 20 million pesos per month and will affect benefits for the disabled, children education and childbirth.
A group of eight Argentine NGOs – including las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, El Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS), and El Servício de Paz y Justicia (SERPAJ), all members of OMCT network– have denounced to parliament the ‘zero deficit plan’ as unconstitutional and as compromising economic and social rights.
Moreover, in 1999, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recommended that Argentina be aware that social security provisions should guarantee workers an adequate minimum which cannot be reduced or suspended, especially in times of economic crisis.
While OMCT does not take a stance on the merits of economic restructuring as such, and the necessity of such reforms in Argentina, we believe that the current measures envisaged by the government might deepen the existing disparities and inequalities prevalent in Argentine society and therefore seriously prevent the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights such as the right to work, the right to education, the right to health, the right to social security, the right to food and the right to adequate housing. In this regard, OMCT recalls that the Maastricht Guidelines underline that the adoption of any deliberately retrogressive measure constitutes a violation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The Maastricht Guidelines also stress that the reduction or diversion of specific public expenditure, when resulting in the non-enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, and not accompanied by adequate measures to ensure minimum subsistence for everyone, also constitute a violation of the Covenant.
Social unrest accompanying the crisis and the response of the Argentine authorities already has and is likely to lead to further violations of civil and political rights. In this regard, the current crisis poses an important challenge to the enjoyment of all human rights throughout the country. On June 17th the police, lifting a piquete in the northeastern province of Salta, killed two individuals and injured thirty persons. The province of Salta is one of the poorest with 60 percent of the population living below the poverty line and 17 percent living in total destitution. Demonstrations in different provinces claiming overdue salary payments were also violently repressed by the police, killing five persons and injuring twenty-five.
The Centre for Legal and Social Studies CELS has denounced the increasing level of institutional violence in Argentina in the Inter-American Human Rights Commission for the perceived attempt by its government to criminalize street protests and to use judges to repress demonstrations, ignoring the right of protest expressed in the Constitution. CELS argues that violations of human rights are condoned by an executive power, which encourages police brutality. The Centre recorded a 100 percent increase in 1999 of the number of persons killed by the police in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area; moreover, the total number of civilians killed by the police has remained at this level throughout the year 2000.
Background Information to the Current Crisis
While Argentina experienced its longest period of stagnation during the second half of the 1980s and the 1990s, the situation has significantly deteriorated in the last three years.
Stabilisation programmes have been applied since 1989 under the impetus of international financial institutions. Since 1991 a structural reform plan has been implemented. It basically consists in the liberalisation of the economy (deregulation, suspension of export-promotion regimes and of regional preferences, labour market flexibility), the reform of State institutions and policies, the privatisation of public enterprises and the reduction of the number and size of State agencies.
The World Bank authorised loans to the Argentine government including a clause that guaranteed that specific social programmes would not be affected by structural adjustment policies. However, in 1999 the Centre for Legal and Social Studies CELS complained to the Inspection Board of the World Bank that the pro-Huerta programme suffered drastic budgetary cuts, which jeopardise its existence. The programme is destined to help people whose basic needs are not met by giving them seeds and information on raising subsistence crops. CELS regarded this as a violation of the right to food. In this regard, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights noted in its 1999 concluding observations on Argentina that “adjustment to a more rational economic order has been difficult for Argentine society” and that while “the government has succeeded in stabilizing the value of the currency the implementation of the structural adjustment programme has hampered the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, in particular by the disadvantaged groups in society”. According to World Bank figures, 29 percent of Argentineans against only 22 percent ten years ago and 43 percent of children live in poverty. Amongst those poor, a third do not have access to running water, half of them lack adequate sanitation and 7 percent of them cannot cover their basic needs.
While the current crisis has produced record high unemployment figures of 17.5 percent, the period between 1995 and 2000 showed unemployment figures steadily above 13 percent. Moreover, underemployment figures are fixed between 40 and 50 percent of the workforce. In some provinces, mostly in the northeast, un- and under-employment figures have reached 60 percent, prompting a situation of high unemployment.
High unemployment, lack of opportunities, development of temporary employment, reduced labour benefits, underemployment, the segmentation of the labour market, the expansion of the services sector and of the informal economy as well as the drastic decrease of employment in the public sector, are all trends which have created extremely precarious labour conditions and left workers unprotected. Between 1980 and 2000, there were 8,694 labour walkouts, averaging 414 per year, but they have diminished steadily. However, trade unions are reluctant to press demands for fear of losing their own jobs. Nevertheless, President de la Rúa faced a record seven general strikes in his first 19 months in office. About 50 percent of strikes occurred in the public sector, a measure of the conflicts raised by restructuring.
Since 1997, a wave of social protests and demands has been steadily growing throughout Argentina. Roadblocks have become the leading form of protest. Between 1997 and 2000, there were 957 piquetes or cortes de rua (roadblocks), mainly in the provinces of Jujuy, Salta, Tucumán, Rio Negro, Neuquen and Buenos Aires. In the first half of 2001 there has been a three-fold increase in roadblocks against the same period last year (from 142 to 447 roadblocks). Former employees of State enterprises, of public administrations and temporary or informal workers, who do not have access to labour benefits or to social security initiated these roadblocks. They were demanding proper social aid for unemployed and the rejection of the ‘zero deficit’ adjustment plan.
With regard to the right to adequate housing, a tide of homelessness has swept Latin America's most affluent capital city. The number of destitute - i.e. people surviving with less than USD 1.60 per day - in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area rose from 324,81$0 in 1991 to 921,000 in 2000 in an area totalling 12 million inhabitants. Within the city boundaries the homeless population has doubled between 1997 and 2000. Charities and aid organisations put the figure far higher as government surveys do not include persons residing in shantytowns or 'misery villages'.
Moreover, thousands of individuals also called 'afternoon homeless', commute to the city from poor suburbs every day. Most will spend a few nights on the streets of Buenos Aires in order to look for an elusive employment, often staying in block-long employment lines. Others will shift through refuse to collect recyclable materials such as aluminium cans.
Action Requested
Please write to the Argentine authorities urging them to:
i. take all necessary measures to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of the peoples involved in demonstrations and guarantee an immediate investigation into the circumstances of police brutality during demonstrations, identify those responsible, bring them before a civil competent and impartial tribunal and apply the penal, civil and/or administrative sanctions provided by law;
ii. take all necessary measures to guarantee that the implementation of the measures foreseen to address the crisis do not negatively impact on the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights throughout the country;
iii. take all necessary measures to ensure, as recommended in 1999 by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, that the social security system guarantees workers an adequate minimum pension and that this pension should not be unilaterally reduced or deferred in times of economic constraints;
iv. take all necessary measures to ensure, as recommended in 1999 by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, that its obligations to respect, protect and fulfil all economic, social and cultural are taken into account when negotiating with international financial institutions;
v. guarantee the respect of human rights and the fundamental freedoms in accordance with national laws and international human rights standards and in particular the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Addresses
S.E. Doctor Fernando De la Rúa, Presidente de la República, Casa Rosada, Balcarce 50, Buenos Aires, CF Argentina; Fax : (+ 54-11) 331 6376, (+ 54-11) 4344-3789, (++54 11) 4334-3700/3800 ; E-mail : postmaster@presidencia.gob.ar, Spyd@presidencia.gov.ar
Dr. Jorge Enrique de la Rúa, Ministro de Justicia y Derechos Humanos, Ministerio de Justicia, Sarmiento 329 5 piso, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Tel: 4328-6038/4328-6039 Int 2561/2561; Fax: (+ 54-11) 4328-5395
Dr. Domingo F. Cavallo, Minister of the Economy, Ministerio de la Economia, Buenos Aires, Argentina; E-mail: secpriv@mecon.gov.ar
Don Rafael Manuel Pascual, Presidente de Honorable Cámara de Diputados, Av. Rivadavia 1864, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Fax: (+ 54-11) 4954-1085 ; E-mail: rpascual@diputados.gov.ar
Subsecretaría de Derechos Humanos, Ministerio del Interior, Casa de Gobierno, Balcarce 50, Buenos Aires, Argentina; E-mail: sdh@wamani.apc.org
Doctor Julio Salvador Nazareno, Presidente Corte Suprema de Justicia de Argentina,Buenos Aires – Argentina; Fax: (+ 54 11) 437 11 540, (+ 54 11)43710721
Sr. Ministro del Interior, Casa de Gobierno, Balcarce 50, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Fax :(+54-11) 331 7354, (+ 54-11) 3129328 ; E-mail : postmaster@minte.gob.ar
Defensor del Pueblo de la Nacion, Dn. Eduardo Mondino, Montevideo 1244, C1018ACB – Ciudad de Buenos Aires; Tel. 0810-333-2762 ; Fax : (+ 54-11) 48 19 1581; E-mail: defensor@defensor.gov.ar
Human Rights Secretariat, Subsecretaria de Derechos Humanos, Dra. Alicia Pierini, Ministerio del Interior, Moreno 71 1 piso 5, Buenos Aires C.F., Argentina; Fax: (+ 54-11) 343 2326
Geneva, August 21st 2001
Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.