Human Rights in Latin America

               This post is a summary of three articles. The first with the title above was published at  http://ella.practicalaction.org/wp-content/uploads/files/130128_GOV_ProHumRig_GUIDE.pdf. The second was published at http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14652.html. The third was published at http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/la/maine.html

             Human rights have played a key role in ending dictatorship in Latin America, inspiring democracy, fostering social justice and generating a more empowered and active citizenship. This guide highlights the key policies and practices that have made these advances possible. In particular, it focuses on two aspects of the Latin American experience. First, it explores the ways that states have implemented concrete legislative and public policy actions at the national and regional level to meet their obligations to protect and defend human rights. And second, highlights the impact of the activism of a vibrant civil society in using these mechanisms to promote and guarantee the realisation of human rights, and in creating oversight mechanisms to monitor states' compliance with their human rights obligations. Nowadays, Latin American countries present a contrasting panorama in terms of human rights. The 2011 Annual Report of the Inter-American Commission highlights some key advances in human rights, such as constitutional acknowledgement, protection of vulnerable groups and reparation for past crimes. But at the same time, key human rights challenges persist, such as "the demand for justice and the end to impunity, the end of security policies which ignore human rights, and failure to respect the rights of excluded groups like indigenous people, women,and children ". The variety of Latin American experiences in establishing mechanisms to meet the human rights obligations can be categorised into two types. The first has to do with states's obligations to protect and defend human rights by building a legal and institutional framework to enforce human rights at the domestic level. The second set has to do with states's obligations to promote and guarantee human rights. With the backing of legal and institutional frameworks, both governments and civil society are using these mechanisms to ensure the effective realisation of these rights. National courts have a crucial role in the implementation of the binding decisions of an international tribunal organ such as the Inter-American Court. In this process, the role of judges and and lawyers is fundamental to ensure that national courts will implement the international norms and standards at the domestic level. During dictatorships and after transition to democracy, episodes of social conflict have led to human rights violations in many Latin America countries, From this repression, groups of victims have emerged as crucial actors in transitional justice processes by calling on governments to guarantee their rights and reparation measures. These entail a range of structural and institutional reforms, as well as appropriate compensation, sanctions for violators of humsn rights and transparent efforts to reconstruct the truth. In every case, the victims demanding their rights to justice, truth and to a range of reparation measures for the abuses they had suffered is key to challenge governments to change the contexts that enable human rights violations. National human rights institutions in Latin America, also known as Public Defenders, Human Rights Commission or Human Rights Attorneys are becoming increasingly recognised for the strong and proactive role they are playing in promoting human rights. The creation of these institutions responded to the particular context of Latin America, a region emerging from the repression and armed conflict of the 1970s and 1980s, so that these institutions took on a particular shape, responding to the need for implementing mechanisms that control human rights abuses perpetrated by government authorities. Latin America's human rights institutions have become key players in promoting an innovative human rights strategy: integrating a human rights approach within public institutions' agendas and in public policies, programmes and laws within their jurisdiction. Another of their roles is mediating social conflict and fostering more active citizenship. Even if states have adopted legislative and institutional frameworks that guarantee human rights, they are essentially useless without specific public policy measures to guarantee human rights are realised, meaning that states undertake administrative, financial and even methodological changes to truly promote and guarantee the effective realisation of human rights. In Latin America over the last two decades, participation in strategic litigation has become increasingly prominent as a tactic to shape the realisation of human rights, in particular focusing on social rights. Strategic litigation deals with "issues that transcend individual circumstances to enter the judicial environment and attempts to determine human rights violations, foster legal reforms, and construct coalitions that create pressure for changes." The region is home to a number of organisations who are successfully using strategic litigation to promote human rights in their countries. To name only two, good experiences in developing strategic litigation may be represented by the Centre for Legal and Social Studies in Colombia and the Civil Association for Equality and Justice in Argentina. Both organisations are using litigation as a tool to promote human rights. They have managed to make social cases public by pointing out deficiencies in domestic frameworks to fulfil human rights. These cases demonstrate the usefulness and effectiveness of this tool when used to advance human rights and to influence public policies. Recently, some Latin America experts have pushed forward a joint agenda for anti-corruption policies and human rights based on three common principles: participation, transparency, and access to information and accountability. Based on these principles, civil society organisations (CSO) have been developing a variety of strategies to strengthen oversight mechanisms, like using the right to information to monitor the spending of public funds. CSOs can prevent corruption and may guarantee a better use and destination of public funds devoted to specific groups. The American Convention on Human Rights represented the region's first attempt at addressing human rights, establishing specific obligations for states and creating two mechanisms that may intervene in matters related to states fulfilling their human rights obligations: the Inter-American Commission and the Inter-American Court. These two organisations have pushed Latin American states to guarantee human rights by elaborating well-documented reports that denounce violations. they have also taken up individual cases and have provided precautionary measures to human rights defenders, advancing enforcement of human rights in the region.

              "Through this book Sonia Cardenas' voice emerges as that of a determined but clear-eyed optimist, willing to confort the dark realities of politics and power but inclining toward what another Latin Americanist, adopted as 'a bias for hope." ... In all, it is a remarkable compact synthesis on this sprawling subject." Said Alexander Wilde from Journal of Latin America Studies. For the last half century, Latin America has been plagued by civil wars, dictatorship, torture, legacies of colonialism and racism, and other evils. The region has also experienced dramatic, if uneven, human rights improvements. The accounts of how Latin America's people have dealt with the persistent threats to their fundamental rights, offer lessons for people around the world. Human Rights in Latin America: A Politics of Terror and Hope is the first textbook to provide a comprehensive introduction to the issues facing an area that constitutes more than half of the Western Hemisphere. Sonia Cardenas brings together regional examples of both terror and hope, emphasizing the dualities inherent in human rights struggles. Organized by three pivotal topics: human rights violations, reform, and accountability. This book offers an authoritative synthesis of research on human rights on the continent. From historical accounts of abuse to successful transnational campaigns and legal battles, this book explores the tensions underlying a vast range of human rights initiatives. In addition to surveying the roles of the U.S.A., relatives of the disappeared, and truth commissions, Sonia covers newer ground in addressing the colonial and ideological underpinnings of human rights abuses, emerging campaigns for disability and sexuality rights, and regional dynamics relating to the International Criminal Court. Engagingly written and fully illustrate, this book creates a niche among human rights textbooks. 

               The human rights situation in Latin America varies considerably country to country. Yet, if there is one violation that is common to most of the continent, it is impunity, the lack of punishment, and often even of investigation, to those who are responsible for committing the most dire human rights abuses. Impunity has the effect not only of leaving free those who have committed these abuses, but of communicating to the rest that they can do as they wish with the population, and will not have to suffer for it. We believe that exposing human rights violations is the first step in battling against them. It is much easier to kill, rape, torture and unjustly imprison under the cover of darkness. We hope that the reports there will be useful to you, and that will also encourage you to work to stop human rights violations in Latin America and the world.