Global IssuesPARAGUAY: Strides in Human Rights
The government’s recognition of the human rights violations committed by the dictatorship of General Alfredo Stroessner (1954-1989) was the most outstanding achievement this year, according to a new Human Rights Report on Paraguay.
The report, which has been produced for the last 13 years, and since 1999 by the non-governmental Human Rights Coordinator of Paraguay (CODEHUPY), was presented Wednesday to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The report says the development that had the greatest impact was the final report released in August by the Truth and Justice Commission (CVJ), which documented human rights violations committed by the Stroessner regime.
The more than 1,000-page report contains testimony from 2,130 people on cases of torture, murder, forced disappearance and persecution during the de facto regime and the following 14 years, described as the 'transition to democracy,' up to 2003, when the independent CVJ was created by law.
'Due to its impact in terms of guaranteeing human rights, the presentation of the CVJ report was the most outstanding development this year. It officially acknowledged that the Stroessner government was a dictatorship, shed light on the ways the regime functioned, and provided detailed information on direct and indirect victims,' political scientist Line Bareiro, academic coordinator of the CODEHUPY report, told IPS.
'The future steps of reparations of victims, the construction of the ‘historical memory’, and the consolidation of democracy based on respect for human rights are the challenges that must now be taken up,' she said.
Another aspect highlighted by the report is the alternation in power, as a result of the Apr. 20 general elections.
'The political alternation in democracy this year was seen by some as marking the real start of the transition,' said Bareiro. 'However, the real impact of that step on guaranteeing and enforcing the rights of the population is yet to be seen.'
This year’s edition of the report puts a strong emphasis on the analysis of public policies, assessing the state institutions inherited by the government of former Catholic bishop Fernando Lugo.
According to Bareiro, part of the legacy of the Colorado Party, which ruled Paraguay for 61 years -- including the 35-year Stroessner regime -- is the lack of a 'culture' of the rule of law. The state and civil society will have to work hard over the next few years to overcome that deficit, she said.
'This report is important for two reasons: because to a certain extent it provides a portrait of the Colorado Party legacy, and because it observes what is happening at the level of public policies,' she said.
Public policies vary widely in Paraguay, because they are not developed on the basis of the constitution, she said.
'Within the same state institution, different decision-makers can adopt different decisions, some of which even contravene the constitution and international conventions that have been signed and ratified by this country,' said Bareiro.
Environmental questions are also focused on by the report, which points out that they do not only affect certain sectors, but increasingly cut across society as a whole.
'If you look at the different chapters of the report, you can see that the right to health care, housing and education are affected and undermined by violations of environmental legislation,' CODEHUPY lawyer Juan Martens told IPS.
The report pays special attention to the environmental problems affecting indigenous and peasant communities.
In recent months, small farmers and indigenous people have been protesting water pollution, intensive monoculture farming, the indiscriminate use of toxic agrochemicals and the way environmental permits are issued.
This year, it was clearly demonstrated that 'violations of environmental rights not only harm the environment, but hurt life itself,' said Martens.
Serious health problems have been caused by the use of toxic pesticides and fertilisers, especially by large-scale soybean farmers, who systematically flout the country’s laws and regulations, said Martens.
The human rights groups also took a close look at how the justice system operates.
'We lament the inaction of the Paraguayan justice system -- the criminal justice system on one hand and the administrative justice system on the other,' said Martens.
In the lawyer’s view, the criminal justice system has been basically absent because, in many of the cases that were studied, prosecutors and the police did not even act.
With respect to administrative justice, Martens said it had improved significantly since the Lugo administration took office on Aug. 15, but that it still depended on the dedication of the scant human resources available.
As an illustration, he cited the situation in the Secretariat of the Environment, which has just six officials to monitor more than three million hectares of soybean crops.
The report builds on the recommendations of the U.N. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to the Paraguayan state in areas like simplifying the procedures for parents to obtain birth certificates for their children, preventing trafficking in persons, and guaranteeing protection for patients in the state psychiatric hospital.
This year’s report was drafted by 59 experts in different areas from 23 organisations, seven of which are coalitions and networks.
'One of the concerns expressed is that enforcement of the laws, the functioning of institutions and the implementation of public policies are still highly discretional, depending on the interests of economically powerful groups and traditionally moralistic sectors,' said Bareiro.
Among the novelties in this year’s report is an article on discrimination towards Guaraní-speakers, written in that indigenous language, which along with Spanish is an official language in Paraguay.
Also discussed is discrimination against immigrants.
The 2008 report begins with an analysis on the current political and economic circumstances, followed by chapters on the rights to life, freedom and equality, as well as economic, social and cultural rights.
In addition, there are specific articles on the rights of children and adolescents, and indigenous people, and on systems for the protection of human rights.
The report’s authors see it as an 'x-ray' of the current state of human rights in Paraguay, in terms of both setbacks and progress made.
© Inter Press Service (2008) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service