Current Human Rights Violations In Argentina

[ajoknoblauch]

You should check statictics, and not the ones from Indec, which they are reliable, but the ones from UN (please check the HDI and how unstoppably went up with Kirchner), World Bank or IMF. everyone agrees that poverty went down, and A LOT, during these years, not only in Argentina, but in the region, with centre-left government and policies. Argentina has doubled its middle class. Thats a lot of people that went up in the social scale. The Gini index got better, the unemployment went from 20% to 6%, the debt went from 150% of GDP to 42%, thats a lot of money destined to social plans such as Asignacion Universal por Hijo (which can be an indirect form for investment on education) or simply direct invest in education like it is the increase from 2.5% to 6.5% of GDP (which grew 5 times its size during the era Kirchner).
These numbers by The UN, World Bank and IMF, certainly not Kirchneristas, and these ones by UCA and private consultants, published in La Nacion (again, far from Kirchnerism)

http://www.lanacion....to-con-inflacio


Health here in Argentina is better than in the US for example, since is totally free access. In the US if you dont have money you cant be assisted by a doctor, in the entire country. Here, it doesnt matter if the public hospitals sucks, which I think they not, but this is arguable, you have the chance to have surgery, or a simple consultation with a doctor, totally free. Same that with education. If you dont know I tell you that the better university for medicine here is still public and free, the same as some of the better hospitals, for example Hospital de Clinicas, that has the better doctors of the country, since that institution is A LOT more prestigious than some of the best private clinics. You can try and go and talk to the main doctors in the private clinics here and the most of them should have worked in some public hospital or still do. Not for the money but for the prestige. The same with UBA where 4 nobel prizes went and study.
About the growth of the shanty towns, I must tell you, 70% of that population are immigrants. Argentina has a very lax immigration policy, thats why the great majority of the poor people of the poorest countries like Peru, Paraguay and Bolivia come here to live, and these numbers are increasing every year. Argentina allows them to come and live in the villas, and they come more and more every time because they can progress here more than anywhere in the continent (perhaps on a par with Chile, that has very tough immigration laws). So thats the reason why the shanty towns grew up unstoppably in the last ten years. The villas population, furthermore, are new arrivals, since the first generation had all settled down, and not in villas.


By the way, Im currently studying the subject "Cultura para la Paz y Derechos Humanos" in UBA by Adolfo Perez Esquivel (former peace nobel prize) and the technical definition of a violation of Human Rights (which it has to be always done by the State, when you have a situation with two particulars there are not Human Rights) is when prooved negligence sistematically. That means that in the tragedy of Once, for instance, the State has a lot of responsibility, is the main responsible, but its not a Human Right violation since its not prooved sistematically neglect but an accident. To be a violation it has to be done by an agent of the State, like in the dictatorship, with torture people assasinated, etc, or prooved negligency or abandonment not one or two but several times and/or with prooved intention.
BTW there are tons of conventions of Human Rights that are ratified by every country EXCEPT the US. This said by Adolfo Perez Esquivel, who travels a lot and knows about the issue. There are tons of Guantanamos around the globe where they torture people not one or two months but years. And the reason is not to get information (think about it, once the terrorist group knows they catched one of their group 2 or 3 days after they change every plan they had) its because they want to disciplinate the rest of the population, thats why all this torture and Human Right violation filters to the public.

Flagrants Human Right violations (besides Iraq and Afghanistan) made by the US but theres nothing you can do because is the main power of the world.

Misleading: hospitals in the US cannot refuse you medical services, though they can try to break you financially.

 

[kemer84]

Misleading: hospitals in the US cannot refuse you medical services, though they can try to break you financially.

Go and tell that to these people...

http://www.familiesusa.org/issues/uninsured/publications/dying-for-coverage.html

 

[sesamosinsal]

Go and tell that to these people...

http://www.familiesu...r-coverage.html

Exactly. Good luck getting cancer treatment without insurance.

 

[Matiasba]

I don't consider 30.000.000 dollar a day x 250 days(bit more but weekends are slow)

That's a total of 7-8 billion dollars that get sucked out of the economy

It is indeed a small market, is like 10% compared to the official rate market, or even smaller. That market is of course an intended creation of this government, so they do know exactly whats going on, how to controll it, how to deal with it. In fact, there are lots of people, analists, economists, etc, mainly kirchneristas, who claim the intervention of the government in this market, buying dollars, throwing down this artifficial price, just to shut up the mouth of the opposition and the sensationalist tv fever and the speculators and the people that believe that a huge devaluation is comming soon followed by the end of the world. Of course all this speeches have a purpose, to destabilize and create panic in the investors, and they definetly make it, since Argentina is the 6th country of the region talking about investment. Although thats not the only reason why investors dont believe in Argentina.

So buying dollars or euros in this country it may be illegal, but thats not illegal like you re going to jail or even that you re commiting a crime, I would say its illegal like you download music from the web or something like that. You can perfectly exchange money in the unofficial market without any problem, so dont say you cant. They dont care of the blue market, they perfectly know that exists, how much money they move diary, which are the big fishes, and how to (not) controll it.

 

[Jaredberryman]

I can't believe that we aren't discussing the much worse human rights violations that are going on in Argentina. The Cepo Cambiario is a joke, but it's nothing compared to some of the real crap that is going on. I read a doctoral thesis on prostitution here. It is unbelievable the amount of forced prostitution that is going on in Argentina--really sad. Women from other countries in Africa or the Dominican Republic, etc., are promised jobs in Argentina, or their family sells them as prostitutes. They are then shipped to Argentina in an international prostitution ring and make to "work" for a living, their papers confiscated. If they try to get out, they will be killed or kidnapped and moved to another country. When I read the paper, it was truly staggering that thousands of women have been trapped in this cycle. My own Father-in-law tried to work with some prostitutes who wanted to get out. It never worked out. If they try to get out, they will get killed. One of them was taken out of the country. If this is not a blatant human rights violation, I don't know what is. The thing is, I'm sure there are policemen and government officials complicit in all of this.

Another human rights violation not discussed here is the enslavement of poor people. The same that happens to prostitutes, happens to lots of people from Bolivia and other such countries. People are promised legal work in Argentina, and then have their papers confiscated and are put to work in factories making whatever crap it is for 14 hours straight, and might get paid something minuscule or nothing at all (they might have to pay for their "passage"). This is basically just modern day slavery. Businesses that do this just bribe their way out of trouble. It happens all the time in Argentina. It's common knowledge by the locals that this is the reality.

Fortunately, there is an organization called No Chains that helps people get out of this situation. No Chains helps people in this situation for coops, that manufacture clothing with the No Chains brand and sell them at reasonable prices. All the workers share in the profits, and since most of the workers have become extremely skilled, they can make a fairer wage and their standard of living goes up remarkably. Also, they are not slaves and can come and go as they please. They work normal hour days and are their own bosses. It's a pretty neat program.

I would say the fact that there might be government officials involved in the drug trade is a human rights violation. I could go on and on, but hey, I'll stop here. Everyone needs to be aware of all of this stuff. If you see something like this going on, there are ways and avenues of bringing it to light.

 

[Matiasba]

I would say the fact that there might be government officials involved in the drug trade is a human rights violation.

Actually, is not. It was if they do it, if they participate in the drug bussiness, in the name of the State. But they do it as a criminals, behind the law.

Agree on everything you wrote, there are a lot of people who ignore their rights and they are actual slaves in the XXIth century. There are also multinationals like Nidera, linked to agro bussiness in the north east provinces, that take advantage of poor people from poorer provinces here, and make them work like 16 hours a day and give them only food and a bed. There was a big problem a couple of years ago with this and the government said they intervened that situation, but I seriously doubt they have changed that, since thats the situation we have had for centuries, so its naturalized.
About prostitution theres a big net, they re connected and have women in every single country. It goes up to Spain and the US and they traffic women with total impunity. Last year we had the Marita Veron case, and like that we have a lot of other women that got kidnapped and taken away to another country. They actually have a lot of power, like the narcos, they have political power (police, judges, even people from the tv); it is a big world wide bussiness and Argentina sadly is a part of it.
We also have the talleres mainly in the barrio of Once, where they make paraguayans and bolivians work hard just to give them bed and food, they re all day long confined, weaving in a 2 square meters room without any light in very poor conditions. And thats here, not in the middle of Formosa province, its in Once.
Im not sure if these situations are actually Human Rights violations, if not they re probably in the limit, as I said it is important to this people to get to know their rights, no matter where are they from nor if they want to work and live in that conditions.

 

[ajoknoblauch]

Exactly. Good luck getting cancer treatment without insurance.

You're absolutely right there, but they cannot turn you down for urgent care (ER), say a broken leg. I am no apologist for the US medical system, for whose shortcomings Obamacare is barely a start.

 

[Lost in Buenos Aires]

Another human rights violation not discussed here is the enslavement of poor people. The same that happens to prostitutes, happens to lots of people from Bolivia and other such countries. People are promised legal work in Argentina, and then have their papers confiscated and are put to work in factories making whatever crap it is for 14 hours straight, and might get paid something minuscule or nothing at all (they might have to pay for their "passage"). This is basically just modern day slavery. Businesses that do this just bribe their way out of trouble. It happens all the time in Argentina. It's common knowledge by the locals that this is the reality.

Fortunately, there is an organization called No Chains that helps people get out of this situation. No Chains helps people in this situation for coops, that manufacture clothing with the No Chains brand and sell them at reasonable prices. All the workers share in the profits, and since most of the workers have become extremely skilled, they can make a fairer wage and their standard of living goes up remarkably. Also, they are not slaves and can come and go as they please. They work normal hour days and are their own bosses. It's a pretty neat program.

I would say the fact that there might be government officials involved in the drug trade is a human rights violation. I could go on and on, but hey, I'll stop here. Everyone needs to be aware of all of this stuff. If you see something like this going on, there are ways and avenues of bringing it to light.

Tell me more about the slave wages as well as the group called "No Chains". i've never heard of them. Thanks for the input.

 

[Jaredberryman]

Here is a link to their page: http://nochains.org/. One of the reasons I like Bergoglio is that he is outspoken for this group. You can see his video there on the main page--he has been a big supporter. Their clothes are good quality and have much better better prices than that which is produced through slave labor. Good stuff.

 

[Jaredberryman]

Actually, is not. It was if they do it, if they participate in the drug bussiness, in the name of the State. But they do it as a criminals, behind the law.

Agree on everything you wrote, there are a lot of people who ignore their rights and they are actual slaves in the XXIth century. There are also multinationals like Nidera, linked to agro bussiness in the north east provinces, that take advantage of poor people from poorer provinces here, and make them work like 16 hours a day and give them only food and a bed. There was a big problem a couple of years ago with this and the government said they intervened that situation, but I seriously doubt they have changed that, since thats the situation we have had for centuries, so its naturalized.
About prostitution theres a big net, they re connected and have women in every single country. It goes up to Spain and the US and they traffic women with total impunity. Last year we had the Marita Veron case, and like that we have a lot of other women that got kidnapped and taken away to another country. They actually have a lot of power, like the narcos, they have political power (police, judges, even people from the tv); it is a big world wide bussiness and Argentina sadly is a part of it.
We also have the talleres mainly in the barrio of Once, where they make paraguayans and bolivians work hard just to give them bed and food, they re all day long confined, weaving in a 2 square meters room without any light in very poor conditions. And thats here, not in the middle of Formosa province, its in Once.
Im not sure if these situations are actually Human Rights violations, if not they re probably in the limit, as I said it is important to this people to get to know their rights, no matter where are they from nor if they want to work and live in that conditions.

I like your comment, but let's think for a minute. If the people in power circumvent the law, then who is going to stop them? It doesn't matter if it's a law or not, since they are in power and have no one to halt their activities. Those currently in the government that sell drugs are also committing human rights violations when they sell drugs, whether they do it in the name of the state or not. That doesn't necessarily mean the state has made laws against human rights. But since the State is comprised of government employees, I think we need to quit splitting hairs and call a spade a spade. Let's face it. There are those in this government that are committing grievous human rights violations by selling drugs. I think we could probably lump De La Rua in there if he is in to that, too, while he was in power.