Universal Periodic Review at the UN

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is an assessment of the human rights situation in the world in which the 193 Member States of the United Nations participate. It is a peer evaluation in which countries subject themselves to review by the other 192 States every four-and-a-half years. The UPR was created by the UN General Assembly in 2006 and is the only universal mechanism of its kind.

In the Human Rights Council, each State under evaluation must present a report on what it has done to improve the human rights situation at home. The other States formulate questions and make observations. The evaluation takes into account the information provided by each State in its national report as well as material contributed by civil society organizations and UN human rights mechanisms.

In a subsequent session, the final UPR report is adopted that includes recommendations for each State and the voluntary commitments it made in the framework of the evaluation. The State must implement these in the years that pass between evaluations.

In January 2023, Argentina will be evaluated for the fourth time. On this occasion, the country must explain to what extent it has advanced on implementing its human rights commitments and international obligations.

Various patterns of police violence persist in Argentina, despite the change in government rhetoric since 2019. There have been no significant advances in state capacities to record, systematize and publish quantitative and qualitative information on these phenomena, whose visibility continues to depend on the actions of civil society. 

Due to this absence, CELS has reported, between 2018 and 2021, at least 368 cases of citizens and 87 police officers killed in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires in situations involving the use of firearms by the security forces. It is noted the repetition of cases produced in the framework of pursuits and vehicular controls, especially in marginalized neighborhoods. In addition, between 74% and 77% of the individuals were killed by off-duty police officers, including at least 28 women killed by police officers with gender-related motives. 

Another trend observed is the disproportionate use of force in police approaches to persons with psychosocial disabilities, sometimes resulting in serious injury or death. There are insufficient or inadequate protocols and mechanisms to control the use of force in situations of demonstrations, operations in vulnerable neighborhoods and evictions or raids. In particular, there are no regulations in the country on the use of less lethal weapons.

Suggested Recommendations to the State
1.    Systematically publish and guarantee public access to detailed statistical information and other types of qualitative and quantitative data on acts of violence committed by security forces personnel, on and off duty, police arrests, seizures and searches without warrants, broken down by motive, gender, race, nationality (specifying indigenous and Afro-descendant populations), age, location, and other variables.
2.    Change the prohibitionist intervention model for illegal substances. Reform the drug law to decriminalize consumption per the CSJN’s Arriola ruling and regulate illegal drug markets.
3.    Establish a legally binding regulatory framework that protects and guarantees the rights related to social protest. Arbitrate the means to promote its adhesion by the provinces through the corresponding institutional channels.

The full report was produced with Movimiento de Trabajadorxs Excluidos (MTE).

Since 2008, the rate of incarceration and overcrowding in Argentina’s prison systems have grown exponentially, reaching a situation of critical overcrowding. As a consequence of this growth, the use of police facilities -police cells or jails- for holding persons in custody for long periods of time has become widespread. The conditions in the facilities aggravate this situation: problems of access to health care for persons deprived of their liberty have been reported, as well as an abusive use of force in prisons to repress protests in the penitentiary services. 

Finally, problems have been documented in the implementation and participation of civil society in local mechanisms for the prevention of torture: there are 9 provinces that have not made progress in legislating or implementing their local mechanisms.

Suggested Recommendations to the State
1.    Establish effective institutional mechanisms to prevent holding a quantity of people beyond the real capacity of the detention facility. In particular, any occupation of a detention facility beyond the number of places provided should be prohibited by law, establishing legal mechanisms to immediately rectify overcrowding, based on the premise of ultimate ratio and not on the construction of more prisons. This mechanism should define the prison capacity taking international standards into account.
2.    Prohibit the use of police facilities as places of permanent detention, and generate effective institutional mechanisms to guarantee compliance with this prohibition, since these places are unsuitable for these purposes and the grave conditions of detention put the lives of people held there at risk. Guarantee that they will not be used for such purposes.
3.    Ensure that procedural norms fully uphold the rule of liberty during criminal proceedings. Design and implement legislative and judicial policies aimed at eliminating the abusive, unrestricted use of pretrial detention beyond a reasonable term.

The full report was produced with Aporte Interdisciplinario para la Región (AIRE), Asociación Civil de Familiares de Detenidos (ACiFaD), Abogadas y abogados del noroeste argentino en derechos humanos y estudios sociales (ANDHES), Catamarca contra la tortura y XUMEK- Asociación para la promoción y protección de Derechos Humanos.

Whilst Argentina has become a benchmark in the consolidation of a process that seeks to sustain memory, obtain the truth and prosecute those responsible for crimes, there are still problems with the declassification of the military and police intelligence archives – the former State Intelligence Secretariat (former SIDE, now the Federal Intelligence Agency – AFI) and those of the police and security forces – which are essential to the process of memory, truth and justice.

The State has yet to carry out an exhaustive survey, make the inventory public and allow access to most of the intelligence archives produced by the security forces, the armed forces and the former SIDE. Their archives may contain information on the destination of victims of enforced disappearance, on children of the disappeared who were appropriated and on the perpetrators.

However, to date, the information produced more than 40 years ago has not been declassified, nor has it been resolved how access to it will be guaranteed to society as a whole.

Suggested Recommendations to the State
1.    Recreate the department in charge of reviewing documentation in the Ministry of Security, and strengthen the one in the Ministry of Defense, so that they have an active declassification policy.
2.    Reform Law 25,520 on national intelligence to meet international standards on declassification and access to intelligence documentation, or otherwise, regulate the law in its current form to actively carry out the declassification stipulated in its Art. 16 due to the passage of time.

The full report was produced with Memoria Abierta.

The regulatory framework that seek to prevent, investigate and punish enforced disappearances committed during Argentina’s last military dictatorship (1976-1983) is necessary, but not enough: currently, numerous cases of missing persons that are criminally investigated as enforced disappearances remain unsolved, with families having no certainty as to the fate of the person they seek. In many cases, the reason is the poor quality of the investigations combined with the fact that many state bureaucracies are not prepared to allow the search for people.

The lack of competent institutions and public policies aimed at responding to disappearances of people (enforced or not), combined with the absence of a policy for the identification of deceased persons leads to searches being abandoned and left to chance, without clarity as to which state agency is in charge of providing a response or information on what steps are being taken to clarify them.

Suggested Recommendations to the State
1.    That the Argentine State create specialized search units with the necessary capacities to design search strategies and carry them out per the provisions of the guiding principles for the search for missing persons.
2.    That the Argentine State reopen the investigations of persons who went missing in the past and whose disappearance continues to be protested by family members or persons close to the missing person.
3.    That the Argentine State implement a policy to determine the identity of unidentified deceased persons (referred to as “N.N” by official entities) since December 11, 1983.

Full report

The Argentine State does not have a comprehensive policy to address the historical demands of indigenous peoples, nor to protect and promote their rights. Nor does it have an indigenous administrative agency at the federal or provincial level with a budget and “robust” capacities to implement measures in favor of indigenous communities and provide solutions to the situations they face. Even though there are some laws and norms that recognize certain aspects of the territorial rights of the communities, they have not been implemented or are insufficient. They also encounter strong resistance from private actors (landowners, extractive enterprises) and from the State itself, especially from provincial governments and the judiciary.

Suggested Recommendations to the State
1.    Enact a law on Indigenous Community Property, as determined by the Inter-American Court on Human Rights.
2.    Complete the indigenous territorial surveys in a uniform manner throughout the country. To this end, extend the law of territorial survey and suspension of evictions by means of an express decision of Congress and provide the necessary budgets to federal and provincial authorities.
3.    Suspend evictions and establish mechanisms for dialogue and mediation with the participation of the State, provincial governments, and the relevant jurisdictions of the judiciary in all those situations of territorial disputes that are currently before the courts.
4.    Complete as soon as possible the demarcation and delimitation of the territory of the indigenous communities of the Association of Indigenous Communities of Lhaka Honhat, deliver the collective title in favor of the communities of Lhaka Honhat and carry out the necessary infrastructure works to complete the relocation of Creole families outside the ancestral territory of these communities, as determined by the Inter-American Court on Human Rights.

The full report was produced with Asociación de Abogados/as de Derecho Indígena (AADI)
and Asociación de Mujeres Abogadas Indígenas (AMAI).

In Argentina, there is no comprehensive policy to strengthen the land tenure of land-owning communities. The expansion of land used for monoculture is related to and deepens the concentration of land tenure, the expansion of agribusiness and intensive modes of production. These processes threaten the livelihoods of peasant and indigenous communities, affect the environment, obstruct the productive activity of family farming and expel families from their territories.

The expansion into peasant and indigenous territories deepens the conflict over land ownership and use, and impacts on the right to food. The country’s territory is increasingly dedicated to the production of commodities for export, to the detriment of areas destined for the production of food for local consumption.

Furthermore, in response to the privatization of seeds, attempts have been made to modify the legislation that regulates it.

Suggested Recommendations to the State
1.    Pass a national law to adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas.
2.    Generate a regulatory framework with sanitary and tax regulations that take into account the particularities of the peasant and indigenous family farming sector in terms of its scale of production.
3.    Make progress on the general implementation of the National Family Farming Law (No. 27.118).
4.    In line with the Family Farming Law (article 22, paragraph 3), create a “government purchasing ” program that prioritizes peasant and indigenous family farming products in the food purchases made by the national government.
5.    Establish a regulatory framework that guarantees access to seeds for indigenous family farmers and avoids the implementation of the intellectual property regime on this resource.

Full report

The living conditions of the Argentine population in general have declined in the last 5 years. At the time of the last UPR of Argentina 25% of the population was below the poverty line, in 2020 this percentage increased to 40%. 

The fiscal adjustment required by the IMF program implied that in real terms, between 2018 and 2019 public spending on health fell by 21%, on education by 36%, on water and sewage by 39% and on housing by 59%. The Argentine collection pattern is unfair as the vulnerable sectors contribute proportionally more than the rich.

Suggested Recommendations to the State
1.    Ensure progressive and not regressive taxation of social expenditures, placing special priority on policies aimed at guaranteeing the rights of particularly vulnerable groups. To do otherwise would be in grave contravention of the obligation in this sense in compliance with ESCR. This includes ensuring that social benefits like the Universal Child Allowance do not lose value as a result of inflation.
2.    Increase progressive taxation on personal assets – such as the personal property tax (so that it progressively taxes greater wealth) and real estate taxes (update the taxable basis in all subnational jurisdictions taking market values into account, so as to position the tax as a significant source of state revenues) – and income tax (by increasing the aliquots for larger tax brackets).
3.    Ratify the United Nations Guiding Principles related to evaluations of the effects of economic reforms on human rights and undertake impact assessments of foreign debt on the rights of especially vulnerable groups. These evaluations should also be done in the context of future negotiations and reviews of the debt with the IMF.

The full report was produced with Asociación Civil por la Igualdad y la Justicia (ACIJ), Centro de Economía Política Argentina (CEPA) and Coordinadora de Abogadxs de Interés Público (CAIP).

The State made an important step forward derogating the Decree of Necessity and Urgency (DNU) No. 70/2017, that facilitated expulsions and violated due process and other rights. Nevertheless, such Decree continues to operate in some cases.

The suspension of the right to seek asylum during border closures in the pandemic, the resolutions of deportation in cases of irregular entry without considering the period of border closure, context and causes, along with the obstacles to access pensions and the social security system and access to the right to vote are some of the challenges that remain.

Suggested Recommendations to the State
1.    That the State commits to reviewing mechanisms for migrants’ access to vote in order to ensure the equal exercise of their rights and improve their access to political participation.
2.    Faced with the derogation of DNU 70/2017 and the cases initiated and/or resolved during its validity, that the State ensures the review ex officio, for the purpose of updating the resolution criteria in line with the regulations in force, especially in cases of expulsions issued based on the derogated decree. In line with what was recommended in 2019 by the Committee on Migrant Workers.
3.    That the State takes immediate steps to review the length of residence required for non-contributory social benefits for migrants, to bring the legislation into line with the provisions of the Convention.

The full report was produced with Comisión Argentina para Refugiados y Migrantes (CAREF) and Instituto de Justicia y Derechos Humanos de la Universidad Nacional de Lanús.

Argentina has a structural housing deficit. On the one hand, there is a need to build housing for the population that is overcrowded, lives in unrecoverable dwellings or is living on the streets; on the other hand, there is a group of dwellings that need to be improved and which require access to basic services. There is a high level of indebtedness among the tenant population.

Furthermore, the number of unsheltered people is increasing and there is a lack of effective and rights-based solutions. The eviction operations do not fulfill the minimum criteria for the protection of the affected people; an example of this was the massive occupation in the area of Guernica, where the affected people have still not seen their housing situation resolved.

There is a need to advance housing policies for the most vulnerable, regulate the housing market and protect against evictions.

Suggested Recommendations to the State
1.    Establish mechanisms to guarantee compliance with the new conditions of the contractual relationship established by the Rent Law (27551) and implement the Social Rent Program.
2.    Ensure the production of data on the functioning of the rental housing market: prices, the composition of renter households, characteristics of the rental housing stock, contract conditions, etc.
3.    Enact provincial laws to regulate professional real estate activity and ensure that owners—not tenants—pay real-estate commissions.
4.    In the City of Buenos Aires and the Province of Buenos Aires, expand the scope of the protocols for action in cases of evictions and complement them with mechanisms that guarantee the implementation of these instruments.
5.    That the City of Buenos Aires modify the operation of housing subsidies so that they are automatically updated based on increases in the cost of living index.

The full report was produced with Asociación Civil por la Igualdad y la Justicia (ACIJ) and Asociación Civil Inquilinos Agrupados.

The Argentinean state still has many debts with people with psychosocial disabilities. On the one hand, the failure to implement the normative framework on psychosocial disability. On the other hand, the lack of alternatives to institutionalisation and the insufficient supervision of institutions. Thirdly, there are no structural public policies to replace the tutelary model.

At the same time, there is a lack of effective control in public and private places of confinement and a lack of supervision in detention centres for mental health and addiction issues. The legal capacity of persons with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities continues to be denied.

Finally, there is very limited information on people in detention centres, databases are not available, and there was a worsening of confinement during the pandemic.

Suggested Recommendations to the State
1.    Implement effectively the deinstitutionalization strategies adopted and develop plans for mental health care, including substance abuse, based on the model of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, in accordance with the provisions of the legislation in force in Argentina, including the Comprehensive Plan for Addressing Problematic Consumption.
2.    Align the procedural legislation of the provinces with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities with regard to the equal recognition of persons with disabilities under the law and the assisted decision-making model.
3.    Develop a transparent, public, and participatory program for the implementation of the Federal Strategy.

The full report was produced with Asociación Civil por la Igualdad y la Justicia. 

Despite the progress made during the first year of implementation of the law on access to legal or voluntary interruption of pregnancy (IVE/ILE), there are barriers in the access: the lack of informative communication campaigns at both national and provincial level; the disparity in the provision of health services that emphasises inequality between provinces; the lack of non-objecting professionals with specialised training for the care of late second trimester abortions.

At the same time, situations of violence and violation of the duty of information and dignified treatment have been detected, as well as the imposition of illegal barriers to validate the patient’s decision as a requirement for the practice. We have also documented situations of criminalisation of abortion, both of health professionals and of children who have had abortions and their close relatives. Finally, the lack of authorisation of essential medicines for safe abortions, such as mifepristone, is causing concern.

Suggested Recommendations to the State

1. Disseminate throughout the federal territory, in a clear and accessible way, the content of Law 27,610 in health centers, hospitals, strategic public places, websites and official social media outlets, mass media, and coordinate with local health authorities for them to replicate and disseminate the materials of the campaign.
2. Promote training for justice operators and general instructions for the Attorney General’s Office that ensure that justice operators abstain from undue criminalization of legal abortions and other obstetric events, as well as health professionals acting in compliance with their obligations under Law 27,610.
3. Coordinate with local health authorities to develop mandatory training for administrative staff and health providers (objectors and non-objectors) on the scope of the right to voluntary interruption of pregnancy, conscientious objection, informed consent and duty to preserve confidentiality. Also to healthcare providers, in particular all gynecologists, general and family physicians and residents specialized in techniques for carrying out VIP.
4. To promote the authorization and provision of mifepristone in the suggested dosage throughout national territory.
5. Promote the creation of trans-inclusive, intercultural sexual and reproductive health councils, with healthcare teams trained to provide support for the medical abortion technique or MVA at the primary level of care.

The full report was produced with Equipo Latinoamericano de Justicia y Género (ELA), Amnistía Internacional Argentina (AIAR), Fundación para el Desarrollo de Políticas Sustentables (Fundeps) and Fundación Mujeres x Mujeres (MxM).

In recent years, despite the commitments made by the Argentinean state, problems of various kinds have been observed in the use of digital technology tools for crime prevention and criminal investigation. These include the widespread use of these tools beyond what is established in the regulations, the lack of publicity and transparency in the contracting of companies, and the creation of regulations without the necessary framework for discussion.

In particular, the facial recognition mechanism can lead to arbitrary detentions with the consequent affectation of the presumption of innocence and the principle of equality and non-discrimination.

The use of software for criminal investigation, for which no information is available from the National Ministry of Security, and the surveillance of social networks without clear regulation is alarming.

Suggested Recommendations to the State

1.    Promote regulations at the federal and provincial levels to require a Privacy Impact Assessment for the operation and supervision of facial recognition mechanisms.
2.    Establish local and federal mechanisms for periodic checks of regulations authorizing the use of facial recognition in Argentina regarding its implementation with accountability across authorities and including monitoring by civil society.

The full report was produced with Iniciativa Ciudadana para el Control del Sistema de Inteligencia (ICCSI).