The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women evaluated the Argentine state’s compliance with the CEDAW Convention. Today it released its concluding observations. The state is obligated to implement them to guarantee the rights of girls, adolescents, women and LBTI persons in Argentina. We highlight the following recommendations:
On the right to abortion
• The national government should adopt the draft law for the voluntary interruption of pregnancy.
• It must ensure that all of Argentina’s provinces have protocols on the practice of legal abortions, in line with the national Health Ministry’s Protocol, which complies with the Supreme Court’s FAL ruling.
• Guarantee access to safe legal abortion and post-abortion services.
• Establish strict justification requirements to prevent the blanket use of conscientious objection by doctors refusing to perform abortions.
Women in detention
• The Argentine state must take measures to limit the use of pretrial detention.
• Prohibit invasive physical searches by penitentiary officers.
• Allocate resources to expand the coverage of educational and employment programs as well as health services, so they include women in pretrial detention.
• Accelerate the implementation of Law 26.472, on sentences that deprive people of liberty, and offer alternatives to incarceration for pregnant women and mothers with children under 5 years of age.
LBTI persons
• The state must denounce attacks on the human dignity and integrity of LBTI persons and raise public awareness of their rights.
• Adopt measures to prevent hate crimes and ensure investigations, prosecutions and convictions as well as reparations for victims.
• Adopt programs at different levels of the state to promote access to employment.
CELS presented three reports to the CEDAW Committee with different organizations:
• The first report is our evaluation of the state’s actions to eliminate gender inequalities.
• The second report is about the human rights of transvestite and transgender persons in Argentina. For the first time in history the CEDAW Committee received a report of this kind.
• The third report (Spanish only) is about the situation of access to abortion in the country.