On Friday, February 21, Bolivia’s acting minister of justice, Alvaro Coimbra, announced that his government was vetoing two members of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI), Patricia Tappatá Valdez y Juan Méndez, who are high-level technical professionals with respected track records defending human rights.
The GIEI was created on December 18, 2019, by an agreement between the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the Bolivian government, after a Commission visit confirmed the existence of human rights violations. The mission of the Interdisciplinary Group is to support national institutions to investigate sanction and provide reparations for victims of these violations, which occurred between September 1 and December 31, 2019, in the country. The first point of the agreement establishes that the GIEI will be “composed of four people appointed by the IACHR.”
This was not the first time that the Commission enacted this mechanism. The first GIEI was created in 2014 to support investigations into missing students from Ayotzinapa, Mexico. In 2018, a new GIEI collaborated in the investigation of acts of violence that occurred between April and May of that year, in Nicaragua. As in the current Bolivian case, both Interdisciplinary Groups arose from agreements between the Commission and host governments. The GIEI has been a fundamental tool in the region to respond to gross human rights violations when, for different reasons, the State is unable to ensure the right to the truth, justice, and reparation of the direct victims and society.
The Bolivian government’s move, a month after the formal announcement of the expert groups’ members, is inappropriate and fails to recognize the Inter-American Commission’s autonomy as an independent oversight body. If successful, it can result in the obstruction, postponement or impediment of the start of the group’s work, in violation of the good faith agreement signed with the IACHR. Finally, it reveals a lack of commitment to the victims of serious human rights violations and clarification of the facts.
- Abogadas y Abogados para la Justicia y los Derechos Humanos, A.C. de Mexico
- Andean Information Network (Bolivia)
- Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos – APRPDEH (Perú)
- Asociación de Familiares Detenidos Desaparecidos y Mártires por la Liberación Nacional – ASOFAMD (Bolivia)
- Bolivia.Plurinacional.CH (Suiza)
- Centro de Documentación en Derechos Humanos “Segundo Montes Mozo S.J.” (Ecuador)
- Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales – CELS (Argentina)
- Centro por la Justicia y el Derecho Internacional – CEJIL
- Centro de Políticas Públicas y Derechos Humanos – Perú EQUIDAD
- Centro Regional de Derechos Humanos y Justica de Género: Corporación Humanas (Chile)
- Colectivo de Abogados José Alvear Restrepo (Colombia)
- Colectivo de Derechos Humanos Nicaragua Nunca Más
- Comisión Colombiana de Juristas
- Comisión Ecuménica de Derechos Humanos (Ecuador)
- Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos
- Comité de América Latina y El Caribe para la Defensa de los Derechos de las Mujeres, CLADEM
- Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras
- Conectas Direitos Humanos (Brasil)
- Convergencia por los Derechos Humanos – CAFCA, CALDH, CIIDH, ECAP, ICCPG, ODHAG, SEDEM, UDEFEGUA, UNAMG (Guatemala)
- Corporación Jurídica Libertad (Colombia)
- Centro de Investigación Drogas y Derechos Humanos (Perú)
- Defensa de Niñas y Niños – Internacional – DNI Costa Rica
- Equipo de Reflexión, Investigación y Comunicación – Compañía de Jesús en Honduras
- EarthRights International
- FUNDAR Centro de Análisis e Investigación (México)
- INSGENAR, Instituto de Genero, Derecho y Desarrollo de Rosario (Argentina)
- Instituto Vladimir Herzog (Brasil)
- International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Estados Unidos)
- Intercambios Asociación Civil (Argentina)
- International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School (Estados Unidos)
- Observatorio Ciudadano (Chile)
- Organización Mundial Contra la Tortura (OMCT)
- Paz y Esperanza (Perú)
- Proyecto de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales – ProDESC (México)
- Proyecto sobre Organización, Desarrollo, Educación e Investigación – PODER (México)
- Red en Defensa de los Derechos Digitales – R3D (México)
- Red por los Derechos de la Infancia en México – REDIM
- Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights (Estados Unidos)
- Terra de Direitos (Brasil)
- Washington Office on Latin America – WOLA (Estados Unidos)
- Former members of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights:
- Carlos Ayala Corao – Former President, IACHR
- Florentín Meléndez – Former President, IACHR – Former Rapporteur of the IACHR on Bolivia
- James Cavallaro – Former President, IACHR
- Robert Goldman – Former President, IACHR
- Tracy Robinson – Former President, IACHR
- Paulo Vannuchi – Former Commissioner, IACHR
- Rosa María Ortiz – Former Commissioner, IACHR
- Victor Abramovich – Former Commissioner, IACHR
Foto: Rolando Andrade Stracuzzi.
La Paz, Bolivia. November 21, 2019. Police repression during the demonstration for the 9 victims of the Senkata massacre