Human rights in Argentina
In an interview with Buenos Aires daily Clarin in 2009, Fernandez Meijide, who formed part of the 1984 truth commission, claimed that the documented number of Argentines killed or disappeared was closer to 9,000.
In January 2008 local victim advocacy organization Madres del Dolor lodged with court a case accusing two policemen of killing 21-year-old Sergio Enciso in Buenos Aires Province.
Human rights groups stated to the press that ex-police officer Marta Jorgelina Oviedo was serving her life imprisonment sentence for the 2002 killing of Andrea Viera under house arrest.
In March 2008 the National Human Rights Secretariat pressed homicide charges against former economy minister Jose Martinez de Hoz, who served under the military dictatorship, for the death of economist Juan Carlos Casariego Del Bel.
In May 2008 federal authorities indicted Ernesto Barreiro for his role in committing human rights abuses during the military dictatorship, when he served as an army officer and chief interrogator at the La Perla clandestine torture center.
In April 2008 former police officers Fernando Esvedes and Carlos Vercellone were arrested for their alleged role in political kidnappings and torture in the clandestine detention center Pozo de Arana during the military dictatorship, and their trial remained pending at year's end.
In September 2008 a federal judge resumed an investigation into the 1973 killing of General Labor Confederation leader Jose Ignacio Rucci, in which the armed guerrilla group, the Montoneros, was believed to have been involved.
In October 2008 federal authorities indicted former National University Concentration chief Eduardo Cincotta, former member Nicolas Cafarello, three former air force officials, and former army colonel Roberto Atilio Bocalandro for human rights crimes committed in the clandestine detention center La Cueva in Mar del Plata.
In October 2008 former army officials Alberto Barda, Hipolito Mariani, and Cesar Comes received sentences ranging from 25 years' to life imprisonment for human rights violations committed in the clandestine detention centers of Mansion Sere and La Cueva.
Two lower ranking navy officials and a civilian remained in pretrial detention for the 2006 kidnapping, beating, torture, and killing of 15-year-old Lucas Ivarrola, were accused of stealing a television set.
The age of legal liability is 16, and Fundacion Sur asserted that 16- and 17-year-old offenders frequently were transferred to adult criminal courts or held in juvenile detention centers for longer periods than warranted by their offenses.
A December 2008 Supreme Court decision found that the country's juvenile justice system did not comply with international conventions and highlighted the need for the legislative branch to remedy the situation.
Government agencies, professional bar associations, universities, and NGOs provide free legal counseling and may represent indigent persons before civil courts as well as assist them in alternative dispute resolution proceedings.
In December 2008 security forces arrested 26 "neo-Nazis," including four minors, on discrimination charges for conducting a ceremony to commemorate the death of World War II German naval captain Hans Langsdorff.
[17] In August 2008 the Association for Civil Rights and the Open Society Justice Initiative published a report alleging that the government's allocation of state advertising funds affected press freedom.
According to the Association for Civil Rights, the Neuquen provincial government had not complied by the end of 2008 with a 2007 Supreme Court order to present an official advertising distribution plan that would not indirectly curtail freedom of speech.
However, media organizations and the opposition criticized the government failure to break up the blockade and called it a direct attack on press freedom; the two newspapers filed criminal charges against the perpetrators.
Subsequently, the presiding federal judge, following recommendations from the AMIA Special Prosecutor, issued an international request for the seizure of assets belonging to eight Iranians and Hezbollah to cover damages being claimed by the civil suit brought against the perpetrators.
In December 2008 a foreign plea agreement by the German corporation Siemens identified by their initials and titles several high level officials in former governments as having accepted multimillion-dollar bribes in the controversial procurement of a national identification card system.
Investigations conducted by the NGO Poder Ciudadano in June and the National Electoral Court in September 2008 cited irregularities in the campaign finance reports of the 2007 presidential candidates.
According to credible local press reports, dozens of child victims of violence from poor families are lodged in juvenile detention centers under judicial protection orders.
HRW sent letters to Argentinian President Alberto Fernández and Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, the mayor of Buenos Aires city, saying that the policies and practices violate international obligations to respect children’s privacy in criminal proceedings.
According to Ministry of Justice statistics, internal security agencies conducted 118 raids, arrested 120 persons suspected of human trafficking, and rescued 133 victims in the six-month period after the law took effect in late April.
The Ministry of Justice's training seminars for internal security forces included a component emphasizing that they not blame trafficking victims for illegal activities they may have become involved in as a consequence of their exploitation.
According to the National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (INADI), an estimated 20,000 children with disabilities were unable to attend school in Buenos Aires City in 2008 because the buildings were not handicapped accessible.
In December 2008, in response to a lawsuit filed by 18 indigenous communities, the Supreme Court ordered Salta Province to suspend plans to cut approximately 2 million acres (8,100 km2) of forest, pending the outcome of a further hearing.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) continues to evaluate a petition presented by the Lhaka Honhat indigenous association regarding the national government's failure to implement a titling policy that would return their traditional land.
According to a local antislavery NGO, the individuals were charged for their role in operating clothing sweatshops in the Flores Sur neighborhood that left six Bolivian citizens dead and affected potentially hundreds more.
In June 2008 the Congress passed a law raising the minimum age for employment from 14 to 15, which will increase to 16; in rare cases the Ministry of Education may authorize a younger child to work as part of a family unit.
The government works with several NGOs to address the commercial sexual exploitation of children in the triborder area with Brazil and Paraguay, disseminating information on prevention and available assistance for victims.
