IDB Invest presented a revised version of the Implementation Manual for its Sustainability Policy

Through a virtual session, on February 25, IDB Invest presented the latest revised version of the Implementation Manual for its Environmental and Social Sustainability Policy. The document is key to achieving a correct and effective implementation of the policy approved in April 2020 and which came into effect last December.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”

After being approved by the Board of Executive Directors on April 10, 2020, the new IDB Invest Environmental and Social Sustainability Policy came into effect on December 15. The latest revised version of the Implementation Manual for said policy was presented on February 25 through a virtual session in which more than 20 representatives of civil society organizations participated.

The new Implementation Manual is based on the Bank’s Sustainability Framework composed of the Sustainability Policy and the policies and standards that accompany it, such as the Access to Information Policy, the IFC Performance Standards, the MICI Policy, among others. The purpose of this Manual is to guide clients in their actions according to the different factors and environments that may arise, taking into account the principles and requirements of the IDB Invest Sustainability Framework. Also, the Manual addresses, in a general way, the activities that the project cycle contemplates and the accountability mechanisms that people and communities can access in case the project affects them.

On the other hand, it considers the risk factors that may occur or that already occur in the environment where the project is carried out. Among the topics and risk factors mentioned in the Manual are vulnerable groups, human rights, the inclusion and participation of stakeholders in the project, working conditions, among others.

An important advance is the incorporation of the Exclusion List that lists the activities that IDB Invest will not finance due to adverse environmental and social effects.

However, the application of the Manual is not mandatory for clients or the Bank since it constitutes rather a roadmap that contemplates the requirements of the Environmental and Social Sustainability Framework, and international good practices and lessons learned that clients may or may not apply. In addition, although it addresses the options available to the Bank in the event of non-compliance with the Sustainability Policy by its clients, there is little precision regarding the manner and requirements in which these options would be applied.

In this way, it remains to be seen if this manual ends up being really effective in filling the gaps left by the Sustainability Policy in force. Key to this will not only be a strong commitment on the part of the Bank and its clients, but also a work of monitoring and follow-up to the effective implementation of the policy by civil society.

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Gonzalo Roza, gon.roza@fundeps.org

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Open letter to the Government for the National Vaccination Plan against COVID-19

A group of 40 organizations from all over the country prepared a letter sent to different agencies and entities of the National Government expressing our concern about the situation arising from the existence of an informal vaccination system.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”

It was addressed to the Undersecretary of Open Government and Digital Country and President of the National Open Government Table, César Gazzo Huck; the Minister of Health, Carla Vizzotti and the Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers, Santiago Cafiero in the face of the political and social upheaval caused by the unofficial vaccination system at the Posadas Hospital.

We make concrete proposals for joint work, within the framework of the principles of Open Government, for transparency and participation. In addition, we reaffirm our willingness to collaborate in everything necessary to bring tranquility to the population and guarantee that support for the most ambitious vaccination campaign in our history remains unchanged.

Contact

Nina Sibilla, ninasibilla@fundeps.org

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Fundeps is part of the Alliance for the Framework Convention on Global Health

In 2020, Fundeps began to integrate the Alliance for the Framework Convention on Global Health as an associate member. It is an Alliance formed by individuals and organizations that work together, at various levels, in favor of a Framework Convention on Global Health that guarantees the right to health of all people.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”

Confident in the fundamental role that civil society organizations play in promoting rights, for several years we have accompanied global efforts to achieve a Framework Convention that ensures equal standards in the exercise of the human right to health. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed numerous inequalities that aggravated the effects of the pandemic, especially in Latin America. In this new context, there is more than ever the need for an instrument such as the Framework Convention, which allows orienting, catalyzing and establishing standards, processes and mechanisms for health governance.

This year, from the Alliance we propose to promote a conversation that allows us to start developing solutions to prevent future pandemics and guarantee the right to health for everyone, paying attention to the particularities that our region is going through.

Along these lines, a webinar will be held on Thursday, March 4, 2021, on Health Equity in Latin America and the Caribbean. This webinar will explore health equity with a special focus on the region but also with a comparative perspective on the global health landscape. Exhibitors, exhibitors and participants will present and evaluate solutions to the challenges of achieving health equity and health law in the region, including the idea of ​​a Framework Convention on Global Health.

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Author

  • Gonzalo Hunicken

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History not to repeat: in Uruguay the industry managed to accommodate the labeling in its favor

Through a regulatory decree, Uruguay modified the criteria established for the application of warning stamps on food products. With the new resolution, the limits to critical nutrients were relaxed and companies will be able to sell their products with high levels of sodium, sugar and fat, without being reached by the regulations.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”

By 2018, Uruguay became the third country in the Americas to adopt the frontal labeling system for food warnings. This public health measure, widely celebrated by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), was intended to be part of the response to malnutrition that affects 34% of Uruguayan children of school age. For its part, Decree 272/2018, within its clauses, granted companies an adaptation period of 18 months, enough time for the food industry to accommodate the political scenario in its favor. Thus, the entry into force and inspection of the measure was only set for March 1, 2020.

However, when the time came, the implementation of Decree 272 was not a priority. After many twists and turns, the government approved another decree (246/020) which not only extended the effective date of mandatory labeling to February 2021, but also established important variations to the original rule.

In Uruguay, the strategies used by the industry were the same as those used in other countries where front labeling was also discussed (Peru, Chile, Mexico and currently Argentina). The dilation of times, the sponsorship of specialists for the dissemination of biased research, as well as the denial and proposal of alternatives without scientific basis, are part of their best-known tactics that seek to protect only their economic interests.

Thus, far from being the Ministry of Public Health the one that proposed and announced modifications based on scientific evidence free of conflict of interest, the one in charge of doing so was the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining. Hence, it is not surprising to observe that the changes made by the government have revolved around the PAHO nutrient profile system, giving rise to a more flexible and friendly regulation with the food industry, and in evident damage to public health .

In this way, food companies in Uruguay today have the possibility of selling as stamp-free products those that contain 20% more sodium (from 400 to 500mg), 30% more sugars (from 10 to 13g) , 45% more saturated fat (9 to 13g) and 50% more total fat (4 to 6g), in portions of 100 grams or 100 milliliters.

For this reason, according to a statement from the Civil Society Alliance for the control of Non-Communicable Diseases, “the main products benefiting from this flexibility will be those with excess sugars and fats, in particular dairy products and desserts. , which are often advertised as healthy and with which the Food Industry carries out an aggressive marketing strategy, aimed at boys and girls. This (vulnerable) population will be the main recipient of these changes, given that many of these products will no longer have the label despite continuing to be just as harmful to their health ”.

In a critical context of the increase in Noncommunicable Diseases, the complicity of the Uruguayan government with the interests of the industry is not understood. According to PAHO statistics, Uruguay is among the Latin American countries that registered the highest increase in the consumption of ultra-processed products between 2000 and 2013, translating into an increase of 146%.

Given that the consumption of these products with excesses, are the main contributors to the generation of these diseases, it becomes necessary the existence and application of public policies that effectively protect the right to health of the population, especially those groups in a situation vulnerability, as are children and adolescents. Likewise, the importance of ensuring that public health policy-making processes are free of conflict of interest and industry interference is highlighted. Well, these must be based on the best available scientific evidence and not on the economic interests of a particular sector.

From Fundeps and SANAR, we join the claims of Civil Society Organizations that require the Uruguayan government to implement a frontal food labeling that protects and guarantees the right of access to information by consumers, as well as the right to health of Uruguayans.

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Fundeps was elected to be part of the National Open Government Roundtable

Last November 2020, from the collective of civil society organizations for the Open State in Argentina, we held the elections to renew the representations of civil society within the National Open Government Roundtable.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”

What is the National Open Government Roundtable?

The National Open Government Roundtable was created in 2018 as a space for coordination between the national government and civil society in the promotion of open government public policies, as well as in the actions to be implemented by Argentina in its participation in the Alliance for the Open Government. It is made up of four government representations and four civil society representations.

Government participations are decided from the ownership of the area that has specific powers on open government, which is currently the Undersecretariat of Open Government and Digital Country. From the government they take their place within the National Open Government Table: the Undersecretariat of Open Government and Digital Country, the Secretariat for Political Affairs, the Anti-Corruption Office and the Agency for Access to Public Information.

On the part of civil society, its representatives are elected by vote of the civil society collective that currently make up the Network of Civil Society Organizations for an Open State in Argentina. In the last elections, Fundeps was elected together with the organizations Democracia en Red, Acción Colectiva, and Fundación Hupedes.

At Fundeps we feel great satisfaction to be able to participate in this space, at the same time that we assume this challenge with great responsibility. We hope to contribute, together with the excellent organizations that accompany us, in the development and implementation of more and better open government policies, strengthening the quality of Democrats at the national and sub-national levels, in tune with regional processes and with a human rights perspective.

More information:

Contact: 

Nina Sibilla, ninasibilla@fundeps.org

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We appeal the rejection of participation as third parties the cause of Potrerillo de Larreta

Together with the group Todos Por Nuestro Arroyos de Alta Gracia, we filed an appeal challenging the decision that rejected participation as interested third parties.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”

During 2018, together with the group Todos Por Nuestro Arroyos, we requested participation as third parties in the cause of Country el Potrerillo de Larreta. Recall that in this debate the legality of the enclosure of the Los Paredones stream by the country, in the city of Alta Gracia.

During the year 2020, the main cause obtained a sentence by the Chamber of Appeals in Civil and Commercial Matters of the Ninth Nomination of the city of Córdoba, allowing the enclosure of the stream. In December of the same year, after a long time without obtaining a resolution, the Civil and Commercial Court of 2nd appointment of Alta Gracia decided to reject the required participation.

In such a situation, we file an appeal requesting that participation in the process be reviewed and admitted. The grounds on which the rejection is based are based on a vision that restricts and contradicts certain rules present in the national legal system, and that at the same time, sets a regressive precedent in terms of access to justice.

Contact

Juan Bautista Lopez, juanbautistalopez@fundeps.org

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Transparency at development bank FMO is seriously lacking

The Dutch development bank FMO is not sufficiently transparent about the projects it finances, and is therefore acting contrary to its mandate. This is evident from a new report published by the International Accountability Project (IAP) and the Foundation for the Development of Sustainable Policies (FUNDEPS), endorsed by 28 organizations including Both ENDS, SOMO and Oxfam Novib. The research assesses FMO’s disclosure and access to information practices for investments proposed between January 1, 2019 and May 31, 2020. Only in 25% of the cases was it disclosed what potential negative consequences an investment by FMO would have for people and the environment.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”.

“If the forest next to your village is cut down to build an oil palm plantation, or there is a big dam in the river that you depend on for water and fish, you need to have access to information to defend your interests and have a voice in decision-making,” says Anne de Jonghe of Both ENDS. “You are entitled to know the costs and benefits for your community, before you can consider what is best for you. As an investor, FMO shares responsibility for this information provision, but unfortunately falls seriously short in this.”

Operating with public money

FMO’s response to the report shows that the bank itself believes that the responsibility for making information public and the potential negative effects of investments on people and the environment lie with the project developers and its clients. However, as a development bank that is largely funded with public money, FMO has the mission and responsibility to invest in sustainable, fair projects that improve people’s lives and respect human rights. One way to ensure this is to strive for as much transparency as possible about intended investments and to enable affected communities to meaningfully participate in the decision-making surrounding a project. This research shows that FMO still has a lot of ground to cover in fulfilling communities’ right to information.

No reports on social and environmental impacts

The analysis of 241 projects disclosed on FMO’s website between January 1, 2019 and May 31, 2020, reveals that potential negative impacts for these investments was disclosed in only 59 cases (25%). For the remaining 182 investments (75%) there was no information available on the website.

Appendices with more detailed technical information, such as reports on social and environmental impacts, were under no circumstances available on the website. “What’s more, the little information that is disclosed is only available in English, while FMO has investments all over the world, often in countries where English is not the first or even second language,” said Ishita Petkar of the International Accountability Project (IAP). “As a development bank, it is FMO’s responsibility to ensure they are fulfilling the right to information for the communities they impact. True development requires respecting human rights – FMO should ensure vital information, including technical documents, are disclosed and accessible in national and local languages.”

FMO must improve policy and practice

The 28 organizations have written a letter to FMO calling on the bank to thoroughly review and strengthen its access to information policy and practice. This includes improving information disclosed on the FMO website, adopting internationally endorsed principles on access to information, and obligating clients to fully disclose project documentation. FMO must also ensure that information is disclosed in understandable formats and reaches the communities concerned, so that they can participate meaningfully in project decision-making processes as the intended beneficiaries of development.

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Other‌ ‌economies: the‌ ‌self-management‌ ‌from‌ a‌ ‌perspective of‌ ‌la‌ Sustainability‌ ‌of‌ la‌ ‌Life

After a year of research and collective work together with the Espacio de Economía Feminista de Córdoba, we published a report that reveals the self-managed experiences of the city of Córdoba and Valle de Punilla related to Feminist Economy, Ecological Economy, Popular Economy and Social Economy and Solidarity.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”

In Córdoba, self-management, cooperative and entrepreneurial spaces made up of dissident feminities and identities have developed in recent years, starting from the visibility of the feminist struggle, and with their collective organization. Its existence, strategies and forms of organization, production and consumption, have gained essential importance in local economies, and are presented as a real alternative to the hegemonic capitalist model.

This research makes a reading from the Feminist Economy of these experiences, which allows (de) constructing practices that reproduce inequalities and violence against women and dissident sex-generic identities within the spaces in which they develop, and expand the horizon towards a socioeconomic equity that is nothing more than gender equity.

In this line, it is intended to explore, learn about and analyze various self-managed and community experiences of the City of Córdoba and the Punilla Valley, and make visible their contributions to the construction of an alternative to the neoliberal model and investigate the actions of the State in development of public policies that contribute to this alternative. The place from which this report is intended to be narrated is from the perspective of the territorialized experiences themselves in dialogue with the perspective built from a diverse interdisciplinary field full of nuances and a dynamic construction generated in the exchange of Feminist Economy with the Popular Economy, the Ecological Economy and the Social and Solidarity Economy.

To this end, together with the Feminist Economy Space and with the support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, we interviewed 16 community organizations, cooperatives and self-managed spaces in the area. The visibility of these practices enriches the dialogue between the theoretical proposals about them and will collaborate in the construction of new knowledge. At the same time, it offers first-hand information, necessary to promote public debate on the needs, views and contributions of these organizations to economies founded from paradigms that put life at the center, instead of profit and exclusion. Knowing these experiences allows us to identify their concrete contributions to the construction and maintenance of other economies, which propose alternatives to neoliberal capitalism and hetero-patriarchy, and seek to sustain human and non-human lives.

Questions that open up others: Do community organizations and self-managed enterprises constitute an alternative to the neoliberal capitalist model?

This first approach, achieved through this research, leads us to conclude that most of the community organizations, cooperatives and self-managed enterprises interviewed constitute, or at least try to establish themselves, as an alternative to the neoliberal and heterocispatriarchal model, putting in the center the lives and care that make them possible.

On the other hand, it is shown that, in practice, and from the perspective of the organizations analyzed, the contribution of the State to the development of these alternatives is insufficient, characterized by ineffective public policies and in some cases nonexistent, in line with the role that the State is expected to occupy in a neoliberal economic model.

Se espera que el presente trabajo, aporte a la visibilización, reconocimiento y fortalecimiento de espacios autogestivos cuyas prácticas apunten a poner a la vida en el centro, desde una necesaria mirada local y a la vez crítica. Se sostiene —y en el contexto actual está evidenciado— que la sostenibilidad de la vida debe estar en el centro del debate. Se debe seguir pensando y construyendo colectivamente la economía que se desea y necesita para que todas las vidas que habitan este planeta lo hagan de una manera digna. Por esto queremos aportar a la visibilización de las organizaciones que apuestan cada día a otro mundo posible.

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The Ministry of Health responds to a request for information on the implementation of the ILE in Córdoba

After the request for information presented in October, the Ministry of Health provided data on the implementation of the Legal Interruption of Pregnancy in the province, starting from the entry into force of the local protocol that had been suspended.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”

With the fall of the precautionary measure that suspended the application of the provincial guide for the care of non-punishable abortions, the health services of the province of Córdoba began to guarantee the practice in those cases where the pregnancy was the result of rape, or implied a risk to the life or health of the pregnant person, as indicated in art. 86 of the Penal Code.

As indicated in the response sent on December 3, 2020, from September 1, 2019 (the court case was terminated on the 24th of that month) until November 30, 2020, a total of 949 were registered in the province. Legal Interruption of Pregnancy practices: 112 correspond to 2019 and 837 to 2020.

Of this total, the most invoked cause was the risk to comprehensive health, for which 906 practices were carried out (96%). Because it was a risk to life, 20 practices were carried out (2%). The causal violation was invoked in a total of 22 practices (the other 2%).

ILE quantity

From September 2019 to November 2020
Causal health hazard - 95.6%
Causal violation - 2.3%
Causal danger to life - 2.1%

With regard to training and training instances, the agency reported that 6 weekly virtual meetings were held by the National Directorate of Sexual and Reproductive Health of the Ministry of Health of the Nation (in June and July 2020), and 1 meeting virtual organized by the National Directorate of Sexual and Reproductive Health, articulated with the Provincial Program Maternity and Responsible Paternity, in June 2020.

Regarding the purchase and distribution of medicines and supplies to carry out the practice, the Ministry reported that in 2019, 135 misoprostol treatments were used, all from the National Directorate, and in 2020 a total of 1,248. among which 698 come from the National Directorate or clearing operations with other provinces, and 550 were purchased directly by the provincial Ministry.

Incomplete information

Despite having responded to the request for information, the Ministry of Health failed to answer all the questions regarding how conscientious objection operates by health professionals and how referrals for this reason are in practice. It also did not answer questions related to the budget for these services.

It is not the first time that the Ministry of Health fails to comply with a request for access to public information. In 2019, after submitting a request on the same issue, the Administration only responded after we went to court, through an injunction for delay. Even so, the information that he presented in the context of the file was incomplete, so we continue to demand before the courts that he fulfill his duty to provide public information in a timely manner.

The province of silence

There were 7 years in which the local guide to access abortion for reasons contemplated in the Penal Code was suspended. During all that time, pregnant people who needed to access the practice had to do so in health centers in other jurisdictions or, directly, in hiding. It was the feminist networks that generated channels to refer cases and assist them despite the judicial blockade.

Today the new law 27,610 on Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy is in force throughout the national territory. With its publication in the Official Gazette on January 18, and having entered into force on January 24, it is striking that the Ministry of Health of Córdoba has not yet ruled on the matter. No public statement has yet been made on how the province’s health services will be organized for law enforcement purposes.

But the right to interrupt the pregnancy freely until the 14th week of gestation, along with abortion for reasons, is enforceable and must be guaranteed in Córdoba and throughout the country.

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They reject our request for intervention as third parties interested in the case of Potrerillo de Larreta

Together with the social group Todos por Nuestro Arroyos (TxNA) we express our disagreement with the decision of the Civil, Commercial and Family Court of 2nd Nomination of Alta Gracia. Said resolution, notified hours before the start of the judicial fair, denied participation as interested third parties that we requested together with neighbors of the city, in the trial that Potrerillo de Larreta S.A. It started against the province of Córdoba for the removal of the wires, which illegally prevented the passage in the Los Paredones stream.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”

“It is regrettable that our participation has been considered irrelevant, and among the arguments the idea has been taken that we have no reason to feel legitimated to participate in the trial. This case mobilized all of Alta Gracia, who understood that there cannot be more wires in the spaces that belong to all of us, “said Fabiana Marbián, a member of TxNA and a resident of the city.

“It gets worse when the Judiciary took more than two years to respond to neighbors who, with no interest other than protecting the resources that belong to all Altagracians, ask for participation in a trial that involves all of us,” he emphasized. Marbián, while adding: “It is not to believe, but the years continue to pass and from the private neighborhood they continue to achieve their objective, which is to wire a public watercourse.”

From Fundeps we will appeal to the judicial decision, because the rejection seriously affects fundamental rights of citizenship. One of the most affected rights is the denial of the participation of neighbors in a controversy in which access to a stream (subject to the public domain) and the enjoyment of its environmental services are at stake, which goes against the guarantee of access to justice, the right to enjoy effective judicial protection, as well as the enjoyment of the right to the environment.

This rejection not only affects the participation of the institution in this specific case, but also sets a regressive judicial precedent for the entire province in terms of access to justice by civil society. The participation of civil society in this type of process is key to improving judicial activity in matters of public interest and to democratizing judicial debate.

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Legal abortion must be fully enforced throughout the country

Civil society organizations demand, after the precautionary measure decided by a Chaco fair judge, that access to the voluntary interruption of pregnancy be guaranteed in that province. It is a right won in a democratic process, after a long debate in Congress.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”

Law 27610, which regulates access to voluntary interruption of pregnancy and post-abortion care, must be fully applied throughout Argentina. After the precautionary measure resolved by the fair judge, Marta Beatriz Aucar de Trotti, in charge of the Civil and Commercial Court No. 19 of the city of Resistencia, which suspended the application of the law in the territory of Chaco, we demand that no Zones of discrimination are created for the rights to health and autonomy of women and other people with the ability to gestate based on the domicile set in one or another province.

The action was filed by six people, who argued an alleged contradiction between the Provincial Constitution and national law and asked that the law be suspended throughout the territory. The judge omits to rule on the inadmissibility of such requests in our legal system and is unaware that no judge can suspend the validity of a law with general effects. In addition, she does not warn that the fact that the Chaco Constitution protects life from conception is not an obstacle to the application of the law, neither in Chaco nor in any of the other provinces that provide that type of protection. This evaluation of the constitutionality of the abortion legislation was already carried out by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation in the “FAL” ruling in 2012.

Amnesty International, CELS, the Latin American Justice and Gender Team (ELA), Mujeres x Mujeres and Fundeps emphasize the importance of both the provinces and the national State upholding the law and questioning judicial decisions that put the right to abortion in crisis , particularly when they do so in violation of the principle of constitutional supremacy, the division of powers and distort the democratic debate.

The Supreme Court of the Nation has already said, within the framework of a precautionary measure that suspended throughout the country the application of the audiovisual communication services law, that a precautionary measure that suspends the validity of an entire law with general effects for the entire population, is incompatible with the concrete control of constitutionality of the laws, the division of powers and reasonableness.

Beyond the differences with this case, when issuing a precautionary measure, judges must take into account the credibility of the rights affected and the danger of delaying a decision on the case. To do so, it must analyze the consequences of the issuance of its measure in a broad way, taking into account the interest of society as a whole and the impact on the rights enshrined.

In the precautionary measure issued, the existence of an infringed right to the plaintiffs, nor the danger of delay, are not proven. And what is very serious, the measure puts at risk at the local level the right to health of women, girls and people with childbearing capacity.

Decisions of this type only undermine the use of legal tools, so important for the guarantee of rights such as precautionary measures, and the legislative process carried out with a wide debate in December, supported by strong social support and with the transversal accompaniment of the main political forces.

It is important that the users of these services and with the right to access the voluntary interruption of pregnancy as established by Law 27,610 know that the national State and the provinces must guarantee their access throughout the country. Until the Chaco justice reverses this precautionary measure, we must emphasize that the right to legal abortions in force in Argentina for a hundred years (that is, if the pregnancy was the result of rape, if the pregnancy affects the health of the person or if it puts your life at risk) is in force in Chaco as in the entire national territory, and health personnel must provide those services.

Faced with attacks of this type on existing rights, we insist that the provinces and the national State question the judicial decisions that deprive women, girls and people with the capacity to gestate in the exercise of their sexual and reproductive rights, including the right to abortion. We must continue to take care of everyone’s health.

Amnistía Internacional Argentina

CELS

ELA

Fundeps

Mujeres x Mujeres

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Argentina presented its 4th National Open Government Action Plan to the Alliance for Open Government

Following the option given by the Open Government Alliance (OGP) to postpone the execution of the current Open Government National Action Plan (PANGA) (2019 – 2022) for one year due to the Covid-19 pandemic – Resolution of Coronavirus OGP – and the possibility of reviewing the Plan in the first year of implementation after the political transition, the government of Argentina sent in December 2020 its Fourth National Open Government Action Plan, adapted.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”

Argentina joined the Open Government Alliance in 2012. Being part of this global Alliance implies committing to open government policies co-created with civil society, which are materialized through national action plans, to be executed in two years. Since its incorporation to date, Argentina has presented four Open Government National Action Plans.

In September 2019, Argentina presented the 4th National Open Government Action Plan (2019 – 2021) as stipulated by the deadlines given by OGP. OGP provisions allow, in any case, to make amendments to the Plan in the first year of implementation of the Plan (2020, for Argentina), especially in the event that political transitions operate in the environment, as was the case in our country. With the irruption of the pandemic due to Covid-19 that changed all the priorities of the public agenda in 2020, the Criteria and Standards Subcommittee issued the OGP Coronavirus Resolution in March 2020 through which it gave the possibility to the Alliance countries to postpone the presentation or implementation of their Plans for one year, depending on when each country is. Argentina, as it had already presented its Plan, could make use of this option, postponing its execution for one year, that is, it ends in August 2022 instead of August 2021.

After reaching a consensus on this decision in the National Open Government Roundtable, and through this with the group that makes up the Network of Civil Society Organizations for an Open State in Argentina, it was decided to take this option, setting in turn which one would be the methodology for making changes within the Plan. In this sense, the possibility of making two types of changes was envisaged: specific modifications related to deadlines, parts of milestones of the commitments or deliverables or more substantial modifications that would change the scope of the commitment. In all cases, the option to make changes to the Plan was in the hands of the Agency responsible for its compliance, and instances of validation or co-construction of the commitment were established – depending on the case – with the Civil Society Organizations that were part of the commitment. initial.}

From all this process it resulted that Argentina sends in December 2020 its National Open Government Action Plan (2019 – 2022).

How far is the current Plan from the one presented in 2019?

The 4th Action Plan presented in December 2020 consists of 18 commitments, that is, to the initial 15, three were added:

  • One related to Comprehensive Sexual Education (ESI), by virtue of which it is arranged to create a Federal Observatory for the Implementation of the ESI, which will meet bimonthly with civil society and government actors, as well as the publication of open data on the implementation of the ESI. The body responsible for compliance being the Undersecretariat of Social Education and Culture of the Ministry of Education of the Nation. And two on the Open Congress Action Plan.
  • In other words, the annex to the 2019 Plan on the Open Congress Action Plan was divided into two commitments, one for each Chamber of the National Congress. In this case, each House of Congress made its own adjustment of terms and must present its own Open Congress Action Plan.

In relation to the initial commitments, only one – on Access to Justice – changed its content, passing the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights of the Nation to commit to create Provincial Observatories of Access to Justice, as well as local territorial operations in in rural areas, indigenous peoples, popular neighborhoods and underserved areas, among other milestones (see previous version page 83 – current version of the commitment). In that case, other civil society organizations such as XUMEK, CELS, INECIP and ANDHES also joined. The other commitments only had simple adjustments, fundamentally regarding compliance deadlines, given the one-year extension of total compliance with the Plan.

In some commitments, other NGOs were added that were not initially planned, as was the case of the commitment on Access to Justice, ESI where Amnesty International and Fundeps joined, in the commitment of Women in the World of Work the Ministry of Women joined , Gender and Diversity as another actor of collaboration and monitoring of the same, and in Sexuality and Rights the organization FUSA joined.

Finally, an annex document prepared by the Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity called Incorporation of the Gender and Diversity Perspective was added to the 4th National Open Government Action Plan, which constitutes a contribution from this Ministry to promote the mainstreaming of the perspective gender and diversity in the field of open government policies generated in the 4th Action Plan.

From Fundeps, we are part of the National Open Government Roundtable (2020-2022) and of the collective that makes up the Network of Civil Society Organizations for an Open State in Argentina.

Once the instances of co-creation (2019) and revision (2020) of the Plan have been completed, it is time to collaborate from citizens and civil society in monitoring the commitments made in the Plan, in order to contribute to its effective compliance the objective of continuing to consolidate open government policies throughout the country, both at the national and federal levels, and in all the areas in which open government policies were making their way.

Contact

Nina Sibilla, ninasibilla@fundeps.org 

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