The justice was issued in this regard by means of a judgment dated October 1, 2018, which prohibits land fumigation with agrochemicals around educational establishments within a radius of 1000 meters, and aerial spraying within a radius of 3000 meters.
The judge enforces the precautionary principle, which states that “when there is a danger of serious or irreversible damage, the lack of absolute scientific certainty will not be used as a justification to postpone the adoption of cost-effective measures to avoid environmental degradation” . In addition, the Provincial Government is condemned to the implementation of plant barriers, to carry out in a sustained manner over time the studies that allow the delineation of objective guidelines regarding the rational use of chemicals and agrochemicals, with the accent precisely on the prevention of damage. This ruling was confirmed by the Superior Court of Justice of the province.
The questioned decree and the second sentence
Last January, Governor Gustavo Bordet, trying to stop the situation and solve the problem of “legal vacuum”, obeying the demands of the agricultural sector, dictates the Decree No. 4407/18 by virtue of which the application is prohibited terrestrial product in a radius of 100 meters around rural schools and in an area of 500 meters for aerial applications.
In view of these circumstances, at the beginning of March, the case entitled “Foro Ecologista de Paraná and another C / Superior Government of the province of Entre Ríos” began, aimed at the declaration of nullity and revocation of the decree in question. The provincial justice dictated sentence on March 28, referring to the effects of the sentence issued in October, while the judge considers that having solved an environmental issue linked to the health of a specific human group, has erga omnes effects, the judge establishes that “until it is determined by the specific state areas that identical preventive effects will be obtained for the health of the students and personnel that attend them with different distances, it is forbidden both to the administrator (Government) and to this judge to evaluate if it is possible to more or less comply with the indicated prevention”. It requires the environmental report required in the first sentence, which must ensure that the practice questioned is innocuous at a certain distance from the schools. He then points out that “The violation of res judicata by a norm determines its nullity due to its unconstitutionality”. For this reason, it annuls articles 1 and 2 of Decree No. 4407/18 for violating the rights protected by res judicata.
Finally, the magistrate reflects that “in the end it happens that we are in the presence – as in so many industrial activities – of a restriction, which must be charged by certain individuals that is based on the interest of health – in this case of the students and staff of rural schools-, and in the care of the environment; but its origins must be sought in productive practices that at some time – or perhaps always – ceased to have full social consensus.”
This ruling was also appealed by the government of Entre Ríos to the Superior Court of Justice of the province, who must decide deciding whether or not the decree is in conflict.
Controversial statements by the President
Mauricio Macri in a visit to Gualeguaychú at the beginning of April, dedicated a moment of his conference to refer to the conflict. With his sayings he interfered in a conflict that is settled in the Judicial Power expressly violating the independence of powers-the essence of any republican system of government.
Macri defended the use of agrochemicals without control, saying that the failure puts at risk 20% of the agroindustrial capacity of the province, without taking into account the public health problem facing the province, and all productive areas of the country .. In line with the above, said that it is “an absurd law that is not based on any scientific rigor”, with respect to the judicial decision, the second in a few months, dictated by the justice of Entre Ríos. That the current government promotes this extractive production model was made clear with the Final Report of the Interministerial Working Group on Good Practices in Phytosanitary Applications, presented last year by the agribusiness and environment portfolios.
The sayings of Macri aroused all kinds of criticism and comments, mainly because it ignores the impact of health that the indiscriminate use of agrochemicals produces in people. Also, he is criticized that he, as the main representative of the State, has the duty to protect the health of the children and adolescents who attend these or other educational establishments.
Boys and girls from rural areas are threatened mainly in those places where they should be safe: homes, schools, communities. The protection of the Higher Interest of the Child is a principle and a commitment adopted through the signing of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, with a constitutional hierarchy. From this, it is the responsibility of the State to take measures tending to ensure the development of children in a friendly environment.
For Macri there is no “scientific rigor” that justifies limiting the fumigations, ignoring not only the precautionary principle but the various judgments that are carried out today. In the United States alone, Monsanto has already been convicted in two trials for being responsible for the cancer risks of the Roundup herbicide based on the controversial drug glyphosate.
In our country, there are already records. We have, for example, the trial of the Madres del Barrio Ituzaingó Anexo in Córdoba, in which the producer and the fumigator were criminally sentenced. In Entre Ríos, in 2018 it was also possible to condemn the producer, the president of the aviation company and the pilot to one year and six months of suspended prison for being responsible for contamination of the fumigation that caused damages to personnel and students of School No. 44, near Santa Anita.
However, public policies do not yet respond to this problem. The qualification of SENASA regarding the dangerousness of agrochemicals is insufficient. Glyphosate for example, herbicide that is thrown millions of liters in our fields, in Argentina is classified as CLASS III, blue band (little dangerous), while in 2015 the World Health Organization (WHO) warned about the linkage of glyphosate herbicide (the most widely used in the world) and cancer, cataloging glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic”.
The State is unaware of the battle that is being waged throughout the world to protect the right of children and adolescents and of future generations to enjoy a healthy environment. Enabling the violation of the right of these children to live in an environment that allows their development goes against their responsibilities. The State can not be passive, much less condescending, while daily fumigations occur that irreversibly damage the present and future of that generation.
Author
Maria Laura Carrizo Morales
Contact
Maria Perez Alsina, mariaperezalsina@fundeps.org
Organizations promote an Open State law in Salta
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After more than a year of delay in fulfilling a commitment assumed by the province of Salta regarding transparency, the organizations finally managed to unblock the discussion and accede to the draft of the Open State Law. It is a commitment that Urtubey undertook within the framework of the Third National Plan of Open Government Action, a work plan signed in 2017 together with areas of the National Executive Power, the Congress, the Council of the Magistracy and other 10 provinces that added subnational commitments.
“Salta does not yet have a law that guarantees access to public information and transparency, if the government fulfills its commitment, and the Open State Law is sanctioned, we will have taken a significant step in terms of institutional and democratic quality.” , says Gonzalo Guzmán Coraita, Director of Transparent Salta.
The bill aims to regulate access to information and transparency in the province, one of the few that does not have this regulation. From the Civil Society the proposal is clear: it is necessary that it be law, and for this the project must finally reach the Legislature and that the debate be open and facing the citizenship to continue participating in the process of formation of the law, for ensure that the regulations are complete and comprehensive, as proposed.
It is fundamental that the regulations reach as mandatory subjects all the powers of the provincial State, that make available not only administrative information but also the relative to the particular work of each area and that are clear the functions and autonomy of the guarantor body, how it will be constituted and its members will be elected.
Salta Transparente, a local organization that heads the work of civil society on issues of transparency, access to information and public ethics, has been working together with the Fundación Directorio Legislativo and provincial organizations to monitor commitments undertaken by governments on transparency and accountability. We worked on recommendations and contributions with organizations from different parts of the country such as Legislative Directory, Citizen Power, Our Mendoza Foundation, Open Knowledge Foundation, Fundeps, CLADH, School of Prosecutors, FEIM, Transparencia Ciudadana Foundation, among others.
On May 21, Governor Urtubey sent the project to the legislature, with some of the changes presented by civil society to the original project. We have not yet received a response and justification on the incorporation of the high comments. The approval of this norm means a great advance at the provincial level in terms of access to information, transparency and open government. It would set a precedent for the advance of the rest of the country in more robust legislation on access to information.
More information:
Contact:
Agustina Palencia – agustinapalencia@fundeps.org
What is the national anti-corruption plan that seeks to consolidate “transparency and integrity”?
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Last Thursday, April 11, the government made official, through a decree, the launch of a new anti-corruption plan that will govern in the 2019-2023 period. This measure was promoted by the Anticorruption Office, headed by Laura Alonso, and by the Secretariat for Institutional Strengthening, which is under the command of Fernando Sánchez. The plan is based mainly on four international conventions that have been ratified by our country:
In addition, the evaluations that the monitoring mechanisms have carried out for Argentina have been taken into account.
It is a package of 250 initiatives that will be applied during the next 5 years, in accordance with a variety of priority objectives and strategic guidelines. Each one of them has a specific execution period, whose fulfillment will be in charge of the responsible body that has been assigned to it. The regulations will reach 48 committed state agencies, 22 centralized and 26 decentralized.
According to Laura Alonso, in an interview for the newspaper La Prensa, the new plan is based on “three fundamental axes: promotion of integrity and transparency; the control and punishment of corruption in the administrative sphere; and to commit all the Ministries and the decentralized agencies of the national Executive Power, to propose specific sectoral policies. ”
Among the previously mentioned priority objectives we can find: Institutional strengthening, Modernization of the State and Intelligent insertion to the world, which in turn are related to the strategic guidelines mentioned by the head of the Anticorruption Office. Likewise, as a basis, the plan takes the paradigm of open government and transparency.
Within the proposed reforms and actions, the work is established in:
This series of reforms is a key starting point for the consolidation of an efficient State, with a high degree of transparency and adaptable to the new demands of contemporary society. It is also important that civil society is attentive to compliance and implementation of the measures described in the plan. It is important that a State accompanies measures of sanction and punishment of corruption, with systems of institutional strengthening and transparency that prevent crimes of this type. For this last reason, we celebrate the plan, and we hope it will continue after the 2019 elections. In addition, it is expected that there will be periodic reports showing the progress of the actions underway to complete the proposal.
More information:
Contact:
Agustina Palencia – agustinapalencia@fundeps.org
What is the national anti-corruption plan that seeks to consolidate “transparency and integrity”?
Corruption is a complex, multifaceted, social, political and economic phenomenon that affects all countries, with serious consequences. According to the World Bank “… corruption is commonly defined as the abuse of a public or private office for personal gain …”
Organizations meet with the Federal Council for Transparency for the first time
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The third meeting of the Federal Council for Transparency in the city of Salta was held. On May 21, representatives of the provincial governments attended the first session of 2019 of the body created by the national law on access to public information. In 2018, in Buenos Aires, the first two meetings were held and it was decided that for this year the host provinces should be changing. For the second half of the year it is expected that Tierra del Fuego will host the officials.
What is the Federal Council for Transparency? Article 29 of Law 27275 on access to public information establishes that it is an interjurisdictional body of a permanent nature, whose purpose will be technical cooperation and the conclusion of policies on transparency and access to public information.
After the law came into effect at the end of 2017, in the year 2018 the Council began to operate. As the text of the regulation makes explicit, it is an organization in which representatives of all the provinces participate, in order to coordinate policies of transparency and access to information. They meet twice a year, and for the first time, space was opened for civil society organizations to participate. The opening of this instance was thanks to the presentation of a letter, made by the Network of Organizations Against Corruption (of which Fundeps is a founding member) at the end of 2018.
During this third session, Fundeps, Poder Ciudadano and Salta Transparente, we were present on behalf of the ROCC to raise our concerns and perspectives on the situation of the right of access to information at the provincial level. We specifically proposed the creation of a national plan of action for the standardization of transparency principles throughout the national territory. In this regard, the possibility was raised of taking as a starting point, the national law of AIP. Likewise, we mentioned the need for the Council to function as a space that embraces the cause of public ethics, and be able to establish specific guidelines on this subject and access to information (especially, as far as affidavits are concerned).
The session in Salta also aimed to review the mandate and status of the Council. According to Eduardo Bertoni (president of the Council and head of the Access to Public Information Agency), the review would include the incorporation of a space for CSOs permanently in meetings. Also, he assured that the standardization of transparency principles throughout the country is the raison d’être of this organization.
The meeting also had the presence of the World Bank, an institution that has been in charge of gathering data about the status of the regulations on access to public information in the provinces. The advances and results were presented and will be available in the coming days. This study was only of legislative analysis, without deepening the questions of implementation of laws in each province. In general terms, what is thrown by the evaluation accounts for a very different picture of what access to information refers to. While there are provinces with advanced regulations in this matter, others (among which Córdoba could be included), have laws that date back many years and that restrict more than guarantee the right to dispose of the data and information in the hands of the State.
As members of civil society, we applaud the initiative and appreciate the space granted. We hope that for the next meetings, a greater number of representatives of the provinces will attend. Unfortunately, this meeting only had the presence of 7 provinces and particularly, Córdoba was not present. It is fundamental that, in order to achieve a true synergy between the State and the citizenship, each provincial representative should be present in this space. Otherwise, it is not possible to advance in the guarantee of the right of access to information in a comprehensive and complete manner in Argentina.
More information:
Law of Access to Public Information
Website of the Access to Public Information Agency
Minutes of the meetings of the Federal Council for Transparency.
Contact
Agustina Palencia – agustinapalencia@fundeps.org
We denounce TN for media and symbolic violence
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The first situation occurred on May 2, when in a report issued a story is exposed about a woman (former police officer), named Johana, who was stealing cars using a drone. The second one is presented the following day in the newscast of the half day also, in a news about a former employee of the Municipality of La Plata who was dismissed from her job and considers that the dismissal was unjustified. Beyond the specific stories that are exposed in each of the news, we find in common a violent approach as the news is illustrated with photos of women in underwear or swimsuits, exposing a hypersexualization of the protagonists through the display of their bodies. This representation is stereotyped and diverts attention from what is being reported in the news, which has to do with the commission of a crime in the first case, and a labor claim in the other. Illustrating both situations with these images delegitimizes the women in these stories and inflicts media and symbolic violence on them and also on other women who may be in the same situation. That is why from Fundeps we proceeded with the corresponding complaints, which were filed with the Public Defender’s Office, the Radio and Television Observatory of INADI and the National Institute for Women. In a context of social transformation, driven fundamentally by the struggle of the feminist movement, it is inadmissible to tolerate expressions that contain discriminatory gender stereotypes, which fuel the perpetuation of a macho culture that permanently violates the freedom and the body of women. Understanding the role of the media in the reproduction of symbolic violence is that, in addition to executing the corresponding complaints, we urgently see the need to create spaces for training and training of workers of the mass media. communication regarding the gender perspective, considering that it is the only way to guarantee the production and the approach of respectful contents that contribute to the construction of a equality society.
We demand from the Municipality of Córdoba compliance with the Mitigation Plan of the Bajo Grande EDAR
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The communities of Chacras de la Merced, Villa La Merced, Ciudad Mi Esperanza and Parque 9 de Julio, live a few meters away from the sewage treatment plant in the city of Córdoba on the banks of the Suquía river, and have been living with pollution for years. of water, air and soil due to the poor functioning of the Bajo Grande plant.
Derived from this contamination, neighbors must face every day an infinity of problems, the most serious being those related to health (skin, respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases). Similarly, the environment vitiated by the smell of cloacal water overturned raw, makes life more difficult in that place.
The contamination problem of the Suquía river as a direct consequence of the excess of sewage liquids, by virtue of the dumping with minimal treatments or without treatments, carried out by the Bajo Grande WWTP is public knowledge. Even recognized by the Municipality of Córdoba at least since 2014 when it declares for the first time the environmental and sanitary emergency of the EDAR plant and of the areas located downstream. The measure was extended every year being the last extension in the past month of November.
Within the framework of this emergency, the Intendant implemented a Mitigation Plan by virtue of which a number of actions are entrusted to different areas of the Municipality of Córdoba to mitigate the effects of the pollution produced by the plant on the population, particularly in the Suquía and surrounding areas.
The departments included are the Secretariat of Government, Citizen Participation and Social Development, the General Secretariat, the Public Services Secretariat, the Ministry of Health and the Secretariat of Planning and Infrastructure.
Regarding the mitigation measures contemplated in the plan, these are: a) Update of the socioeconomic survey of the affected population downstream of the plant; b) Update of the survey of the health status of the population; c) Distribution of safe drinking water for different uses in areas where provision by network is not possible; d) Preventive sanitary cord; e) Management of the effluents of the E.D.A.R. Under Large; e) Resource monitoring plan and f) Awareness campaign.
Last year, we presented together with Alida Weht, neighbor of the Chacras de las Merced district and member of the Las Omas Civil Association, requests for information addressed to these Secretariats, so that they could inform us about the status of the Mitigation Plan, without receiving answer. Therefore, this year we insist on the orders, as it is public information to which every citizen has the right to access and the Municipal State has the obligation to make known, not only because the actions committed by the municipality have an impact on the health and quality of life of the people living in the neighborhoods surrounding the plant, but of all the people of Cordoba as the Suquía river – at least at one time – one of the sources of most important drinking water in the entire province.
The only distribution that responded was the Ministry of Health and it did so deficiently and with information that does not fit with the reality that exists in the community of Chacras de la Merced.
With respect to the health needs of the area, the deficient infrastructure of the neighborhood Health Center is denounced, which lacks adequate facilities for patient care; It has only two rooms, the spaces are very small, there is no heating, there is only one doctor who can not supply it and he attends only in the morning, sometimes there are not enough medicines to deal with tracer diseases in the area, particularly dermatitis, which leads to the people of the neighborhoods tending to naturalize their ailments due to the deficient medical attention provided by the municipality.
Another of the mitigation measures whose compliance is required is the “Awareness Campaign” under the responsibility of the Ministry of Health – DAPS and the Directorate of Sanitary and Gas Networks. The actions included are: a) Continue actions in favor of improving the communication of environmental risks, b) Continue with informative and educational talks to the school population of the sector and c) Installation of informative posters on the risk of use and consumption of the river water. None of these actions has been carried out, there is widespread misinformation in the sector about the real risks of contamination of the Suquía River. In addition, all along the path of Chacra de la Merced there is a single sign in the area warning that it is forbidden to bathe in the river. In any case, such ignorance is that children continue to bathe in certain sectors of the Suquía and in the lagoons, putting their health and their lives at risk.
In addition, it is reported that there are sectors of the Chacras de la Merced neighborhood where there is no potable water network. Neighbors and neighbors are forced to connect in an irregular manner to the only network that is exclusive to the Bajo Grande WWTP plant, which is also not safe water. Taking into account the health and environmental crisis declared in the area by the pollution of the Suquía River, it is inadmissible that the population lacks safe drinking water.
In short none of the mitigation measures is or has been adequately met by the municipality, which leads to the emergency being extended every 180 days, becoming a formal declaration without being able to give the affected communities a structural solution and definitive to the environmental and health problems that have been going on for years.
The expansion works of the EDAR plant and the refunctioning of the current one, do not matter the improvement of the quality of life of the people who live downstream of the plant. Nor do they result in the termination of the environmental and sanitary state of emergency in the area, while the mitigation actions have not been carried out by the Municipality of Córdoba, which is why we demand that the Mayor take the corresponding measures so that execute the Mitigation Plan prepared for the Bajo Grande plant and the zones located downstream.
The municipality has a pending debt with the population of this sector of the city, and therefore we demand a definitive solution to the contamination of the Suquía River and especially for the guarantee of the rights of those who have been affected.
More information
Contact
Juan Bautista López, juanbautistalopez@fundeps.org
Argentina, one step away from repaying a historical debt with childhood
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Once again, it is important to emphasize that the result of the process, almost unprecedented in Argentina, was based on the principles of transparency and suitability. The selection of Marisa Graham and the Deputy Advocates respected the demands of civil society and now, it is necessary that their position be fixed.
That is why, together with the organizations of Lawyers and Lawyers of the Argentine Northwest for Human Rights and Social Studies (ANDHES), Nuestra Mendoza and Foundation for the Study and Research of Women (FEIM), we present a note to the National Congress requesting the treatment and ratification of the elected authorities of the Ombudsman’s Office in the next session of each Chamber, so that the Act of Comprehensive Protection of Children is effective and immediate.
Click here to see full note
Contact
Agustina Palencia, agustinapalencia@fundeps.org
Fundeps host the International Advocates Working Group (IAWG) Retreat
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The IAWG is a global network of civil society organizations and individuals that work to ensure that IFI complaints mechanisms ensure accountability and effective remedies to affected communities. This working group focuses on working with the mechanisms, while providing support to communities negatively impacted by IFI projects.
The grievance mechanisms associated with these institutions offer an important, and sometimes, only option for affected communities seeking accountability from IFIs or from companies that receive IFI financing.
Over the past 4 years, the IAWG meets almost annually for its members to share experiences and lessons learned around working with non-judicial complaint mechanisms. During the days of the retreat, joint actions are discussed and planned to ensure that the work of the mechanisms is as transparent and accessible as possible for those wishing to make complaints.
Contact
Gonzalo Roza, gon.roza@fundeps.org
We denounce Eduardo Feinmann for his homo-hate statements about Facundo Nazareno Saxe
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On Thursday, April 11, during the broadcast of his television program on the national air channel A24, journalist Eduardo Feinmann violently exposed a speech by Facundo Nazareno Saxe, researcher at the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) and the Research Institute in Humanities and Social Sciences of the National University of La Plata. Taking as a reference the paper ‘Queer memory and anal cartoon: when the comic opens our asses (and we like it)’, Eduardo Feinmann said “It impresses me. A shame. These are the researchers who then complain ?, “Create something called ‘ñoquicet.” The contemptuous tone that the journalist used to denigrate the researcher’s work around the queer perspective and respect for diversity, as well as his sexual orientation, showed in himself the marked homo-hateful look that he reproduced through a massive medium Communication.
Not only did he present the researcher Saxe’s speech in a violent way, but he also exposed it, sharing his personal data and social networks, which allowed some people to access and reproduce a series of messages full of hatred and threats towards him. his way of being and thinking.
This finding made by the driver and journalist was not casual either, since it was carried out in a context in which the cuts made by the National Government to CONICET and the crisis that science was going through in our country were news. In this way he made a homo-hateful political use, taking the image of Facundo Nazareno Saxe and his investigations to criticize CONICET and in this way justify the budget reduction and lack of policies regarding it.
Making and using this type of homo-hate messages is not only violence and discrimination, but also in a context in which there is a great reaction against all the advances of conquered rights such as the Law of Equal Marriage and the Law of Identity of Gender, is extremely harmful because of the hatred it generates and endorses.
It is important to remember that, according to the report of the Argentina LGBT Federation, in 2017 alone there were 103 assaults, murders or acts of physical violence motivated by an act of discrimination based on sexual orientation, expression or gender identity. Added to this, we must consider that the Trans population of the Argentine Republic has an average life expectancy of about 32 years and that we still do not even have trans labor quota laws (except in the province of Buenos Aires) to be able to guarantee minimally basic rights that have historically been denied to them.
For all these reasons, we consider that this was a clear case of media and symbolic violence in accordance with the definitions of Law 26,522 on Audiovisual Communication Services, which in its Article 70 establishes that “the programming of services provided by law must avoid content that promote or incite discriminatory treatment based on race, color, sex, sexual orientation … or that undermine human dignity … ”
We understand that the media have an undeniable responsibility in the construction of citizenship, since they are not only opinion makers, but also endorse and legitimize practices of society.
The symbolic violence expressed through the media promotes its reproduction and bases other forms of gender violence, so we reject the statements of Feinmann, insist on the need to train journalists in gender perspective and in the treatment of this case on the part of the competent bodies.
Author
Valentina Montero
Contact
Cescilia Bustos Moreschi, cecilia.bustos.moreschi@
Entre Ríos: going to school without agrochemicals
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The justice was issued in this regard by means of a judgment dated October 1, 2018, which prohibits land fumigation with agrochemicals around educational establishments within a radius of 1000 meters, and aerial spraying within a radius of 3000 meters.
The judge enforces the precautionary principle, which states that “when there is a danger of serious or irreversible damage, the lack of absolute scientific certainty will not be used as a justification to postpone the adoption of cost-effective measures to avoid environmental degradation” . In addition, the Provincial Government is condemned to the implementation of plant barriers, to carry out in a sustained manner over time the studies that allow the delineation of objective guidelines regarding the rational use of chemicals and agrochemicals, with the accent precisely on the prevention of damage. This ruling was confirmed by the Superior Court of Justice of the province.
The questioned decree and the second sentence
Last January, Governor Gustavo Bordet, trying to stop the situation and solve the problem of “legal vacuum”, obeying the demands of the agricultural sector, dictates the Decree No. 4407/18 by virtue of which the application is prohibited terrestrial product in a radius of 100 meters around rural schools and in an area of 500 meters for aerial applications.
In view of these circumstances, at the beginning of March, the case entitled “Foro Ecologista de Paraná and another C / Superior Government of the province of Entre Ríos” began, aimed at the declaration of nullity and revocation of the decree in question. The provincial justice dictated sentence on March 28, referring to the effects of the sentence issued in October, while the judge considers that having solved an environmental issue linked to the health of a specific human group, has erga omnes effects, the judge establishes that “until it is determined by the specific state areas that identical preventive effects will be obtained for the health of the students and personnel that attend them with different distances, it is forbidden both to the administrator (Government) and to this judge to evaluate if it is possible to more or less comply with the indicated prevention”. It requires the environmental report required in the first sentence, which must ensure that the practice questioned is innocuous at a certain distance from the schools. He then points out that “The violation of res judicata by a norm determines its nullity due to its unconstitutionality”. For this reason, it annuls articles 1 and 2 of Decree No. 4407/18 for violating the rights protected by res judicata.
Finally, the magistrate reflects that “in the end it happens that we are in the presence – as in so many industrial activities – of a restriction, which must be charged by certain individuals that is based on the interest of health – in this case of the students and staff of rural schools-, and in the care of the environment; but its origins must be sought in productive practices that at some time – or perhaps always – ceased to have full social consensus.”
This ruling was also appealed by the government of Entre Ríos to the Superior Court of Justice of the province, who must decide deciding whether or not the decree is in conflict.
Controversial statements by the President
Mauricio Macri in a visit to Gualeguaychú at the beginning of April, dedicated a moment of his conference to refer to the conflict. With his sayings he interfered in a conflict that is settled in the Judicial Power expressly violating the independence of powers-the essence of any republican system of government.
Macri defended the use of agrochemicals without control, saying that the failure puts at risk 20% of the agroindustrial capacity of the province, without taking into account the public health problem facing the province, and all productive areas of the country .. In line with the above, said that it is “an absurd law that is not based on any scientific rigor”, with respect to the judicial decision, the second in a few months, dictated by the justice of Entre Ríos. That the current government promotes this extractive production model was made clear with the Final Report of the Interministerial Working Group on Good Practices in Phytosanitary Applications, presented last year by the agribusiness and environment portfolios.
The sayings of Macri aroused all kinds of criticism and comments, mainly because it ignores the impact of health that the indiscriminate use of agrochemicals produces in people. Also, he is criticized that he, as the main representative of the State, has the duty to protect the health of the children and adolescents who attend these or other educational establishments.
Boys and girls from rural areas are threatened mainly in those places where they should be safe: homes, schools, communities. The protection of the Higher Interest of the Child is a principle and a commitment adopted through the signing of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, with a constitutional hierarchy. From this, it is the responsibility of the State to take measures tending to ensure the development of children in a friendly environment.
For Macri there is no “scientific rigor” that justifies limiting the fumigations, ignoring not only the precautionary principle but the various judgments that are carried out today. In the United States alone, Monsanto has already been convicted in two trials for being responsible for the cancer risks of the Roundup herbicide based on the controversial drug glyphosate.
In our country, there are already records. We have, for example, the trial of the Madres del Barrio Ituzaingó Anexo in Córdoba, in which the producer and the fumigator were criminally sentenced. In Entre Ríos, in 2018 it was also possible to condemn the producer, the president of the aviation company and the pilot to one year and six months of suspended prison for being responsible for contamination of the fumigation that caused damages to personnel and students of School No. 44, near Santa Anita.
However, public policies do not yet respond to this problem. The qualification of SENASA regarding the dangerousness of agrochemicals is insufficient. Glyphosate for example, herbicide that is thrown millions of liters in our fields, in Argentina is classified as CLASS III, blue band (little dangerous), while in 2015 the World Health Organization (WHO) warned about the linkage of glyphosate herbicide (the most widely used in the world) and cancer, cataloging glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic”.
The State is unaware of the battle that is being waged throughout the world to protect the right of children and adolescents and of future generations to enjoy a healthy environment. Enabling the violation of the right of these children to live in an environment that allows their development goes against their responsibilities. The State can not be passive, much less condescending, while daily fumigations occur that irreversibly damage the present and future of that generation.
Author
Maria Laura Carrizo Morales
Contact
Maria Perez Alsina, mariaperezalsina@fundeps.org
“Precios Esenciales”: a measure that threatens the right to health
“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”.
On April 22, the national government launched “Precios Esenciales”, a program that contemplates a freezing of prices of 64 products of the basic basket divided into 14 categories, for 180 days. The same would be available in more than 2550 points of sale and the products would have to be identified with a sign similar to the one that identifies “Precios Cuidados”.
We analyze the program putting in tension the following points: the integral approach and the methodology used to establish the basic basket; the way in which this program is structured; and the communication strategies of the national government in these matters.
In the first place, given that the plan contemplates products from the basic basket, it is necessary to rethink the methodology with which it is elaborated. Thus, serious public policies should be planned inter-institutionally and with a cross-cutting approach of human rights, integrating international standards proposed by international organizations such as the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the United Nations Organization for Food and Agriculture (FAO). It is stated that this program does not take into account the recommendations and standards on healthy eating set by prestigious health organizations and human rights organizations. On the contrary, it seeks to deepen an obsolete model of thinking about the feeding of the population in detriment of the effective enjoyment of the human rights of the citizens who are in worse economic situation. In addition, it is estimated that these plans should reflect the regional, environmental, and economic-social diversity of each of the Argentine provinces within our federal system of government.
Secondly, it is clear that around 50% of the food products that make up the plan fall into the ultra-processed category and almost 40% are optional foods or alcoholic beverages. In this way, they warn that the policy of “Precios Esenciales”, theoretically aimed at containing the inflationary process and reducing its impact, could be promoting the purchase of low-nutritional foods and alcoholic beverages. Given the worrying scenario of excess weight in the population, it is considered necessary that, on the contrary, the State advance with regulation based on scientific evidence that seeks to discourage the consumption of unhealthy products and encourages the consumption of foods with high value nutritional.
Third, emphasis is placed on the importance of communication to the population on these issues and, particularly, on the use of front labeling; which, according to numerous studies, is the most effective in identifying products with a high content of critical nutrients, providing better information in a short time to consumers and favoring the selection of healthier foods. Likewise, this type of labeling is prioritized because it is the most understood by children, adolescents and people with a lower educational level, which is central to contemplate the perspective of inequity in public policy and protect especially the groups in the most vulnerable situations. vulnerability, who are the ones who suffer from obesity, malnutrition and chronic diseases in general.
For the reasons stated, we demand:
1.- The basic basket is redesigned with a focus on human rights that integrates the standards proposed by international organizations, reflecting the regional, environmental and economic-social diversity of each of the Argentine provinces within the framework of our federal system of government .
2.- Progress with regulation based on scientific evidence that seeks to discourage the consumption of unhealthy products and encourages the consumption of foods with high nutritional value.
3.- Emphasis on communication to the population regarding these issues, using the strategy of front labeling.
Click to see the complete pronouncement about “Precios Esenciales”
Authors
Lucía Pereyra
María Victoria Gerbaldo
Contact
Agustina Mozzoni, agustinamozzoni@fundeps.org
Conversation: Investments for Development and Human Rights in Latin America
During the last years, the Latin American region has been the scene of exponential growth of large development projects. For this reason, from Fundeps together with the 21st Century University, the discussion ‘Investments for Development and Human Rights in Latin America’ was organized
It analyzed the role of international financial institutions, their obligation to Human Rights, their impact on the Latin American region and the performance of their accountability mechanisms. . Also, the development in Latin America and the Human Rights issues associated with it were discussed.
There were the participation of renowned exponents who addressed these issues from their work and analyzed current trends and challenges regarding investments for development in the region. Participants: Carolina Juaneda, who serves as the Latin American Consultant of the Bank Information Center (BIC), Caitlin Daniel as Senior Communities Associate of the Accountability Counsel (AC) and Juan Carballo, Executive Director of Fundeps.
Contact
Gonzalo Roza, gon.roza@fundeps.org