The Ghosts of Montes de Oca: Buried Subtext of Argentina's Dirty War

2015 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-220
Author(s):  
Nancy Scheper-Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Psychiatric Hospital ◽  
Buenos Aires ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Buenos Aires Province ◽  
Dirty War ◽  
Public Dialogue ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Key Informant ◽  
Mental Defectives

No rhetorical flourishes: this work-in-progress is intended to provoke a long-overdue public dialogue on an ugly topic that refuses to stay disappeared. It treats a hidden battleground of Argentina's Dirty War (1976–1983), a ‘petite war,’ a war within the war, directed by a military-appointed doctor against the mentally deficient inmates concentrated at the national psychiatric hospital, the Colonia Nacional Dr. Manuel A. Montes de Oca in Torres, and its sister institution, the Colonia Psiquiátrica Domingo Cabred, in Lujan, both in Buenos Aires province. Buried in the historical, statistical, legal, and archival records, along with the key informant interviews, ethnographic observations, and photos is shattering evidence of medical human rights abuses committed under the necropolitics of the Dirty War against an abandoned population of mental “defectives” who were condemned to gratuitous suffering and early deaths at the psychiatric colony (see Figure 1). In the worst instances, the abuses were crimes against humanity.

International Criminal Court

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (9) ◽  
pp. 41-51
Author(s):  
Charles B.A Ubah ◽  
Osy E. Nwebo
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Justice System ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
National Courts ◽  
Domestic Jurisdiction ◽  
National Governments

The principle of domestic jurisdiction in international law makes national governments responsible for protecting their citizens, investigating alleged abuses of human rights in their countries and bringing the perpetrators to justice. They governments may also extradite those accused of abuse of human rights to any other states prepared to give them a fair trial. Problem arises however, when governments are unable or unwilling to perform this duty or are themselves perpetrators of these crimes. Thus, millions of people have fallen victims of genocide, crimes against humanity and serious violations of humanitarian laws. But only very few of these perpetrators have been brought to justice in national courts as many governments claim sanctuary under the principle of domestic jurisdiction. The need therefore arises for the international community to act in order to protect helpless or defenseless citizens from being victims of crimes against humanity and human rights abuses, by bringing the perpetrators of these crimes to justice. The thrust of this article therefore, is that the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) fills this void by fulfilling a central and pivotal goal in international jurisprudence. This article, therefore, provides insights and lessons into the history and prospects of the International Criminal Court. These are insights and lessons that are too important and too costly to ignore in the 21st century understanding of international criminal justice system.

In the Shadow of the International Criminal Court

2016 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin J. Appel
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Expected Payoffs

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is responsible for prosecuting crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide. Despite the potential for the ICC to deter human rights abuses, scholars and policy makers are divided on the effectiveness of it. This debate, however, is plagued by some important theoretical and empirical limitations. I address the problems in the literature and evaluate whether the ICC can prevent human rights abuses. I argue that the ICC can deter governments from committing human rights violations by imposing a variety of costs on them throughout their investigations that decrease their expected payoffs for engaging in human rights abuses. Across a variety of statistical estimators that account for standard threats to inference and several anecdotes, I find strong support for my theoretical expectations; leaders from states that have ratified the Rome Statute commit lower levels of human rights abuses than nonratifier leaders.

Gender Differences in Violence and Other Human Rights Abuses Among Migrant Workers on the Thailand–Myanmar Border

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (8) ◽  
pp. 945-967 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah R. Meyer ◽  
W. Courtland Robinson ◽  
Casey Branchini ◽  
Nada Abshir ◽  
Aye Aye Mar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Key Informant ◽  
Quantitative Results ◽  
Physical And Sexual Abuse

We describe human rights violations against migrant workers at the Thailand–Myanmar border, and evaluate differences by gender and industry. This mixed methods study pairs key informant interviews ( n = 40) with a cross-sectional quantitative survey of migrant workers from Myanmar ( n = 589) recruited via respondent-driven sampling. Key informants described significant hazards during migration, including deception, theft, and physical and sexual abuse, the latter primarily for women. Quantitative results confirmed prevalent mistreatment and abuse, with significant gender differences, most notably women’s disproportionate burden of sexual abuse. Current evidence on the nature of experiences, and significant differences by gender, can position prevention and response programming.

Extracurricular International Criminal Law

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 412-447
Author(s):  
Mark A. Drumbl
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Limited Capacity ◽  
Criminal Courts ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Corporate Liability

This article unpacks the jurisprudential footprints of international criminal courts and tribunals in domestic civil litigation in the United States conducted under the Alien Tort Statute (ats). The ats allows victims of human rights abuses to file tort-based lawsuits for violations of the laws of nations. While diverse, citations to international cases and materials in ats adjudication cluster around three areas: (1) aiding and abetting as a mode of liability; (2) substantive legal elements of genocide and crimes against humanity; and (3) the availability of corporate liability. The limited capacity of international criminal courts and tribunals portends that domestic tort claims as avenues for redress of systematic human rights abuses will likely grow in number. The experiences of us courts of general jurisdiction as receivers of international criminal law instruct upon broader patterns of transnational legal migration and reveal an unanticipated extracurricular legacy of international criminal courts and tribunals.

scholarly journals Democratization as a Protective Layering for Crimes Against Humanity: The Case of Myanmar

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 69-89
Author(s):  
Anna Plunkett
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Community ◽  
The State ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Regime Transition ◽  
Democratic Regime ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Democratic Practice ◽  
History Of

Myanmar has a history of state sanctioned violence against its own people. However, as the regime transition occurs the methods of conducting such violence have also changed. This has not led to an end to violence but an alteration in the methods used by the state. What can be identified is the use of democratic regime transition to legitimise the state’s actions whilst delegitimising the plight of communities that have historically resisted the state. By engaging in the minimal standards of democratic practice whilst developing relations with the international community on the basis of trade, Myanmar has been able to create a protective layering system for its continued human rights abuses within its borderlands. This paper will analyse how Myanmar has effectively coopted the international community into ignoring the continuation of human rights abuses by creating an effectives market for its valuable resources. It will focus on the cases in Karen and Kachin State, two sub-regions within Myanmar that have experienced prolonged conflict and where human rights abuses continue with little oversight from the international community.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
James P. Brennan
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Institutional Culture ◽  
Military Dictatorship ◽  
Dirty War ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
State Terrorism ◽  
The Cold War

Argentina’s experience with state terrorism during the 1976—83 military dictatorship is commonly referred to as the period of the ‘dirty war.’ The term dirty war remains controversial in Argentina and is currently rejected by all human rights groups in the country, its use seen as a defense for the military’s crimes and brutal methods. The book employs the term in order to analyze the military’s understanding of war and to explore the military’s institutional culture, beyond the Cold War influences, specifically in the case of Córdoba, Argentina’s second largest city and the site of some of the worst repression and greatest human rights abuses.

scholarly journals The Close Relationship Between Serious Human Rights Violations and Crimes Against Humanity: International Criminalization of Serious Abuses

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (17) ◽  
pp. 145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Pablo Pérez-León Acevedo
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Criminal Courts ◽  
Legal Concept ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
The Relationship

This article aims to evidence both the existence of a close relationship between the notions of serious human rights violations and crimes against humanity, and how this works in international law. To do so, international legal sources such as the United Nations practice, case-law of international and hybrid criminal courts and tribunals, and case-law of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and other human rights bodies are taken into account. Thus, this article analyses how these and other international sources have examined the above-mentioned relationship, i.e., inter alia the similarities and differences between serious human rights abuses and the legal objective and subjective elements of crimes against humanity. Accordingly, it is found that, although some differences exist, the notion of serious human rights violations underlies the legal concept of crimes against humanity. In turn, this is linked to the relationship between those two categories of international law.

scholarly journals Against silence

1982 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-5
Author(s):  
Jacobo Timerman
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Buenos Aires ◽  
Military Regime ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Anti Semitism ◽  
Newspaper Editors ◽  
The Military

Jacobo Timerman was until recently one of Argentina's most distinguished newspaper editors. Born in Russia in 1923, he emigrated as a child with his family to Argentina, where he was later found the Buenos Aires daily La Opinion. He became a fierce opponent of the human rights abuses under the military regime which took power in 1976. In April 1977 Timerman was abducted and held prisoner for 30 months by agents of the Argentinian army. He was not found guilty of any of the accusations laid against him. The torture and savage anti-Semitism he was subjected to are described in his recent book, Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number. Exiled from Argentina in September 1979 following his release, he has spoken out on behalf of those who have been silenced or who continue to suffer from human rights violations in Argentina. Jacobo Timerman now lives in Israel; in November 1981 he was the guest of honour at the annual lunch of the Writers & Scholars Educational Trust in London, on which occasion he delivered the following address.

Performing Archives, Performing Ruins

2018 ◽  
pp. 88-119
Author(s):  
Kaitlin M. Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Buenos Aires ◽  
Visual Performance ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Primary Case ◽  
Spatial Continuity ◽  
Performative Power

This chapter focuses on performance and photography, juxtaposed with a series of official memory sites. The primary case study is Argentine photographer Julio Pantoja’s hybrid photography performance, Tucumán Me Mata (Tucumán Kills Me, 2014), which performatively situates visual documentation of the 2013 Tucumán trials (for crimes against humanity committed during the dictatorship) in their historical and spatial continuity. This visual performance is analyzed alongside three other Argentine memory projects: ESMA (Escuela Superior de Mecánica de la Armada) and the Parque de la Memoria, both in Buenos Aires, and the Museo de la Memoria in Rosario, Argentina. Studied side by side, these memory projects provide a lens through which to investigate the affective, performative power of visuality in relation to place and human rights and memory in Argentina.

Documents and Source Material

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Palestinian Territories ◽  
Source Materials ◽  
Israeli Occupation

This section comprises JPS summaries and links to international, Arab, Israeli, and U.S. documents and source materials from the quarter spanning 16 May-15 November 2017. Fifty years of Israeli occupation was the focus of reports by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and Oxfam that documented the ongoing human rights abuses in the occupied Palestinian territories. Other notable documents include Israeli NGO Gisha and UNSCO reports on the ten-year Gaza siege, Al Jazeera's interactive timeline of the Nakba, and an exchange of letters between the ACLU and U.S. senators on anti-BDS legislation.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document