IACHR Welcomes Progress Made By Argentina in Friendly Settlements in 2023

June 5, 2024

Washington, D.C. – The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) is happy to report that the State of Argentina took various measures in 2023 to support negotiations toward friendly settlement agreements and to encourage compliance with friendly settlement agreements.

In 2023, the Commission approved and published 12 friendly settlement agreements signed by various petitioners and the Argentine State. Nine of those agreements were at the partial compliance stage, while another one had attained full compliance. The total number of agreements published in 2023 concerning Argentina is three times the 2022 figure.

The agreement concerning Petition 268-10 stands out among those approved in 2023. It involves María del Carmen Senem de Buzzi, a woman with disabilities who was subjected to an arbitrary, forced admission into a psychiatric facility. The Commission notes the progress made by the State to implement redress measures, since full compliance had been attained regarding four of the eight measures agreed in this case.

The IACHR highlights the State's acknowledgement of its own international responsibility for the events that caused harm to Senem de Buzzi and her family. The Commission also notes the measures taken to raise awareness of the rights of mental healthcare service users, as well as the adoption of plans to adapt public psychiatric hospitals in the province of Buenos Aires, with contributions from the petitioning party.

Along similar lines, the IACHR notes the approval of the friendly settlement report in Case 13,581—José Luis D'Andrea Mohr. D'Andrea Mohr was sentenced to paying damages for the publication of a book where he reported the forced disappearance of 129 soldiers during Argentina's last civic-military dictatorship. The Commission highlights the fact that full compliance had been attained in one of the four measures that had been agreed (concerning the laying of plaques to honor José Luis D'Andrea Mohr and Corporal José Hernández) and that substantial partial compliance had been attained in measures to publicize this friendly settlement agreement.

In its 2023 Annual Report, the Commission stated that the State of Argentina had been one of the countries who had made the most progress in terms of redress measures, attaining compliance with a total of 41 such measures (28 involving full compliance, 9 involving substantial partial compliance, and 4 involving partial compliance).

The IACHR notes compliance with the 14 measures in Petition 1256-05—Ivana Emilce Rosales, eight of which had attained full compliance and six of which had attained substantial partial compliance. Full compliance had also been attained in the three friendly settlement agreements concerning Case 13,869—Silvia Mónica Severini; Case 14,669—Mariano Bejarano; and Case 13,020—Carlos Andrés Fraticelli. The IACHR therefore stopped monitoring those cases.

The Commission further stresses as a good practice the fact that the Argentine State has created in the website of the national Human Rights Department a section to publicize progress made in friendly settlement procedures, to support historical memory concerning those cases and to foster non-recurrence.

The Commission appreciates the efforts made by the State of Argentina and congratulates it on progress made to implement friendly settlements and on compliance with IACHR decisions to approve such settlements. 

A principal, autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), the IACHR derives its mandate from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has a mandate to promote respect for and to defend human rights in the region and acts as a consultative body to the OAS in this area. The Commission is composed of seven independent members who are elected in an individual capacity by the OAS General Assembly and who do not represent their countries of origin or residence.

No. 126/24

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