It was in an interview in the newspaper The country of Spain published on June 3, which Joel Hernández, Rapporteur for Chile of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)affirmed -among other things- that in our country “there are no political prisoners”.
“The word political prisoners has a specific connotation: they are people who are detained because of their political or religious opinions and whose freedom is restricted because of that personal position (…) We have not detected that there are people detained for the mere fact of participating in the protest (…) The IACHR does not consider that there are political prisoners of the social outbreak”, was specifically what he pointed out.
Along with this, Hernández maintained that only “regarding 400 people were affected, most with eye injuries”during the revolt of October 2019 due to the actions of State agents.
These statements have been emphatically answered in our country by human rights lawyers, defenders and organizations, and relatives of victims of human rights violations, some of whom have requested the removal of Joel Hernández as IACHR Rapporteur for Chile.
“It is not accounting for acceptable minimums“
For example, him lawyer and coordinator of the Chair of Human Rights at the University of Chile, Claudio Nashmaintained in an interview with the radio of that house of studies that Hernández “He once more confuses political prison with prisoners of conscience”.
Regarding the number of people affected in the social outbreak -400, according to the Rapporteur of the IACHR-, Nash emphasizes that “this is a profound error.” “The complaints before the Public Ministry are 10 thousand 796. Of these, regarding 500 only correspond to eye injuries, but there are also complaints related to torture, sexual abuse, illegal and arbitrary detentions, and even situations that affected children and adolescents, therefore, the magnitude, the context of the violations, is more serious”.
Given this scenario, the academic suggests that The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights “has to review its relationship with Chile and that implies changing the Rapporteur with respect to Chile, since Commissioner Hernández is not reporting acceptable minimums from the point of view of the legitimacy of international control regarding what happens in Chile”.
The same position expressed in a column in Radio University of Chile los members of the Chilean Human Rights Commission, Carlos Margotta and Yuri Vásquezwho maintain that Hernández’s statements “reveal not only a serious lack of knowledge of the applicable international regulations, but also show a serious contradiction with what is indicated by the reports emanating from the organs of the inter-American system of which he is a part.”
In this sense, they explain that “the only normative definition on political imprisonment in international law is Resolution 1900 of 10/3/2012, of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe”, which among the conditions for a person deprived of liberty to be considered a ‘political prisoner’ mentions the following: “b) if the detention has been imposed for purely political reasons, without connection to any crime; c) if, for political reasons, the length or conditions of detention are clearly out of proportion to the crime for which the person has been found guilty, or allegedly responsible; d) if, for political reasons, he or she is detained in a discriminatory way compared to other people; or, e) if the detention is the result of procedures that were clearly unfair and it seems to be related to political motives of the authorities.”
“We will not participate in any proposal for a joint mechanism with the IACHR, while he remains in office”
Meanwhile, a total of 83 groups, movements, political prisoners, corporations, assemblies, lawyers, observatories, health brigades and relatives of victims of the repression, among others, signed a letter addressed to the Chilean authorities and to the aforementioned Commission, in which they also reject what was affirmed by Joel Hernández.
The letter insists once more that “the National Prosecutor’s Office itself certifies the existence of at least 10,796 complaints from victims of crimes originating in institutional violence and only the Fundación Movimiento Salud en Resistencia provided the Centro Norte Prosecutor’s Office with files for care of, at less, 1400 victims”.
“These statements are worrying, dangerous and contrary to the basic principles of human rights and the role of the IACHR,” add the signatories, emphasizing that “In Chile there are political prisoners”. “The various acquittals pronounced by the courts regarding young people who remained deprived of liberty for years show that their extensive imprisonment was due to the fact that they were participating in the social protest, a fact that the Rapporteur does not mention”they argue regarding it.
Along the same lines, the letter also mentions Resolution 1900 of the European Council cited above, highlighting what “the disproportionate and discriminatory duration of preventive prisons, the government as the plaintiff, illegal methods of investigation, torture and mistreatment in detention, are some of the situations that are verified in the Chilean case”.
“Hernandez’s statements are not only contrary to the reality of the criminalization
of the protest in Chile, but contrary to the basic standards in human rights”, they conclude, warning that “We will not participate in any proposal for a joint mechanism with
the IACHR, as long as he remains in that position.”
Below you can read the full document and the list of those who adhere to it.
