"When you attack national human rights institutions, you attack democracy”

In April this year the government of El Salvador published photos of hundreds of prisoners stripped and stacked together in inhumane conditions. In compliance with its mandate, the head of the Office of the Human Rights Procurator, José Apolonio Tobar, criticized the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, for violating fundamental human rights of the prisoners and for ignoring international human rights standards.  Since then José Apolonio Tobar  as been  politically and personally attacked on social media by the president of El Salvador.  The attacks over several months have led to José Apolonio Tobar officially requesting the support of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI).

NHRIs in Latin America and the Caribbean are under attack

The attacks on José Apolonio Tobar is a stark example of an alarming trend across Latin America and the Caribbean –  one of the regions in the world with the most attacks and reprisals against human rights defenders.  With the objective of intimidating or weakening them, several governments in the region have within the past 18 months taken political or unjustified legal actions against almost 50 per cent of the Latin American NHRIs and their staff, either in forms of budget cuts, death threats or campaigns to discredit their legitimacy.  The Procurador of Guatemala has been suffering from persistent political attacks from the government and Congress due to his defence of LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights in social media. The Defensora de los Habitantes de Costa Rica suffered pressures to resign her position after criticizing the government for not protecting of the personal data of the citizens of Costa Rica in the context of COVID-19. An institutional reform to eliminate elected officials and magistrates might result in weakened  position of the National Human Rights Institution in Perú.  The Ombudsperson of Bolivia obtained protective measures from the Interamerican Commission for Human Rights (ICHR) after political pressure to undermine the role of the institution, as well as death threats and acts of violence against her and her staff. The Defensor of Ecuador has also requested protective measures from the ICHR after receiving a death threat. 

Urgent need for international response and support

 The Secretariat of the Network of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in the Americas (RINDHCA) is extremely concerned about the situation in the region.

“There is an urgent need to raise international awareness about the attacks and the attempt to weakening the national human rights institutions. You can’t have democracy without strong and independent national human rights institutions. If you attack state-mandated bodies, with a constitutional or legal mandate to protect and promote human rights at the national level, you attack democracy,” Cecilia Bernuy, the director of the Secretariat of RINDCHA, says and emphasizes the importance of strengthened international support and response to the national human rights institutions and other human rights defenders.

“We need increased support for the NHRIs from the UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, the EU and other international actors, and we need international actors to confront the governments with the intolerable conditions, that the NHRIs are facing,” Cecilia Bernuy says.

RINDHCA is now taking several steps to increase awareness internationally to foster support of the NHRIs.  The network has formulated several declarations in support of the individual NHRIs that are being attacked.

 In collaboration with the Ibero- American Ombudsman Federation (FIO) RINDCHA is organizing a conference on violations against human rights defenders, which will take place on 15 and 16 December. During the conference the participants will formulate a public statement to disseminate internationally. The Danish Institute for Human Rights and GANHRI with the financial support of the NHRI EU project provides technical support to the conference.

“The establishment of national human rights institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean are a response to the human rights violations that took place in the region. In order to comply with their international human rights commitments, states must allow these institutions to perform their mandates independently and in line with the Paris Principles,” Cecilia Bernuy says.