MANIFESTO on Prison Torture

CASE 27-2017: Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)

MANIFESTO on Prison Torture

The Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights, defender of the rights of global citizenship and of all beings of Mother Earth, exercising the cultural sovereignty that emanates from the Buddhist Peoples and Spiritual Communities, perfectly knows the situation of poverty and oppression in which there is a large part of the marginalized populations of the world, which totally or partially lose their political, economic, legal and environmental freedoms;

The Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights has a universal ethical vocation, so it calls upon the entire humanity to become aware of the terrible situation suffered by the populations of prisoners in jails;

The Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights addresses the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), to which it has previously sentenced as Responsible for the charges of VIOLATION OF THE RIGHTS OF BUDDHIST PEOPLES AND SPIRITUAL COMMUNITIES, and VIOLATION OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS TO LIFE, PEACE AND INTEGRITY;

It is stated that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) is complicit in the crimes of the Argentine Republic, since it has refused to investigate certain criminal acts committed by this State that deserve to be condemned, such as religious discrimination and the violation to access to justice;

It is stated that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) decided not to respond or act in response to the actions of the Buddhist Tribunal, such as the Pronouncement on Judicial Lack of Protection of March 4, 2017, in which it was insisted on denouncing that the police and the prison system of Argentina commit crimes against humanity, because, systematically or widespreadly, there are cases of torture, abuse and prolonged arbitrary detention;

It is stated that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) decided not to respond to or act upon the actions of the Buddhist Tribunal, such as the Proclamation on Institutional Violence of February 05, 2018, where it was alleged that the Argentine government of President Macri has criminalized the social protest through direct repression against demonstrators or through mass arbitrary detention of demonstrators and bystanders, violently repressing with toxic gas and bullets against civilians, opposition legislators and journalists, even making cruel and inhuman treatment against women, so that crimes against humanity would being committed;

It is stated that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) decided not to respond to or act upon the actions of the Buddhist Tribunal, as when the Proclamation on Institutional Violence confirmed that the Argentine government will continue carrying out and endorsing episodes of institutional violence with impunity, such as torture, arbitrary arrests and unofficial executions, unless the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) decides to intervene urgently to stop this systematic and widespread plan of impunity and violation of human rights justice;

It is stated that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) decided to ignore that the Argentine government would not be doing anything to stop the numerous cases of police abuses, such as aggressions and arbitrary detentions, and even extrajudicial executions or torture, which have been denounced by organizations such as the Coordinator Against Police and Institutional Repression (Correpi) and the Office of Procurator for Institutional Violence (Procuvin);

It is stated that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) decided to ignore that the Buddhist Tribunal publicly condemned President Macri as a necessary participant in the systematic plan of institutional violence and human rights abuses in Argentina, especially by arbitrary detentions, torture and unofficial executions;

It is stated that according to the National Registry of Cases of Torture, prepared jointly by the National Penitentiary Procuracy, the Provincial Commission for the Memory and the Study Group on Criminal Justice and Human Rights, Argentina's penal system uses torture as a structural, widespread and persistent element, because in 2017 the Argentine prisons have carried out more than 5300 cases of torture against more than 1400 victims, subjecting the prisoners to physical aggressions, inadequate health, individual isolation, poor material conditions, poor nutrition, threats, impediments of family visits and social ties, degrading personal requisition, robbery, and burdensome or constant relocations, all of this making the prisoners to cease feeling like human beings;

It is stated that Alcira Daroqui, director of the Department of Investigations of the Penitentiary Procuracy of the Nation and coordinator of the National Registry of Cases of Torture, affirmed that torture in the prison system is present systematically and in a widespread way, which fully demonstrates the righteousness of judgment of the Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights against the Argentine State for crimes against humanity;

It is stated that torture in Argentine jails includes a regularity and systematic fist blows, kicks, hitting with sticks, pepper and tear gas, and stunning techniques, being a deliberately aggravated form of inhuman treatment and cruelly degrading penalty, trying to dominate the prisoners with the cost of generating higher degrees of prison violence;

It is stated that the National Penitentiary Procuracy has warned that isolation as a form of punishment constitutes a form of torture, which is evidenced by the fact that in confinement cells prisoners are held in degrading conditions for almost the entire day and without light or ventilation, by being surrounded by urine and fecal matter, without mattress to sleep, in the presence of rats and cockroaches, without food and without medical attention, even generating higher levels of torture from the guards when the prisoners report their inhuman living conditions;

It is stated that Alcira Daroqui, of the National Penitentiary Procuracy, affirmed that the low number of complaints does not correspond to the enormous number of acts of torture registered, which would be explained both by the impunity generated by the Argentine judicial field, and it would also be due to the prisoners' fear to be killed in retaliation for their complaints;

It is stated that there are reports that account for a total of more than 1,900 deaths of detainees in prisons from the period 2010 to 2017, which is a number that has even alarmed the UN;

It is stated that on May 13, 2017, the UN Committee against Torture had already requested the Argentine government of President Macri to take urgent measures against the violence by the security forces, and should thoroughly investigate and unequivocally prohibit the practices of mistreatment, torture, suffocation and humiliation that are a recurrent practice of the corporate militarized structure of security forces and prison staff, whose patterns of violence and arbitrariness also extend to arrests of young people without a court order;

It is stated that 60% of the detainees in Argentina are prisoners without conviction, who often have preventative detention for periods of up to 5 years, which causes prison overpopulation and inhuman overcrowding conditions, as confirmed by the UN Rapporteur on Torture;

It is stated that in April 2018, the UN Rapporteur on Torture denounced the need to act right now against mistreatment, torture and abuse of weapons in Argentina's prisons, affirming that these arbitrary practices of inhuman detention are part of the oppressive architecture of the military dictatorship of the past but it still survives within the prison and security systems of today, which adds to conditions of detention in total overcrowding, without hygiene, without water and without health care, often forcing detainees to live with rats and drink water from toilets that are used to urinate and defecate;

It is stated that Melzer, the UN Rapporteur on Torture, confirmed that if this type of violent, impunity and generalized practices of the security forces and prisons persist, then Argentina would be Responsible for a widespread and persistent violation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which fully validates the Judgment of the Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights against the Argentine government for committing crimes against humanity;

It is stated that the UN Rapporteur on Torture even collected testimonies that demonstrate that the Argentine prison service uses techniques of torture of the CIA, such as waterboarding (submerging the person's head in water) and dry submarine (introducing head in a plastic bag);

It is stated that the UN Rapporteur on Torture also checked out that people from marginal neighborhoods and indigenous communities often suffer enormous excesses from the Argentine police, arresting them when they carry out civil protests, and forcing them to confess crimes or denounce other people;

A thorough investigation of the tortures carried out by the police and prison staff of Argentina is required.

The immediate adoption of measures that bring justice to the thousands of people who have been tortured by the security forces of Argentina is demanded.

The urgent implementation of humanitarian assistance for the entire prison population of Argentina is demanded, putting an end to the regime of human rights violations.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) is required to investigate and prosecute the crimes against humanity committed by the Argentine government of President Macri, for otherwise the IACHR would be committing an act of Complicity with crimes against humanity.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) is held responsible for ignoring the systematic and widespread pattern of mistreatment, illegal detentions and torture carried out by the Argentine security forces, all of which confirms that the inaction of the IACHR is a Violation of International Law.

On September 20, 2018 the present Manifesto on Prison Torture is expressed as a way to contribute to a more peaceful, just, cultured and healthier world.

Always with maitri (reconciliation),

Master Maitreya Samyaksambuddha

President and Judge of the Buddhist Tribunal on Human Rights