CASE 27-2017: Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)
DECREE ON THE QUARANTINE AND THE CORONAVIRUS
April 23, 2020
HAVING
SEEN the Judgment and the subsequent actions of the "IACHR Case"
carried out by the International
Buddhist Ethics Committee, ruling the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) as Responsible for Violation of the rights of
Buddhist peoples and spiritual communities, Violation of the human rights to
life, peace and integrity, and Violation of International Law;
CONSIDERING:
That on September 20, 2018, the International Buddhist Ethics Committee made a Manifesto on Prison Torture,
demanding the Inter-American Commission
on Human Rights (IACHR) to investigate and prosecute Crimes against humanity
committed by the Argentine government and its systematic and widespread pattern
of police mistreatment and abuse, arbitrary arrests and torture
carried out by the Argentine security forces, which also often resort to
carrying out hundreds of extrajudicial executions with total
impunity;
That in such post-sentence
proceedings, the IACHR was held Responsible
as an Accomplice to Crimes against humanity in the event that it
decides to ignore these terrible human rights violations that have been
denounced not only by the International
Buddhist Ethics Committee but also
by organizations such as the Coordinator
Against Police and Institutional Repression (Correpi) and the Office of Institutional Violence (Procuvin);
That in the same way this
Decree dictates the Responsibility of the IACHR
in maintaining the impunity of Crimes against humanity carried out
by the Argentine State with the excuse of quarantine for the Coronavirus
pandemic;
That likewise, the
non-denunciation of the criminal behavior of the Argentine State conforms a
systematic pattern of the IACHR, so
its omission is an act of complicity, thus committing a High Crime against the intrinsic
fundamental Freedoms;
That it is recognized that
the death rate from Coronavirus
would not be 3.4% as reported by the World
Health Organization, nor would it be 1% as studies by China and Germany
suggest, but rather as important scientists from Stanford University point out the true mortality would be 0.12%, as
stated by epidemiologist Ioannidis and other colleagues, thus being very
similar to the lethality of ordinary flu, which means that mass quarantines are
one of the largest acts of collective
psychosis of history as they are totally disproportionate measures with
respect to the problem they seek to remedy;
That quarantines only work
when a region has been infected and it is fenced so that it does not infect the
rest of the national or international population, and that is why declaring
quarantine for the entire population of a country is an act of absolute
irrationality since no separation between the sick and the healthy ones is
being made;
That most of the
quarantines have been declared by governments with deplorable health systems,
given that the States have preferred to invest in weapons instead of investing
in health and therefore the quarantine would not be a remedy but would only be
covering up the responsibility of political leaders in having a health system
that overflows and causes thousands of deaths at the mere appearance of a minor
disease such as the Coronavirus;
That humanity is suffering
from a serious Global Panic Attack, and more than ever needing
Spiritual Health or Cure (Nirvana) from the psychological suffering produced by
living a life infected by the diseases of greed, hatred and deceit that make
humanity to have an obsession with rumors, superficiality and the ill of social
networks, spreading the virus of ignorance, fear and separateness among the
people;
That in accordance with the
foregoing, the Argentine government has carried out a Coup d'état, since the
executive power has taken over the State and the legislative and judicial
systems have ceased to function, even de
facto suspending civil rights, which is totally unconstitutional and also
contrary to international human rights treaties and conventions;
That the Argentine
government has allowed the local administrations of hundreds of cities and
provinces to irrationally, unconstitutionally and illegally block the limits of
the territories and accesses to the streets or routes to prevent access by
other argentine citizens, and has even allowed these rulers to illegally force
people to stay in their homes, which means that they have illegally decreed a covered-up
state of siege in their cities, violating human rights established in
the Argentine National Constitution
by restricting them with no legal grounds, since the governors and mayors do
not be legally empowered to close roads or establish borders, and they would be
disobeying the Argentine National
Constitution where it is stated that the citizens of each province enjoy
all the rights and privileges of citizenship in the others, being the same Constitution that also establishes that
all citizens enjoy the right to move freely throughout the national territory,
not being able to carry out restrictions without legal basis or discriminatory
norms that impede circulation;
That the Argentine National Constitution allows
restricting free movement only when the President requests the Congress to
declare a State of siege, which has not happened so far, thus
demonstrating the illegality and unconstitutionality of the actions of the
Argentine government of Alberto Fernández in the face of the Coronavirus
pandemic, which in no way merits to destroy constitutional protections and
human rights;
That a large number of
municipalities have declared their own curfews with restrictions on
movement and absolute prohibitions on leaving their homes after a certain hour,
taking illegal measures with complete independence from the executive,
legislative and judicial powers at the national level, and dictating measures
that usually impede circulation from the afternoon, which not only is an
illegal measure that does not arise from any rule, but even ignores that the town
mayors do not have any power to ignore constitutional guarantees and to dictate
sanitary measures that are incumbent of the national government;
That a large amount of
provincial governments in Argentina made illegal decisions and prohibited
access to their territories, even blocking their accesses and leaving a great
number of people trapped between provincial limits, as is the case of a group
of climbers who, although they passed medical check-ups, they were stranded
without any food and proper hygiene on an inter-provincial route after these
unconstitutional restrictions were decided, and they could not access the
province of Catamarca or the province of La Rioja, reason why, by not allowing
them to continue or to return, and not being allowed to set up the tents to
protect themselves from the pandemic of the dengue mosquito, the provincial
rulers not only committed an abuse of power but also an abandonment
of person and inhuman treatment that violates
basic living conditions, being part of a systematic plan that is a crime
against humanity;
That dozens of Argentine
citizens got also trapped on a bridge between the Argentina and Brazil border
in Puerto Iguazú, unable to enter either country despite being citizens, which
constitutes one of the most incomprehensible and inhumane decisions of the
history of the country, leaving these people in a state of illegal and
infrahuman imprisonment without food or hygiene;
That, in agreement with
former Argentine Ambassador Jorge Asís, who has defined the current Argentine
government as a Police State even though it appears to have a good cause, since the Argentine
government has decided to maintain strict control over all of society by
suppressing the fundamental rights and civil liberties, deploying all the
security forces for such purposes instead of using them to combat drug
trafficking and organized crime, which implies that the Argentine government
contradicts the Argentine National
Constitution and the Human Rights Conventions, forming an Anti-democratic
and anti-republican Police State;
That the group of medical
experts who advise the Argentine government to continue the illegal quarantine
are part of a systematic and generalized plan of human rights violations, since
the rights to work have been violated by not allowing the population to go
outside to earn their food, the right to freedom of movement has been violated
by requiring government permits for those who want to leave their homes, the
right to education has been violated by suspending school and university
classes, the right to freedom of worship has been violated by not allowing churches
to function, the right to assembly has been violated for not allowing friends
to gather in their homes, the right to health has been violated by generating
thousands of deaths as a result of canceling consultations and medical
procedures related to cardiovascular diseases that are the first cause of death
in the world, the right to well-being has been violated for not allowing
psychology to function, the right to defense has been violated for not allowing
lawyers to operate, and the right to development has been violated for not
allowing the operation of hundreds of thousands of companies, 80% of which are
on the verge of bankruptcy since they cannot pay the salaries of their
employees, all of which is a set of incoherent and absurd measures in a country
where before the Coronavirus there was already 40% poverty and which is now
facing a possible social outbreak caused by the ignorance and ineffectiveness
of the corrupt political caste;
That the Argentine
government during the Quarantine has carried out a generalized and systematic plan
of arbitrary
arrests by the brutal state repressive forces, which is a crime
against humanity, reaching the scandalous number of more than 3 million
people arrested or charged for the sole reason of exercising their
constitutional rights and freedom of movement, but not for the reason of
spreading an epidemic, which would imply that in Argentina there are more quarantine violators than Coronavirus sufferers
worldwide;
That the arrest of people
in the context of the Coronavirus pandemic would only be a legal arrest when it
is judicially proven not only that the person is infected but also that the
individual has intentionally decided to spread the virus to other people;
That the Argentine
government has illegally suspended the constitutional rights of citizens in a
totally irrational way to create a Police State that fights against a
virus with a real mortality rate very similar to the common flu, but that at
the moment of fighting the true scourges that torment the population -such as
drug trafficking and crime- the police system not only does not work but is even
an accomplice of the criminals, while corrupt politicians get richer every day
and people get poorer every day;
That the Argentine
government pretends and overacts an alleged concern for the health of the
people, using the Coronavirus excuse to establish an unconstitutional regime,
which is demonstrable by the position that it has maintained for decades in all
matters that seriously threaten health, as is the case of smoking that causes
the death of more than 120 Argentine citizens per day, which is a higher number
than the current number of deaths from Coronavirus in the country, and yet the
Argentine government never ratified the Convention
of the WHO for tobacco control nor even promoted effective measures against
this global ill;
That the illegal regime in
Argentina led by Alberto Fernández and Cristina Kirchner has arrested or
penalized millions of innocent civilians, while at the same time in a
completely irrational way has released genocidaires and even thousands of
prisoners without electronic anklet bands, under the excuse that they can get
Coronavirus in prison;
That the Argentine police
have illegally detained defenseless civilians, including women and children,
who have later been murdered and covered up the murder with impunity, as is the
case of Florencia Morales who was arrested for riding a bicycle and a few hours
later appeared hanged in the cell of a police station in the San Luis region,
making people to believe that she had committed suicide with her shoelaces,
and, moreover, just a few days later in the same region of Argentina a minor
was arrested and a few hours later he appeared hanged with his own shirt at the
police station;
That the Argentine police
have illegally and violently detained innocent civilians for the mere fact of
walking on the street, as was the case with citizen Laura Turzanski, who
despite quoting constitutional articles that allowed her to walk freely and pleading
that a presidential order is not above the Argentine
National Constitution, however she was violently detained and the police
also told her that there is no
Constitution because "we are in a pandemic";
That Article 14 of the Argentine National Constitution gives
all its citizens rights to work, to trade, to enter the territory, to transit,
to association, to worship and to learning, all of which have been violated by
the de facto government of Alberto
Fernández;
That Article 18 of the Argentine National Constitution states
that no Argentine citizen may be punished without prior trial or arrest warrant
issued by the competent authority, which is an inviolable constitutional right;
That the International Buddhist Ethics Committee
agrees with Javier Cremades, President of the World Jurist Association, who has stated that the quarantine
implies a loss of the sacred freedom of
the human being, being almost a house
arrest without the determination of a judge, and therefore the Coronavirus
pandemic cannot be an alibi for the governmental Power to prevail over the
rights of citizens, since health protection must be carried out with measures
in accordance with the Constitution and never by violating it, for public
action must always respect the dignity of people;
That quarantines are
unconstitutional and inefficient mechanisms to protect people's health, since
they generate economic crises and the loss of millions of jobs, with which
millions of people enter poverty and misery, having worse food and worse
integral health, such as the increase in deaths from cardiovascular diseases,
malnutrition and homicides, making it an act of ignorance or absolute
irrationality the fact that President Fernández declares that he prioritizes
health over the economy when actually both elements are interdependent;
That carrying out a quarantine
for the entire population -in a country that already has 40% poverty-
constitutes practically an economic disaster and a kind of death sentence, which is why many specialists have affirmed that it
would be wiser that only mass entertainment shows are closed and that adults
over 65 be at home, while they constitute 93% of those dead by Coronavirus,
which would allow a large part of the population to return to work and to
education, since their lives are not in danger, in addition that this would not
cause the health system to overflow;
That carrying out a
quarantine only for the population over 65 years of age should not be mandatory
but an optional quarantine, in which
the State would provide resources and protection to those who wish to seclude
themselves in their homes, otherwise a discriminatory and segregative system
that it is unconstitutional would be created, in addition to the fact that a large
number of elderly people would rather prefer to risk becoming infected and
dying than living inhumanly and sedentary in home prison;
That the governments of the
world are taking advantage of the Coronavirus crisis to establish an
authoritarian regime of illegal surveillance that violates the right to
privacy, beginning to destroy the republican principles and respect for
fundamental rights and individual liberties, because the ones who have to
decide how to live in the face of the pandemic are the people themselves and
not the politicians;
That the Argentine
political regime is returning to the worst of the past, which was precisely
when the military dictatorships suspended constitutional rights and established
an Authoritarian
Police State of crimes against humanity;
Therefore, it is hereby DECREED:
ARTICLE 1.- A new extension of the Judgment
against the Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights must be approved in order to rectify its behavior and
ethically sanction it to fulfill its functions, by declaring it an Accomplice
in Crimes against Humanity and High Crimes against Intrinsic Fundamental
Freedoms.
ARTICLE 2.- The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights must be reproved for
failing to investigate or to promote the trial against the human rights
violations involved in the Quarantine system, especially the Argentine Case and its systematic
and widespread arbitrary arrests that violate the Argentine National Constitution and the American Convention of Human Rights.
ARTICLE 3.- The Vatican State and Pope
Francis I must be ordered to stop imaginatively accusing those countries
that do not promote quarantines for supposedly performing a “viral genocide”, which is a position
that only contributes to the true pandemic of fear and ignorance, pressing
governments to take unconstitutional measures like those that occurred in
Argentina.
ARTICLE 4.- The International Criminal Court (ICC) should be invited to investigate
and prosecute crimes against humanity committed with impunity by the
Argentine government of Presidents Cristina Kirchner, Mauricio Macri and
Alberto Fernández.
ARTICLE 5.- It must be confirmed the fact that
those Latin American countries that have supported criminal quarantines have
copied the authoritarian and undemocratic system of government in China that
has historically violated the human rights of its entire population.
ARTICLE 6.- Ethical and solidarity support to citizens
around the world who seek to free themselves from illegal and dictatorial
quarantines must be communicated, inciting them to raise the flag of Liberty,
Equality and Fraternity to infringe unconstitutional, excessive, unjust and
unworthy laws that violate their human rights and intrinsic freedoms, which
means a peaceful and democratic call to Planetary Civil Disobedience.
ARTICLE 7.- It must be recalled the fact that
Liberty is not only a constitutional right but is also the dharmic or spiritual nature of the human being, being his or her
existential Purpose that can never be abolished or suspended by any government.
Always with spirit of reconciliation (maitri),
H.E. Master Maitreya Samyaksambuddha
President and Judge of the International Buddhist Ethics Committee
