Wednesday, February 23, 2022 | 23:27
The Human Rights organization, HRW, criticized on Wednesday the proposal to ban denialism, approved in the Constitutional Convention’s Fundamental Rights Commission, but which still needs to be ratified in the body’s plenary session.
Director for America Human Rights Watch (HRW)Tamara Taraciuk, asked the Constitutional Convention on Wednesday to reject an article that prohibits denying human rights violations and that is currently being debated.
“The approved language is vague and ambiguous, and does not respect international standards on freedom of expression”Taraciuk noted on his Twitter account.
Chile, he added, “has a legitimate interest in guaranteeing that society is aware of the abuses committed in the country and in ensuring that the victims are respected, however, prohibiting by law the denial of these crimes is not the way to achieve those objectives. ”.
This week, the Constitutional Convention’s Fundamental Rights Commission approved by 18 votes in favor and 15 against a rule that seeks to prohibit “the denial or justification of serious, massive and systematic violations of human rights.”
This article is still pending discussion in the plenary session of the body.
“Denialism must be fought with arguments. The plenary session should not open the door to allow the criminalization of these expressions”, concluded.
However, prohibiting by law “the denial or justification of serious, massive and systematic violations of human rights” is not the way to achieve these objectives.
– Tamara Taraciuk (@TamaraTaraciuk) February 23, 2022
A bill similar to the one that only gave him a green light in the Senate was vetoed by the Constitutional Court (TC) in 2020.
It is worth mentioning that on this occasion, the proposal was presented by the conventional Dayyana González (Constituent People), which was endorsed by a narrow margin of 18 votes in favor and 15 against in the Fundamental Rights Commission, says that “the denial or justification of serious, massive and systematic violations of human rights will be prohibited by law.”
In addition to HRW, the United Nations also criticized the proposal, as in the case of Felipe González, special rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants of the UN, asserted that “the proposal that the Constitution of Chile sanction denialism does not correspond to international standards” .
Proposal for the Constitution of Chile to sanction denialism does not correspond to international standards. The UN Human Rights Committee -the body in charge of the authentic interpretation of the I’ntl Covenant on Civil and Political Rights- has pointed out that “the laws that penalize the expression of
— Felipe González Morales (@UNSR_Migration) February 23, 2022