"We don't understand what happened. Two days ago they appointed an auditor and called us to work together and now this announcement is made...
INADI cannot be closed
."
The speaker is Jorge Knoblovits, president of the Delegation of Israelite Associations of Argentina (DAIA).
"INADI is a very important instrument for Argentina,
it was created exactly one year after the attack on our AMIA building.
So we needed the State to get together with civil society to fight against discrimination, because we are a minority in the country," Knoblovits tells
Clarín
.
The leader of the DAIA highlights "the good coexistence that the different communities have in Argentina. Ours is a very hierarchical country in terms of coexistence and human rights. While in other countries it is difficult to exercise some worship, here it is possible."
"The DAIA trains the INADI.
In any case, what should be done is to prioritize the instrument
. I don't know why the president did it, we would have to ask him," asks Knoblovits.
And he says that from the Social Studies area of the DAIA they were working with the new auditor to reconfigure the institute.
"Discrimination in Argentina is a problem suffered by various groups. That is why the DAIA, together with other organizations, promoted the creation of INADI almost three decades ago," says an official statement from the DAIA
. "the protection of the right to equality and peaceful coexistence
in our society, which is an example worldwide."
Manuel Adorni announced the closure of INADI this Thursday.
Photo: AFP
On Tuesday, the appointment of
María de los Angeles Quiroga to head the INADI intervention,
which would last 180 days, was published in the Official Gazette.
But this Thursday the Government announced that it will permanently close INADI.
"They are useless," said presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni in his press conference.
"We are taking the first steps to
advance in the dismantling of different institutes that are useless
or are large boxes of politics. We are starting with the first: the INADI. We are beginning with its definitive closure. Of course, it takes a while. There is bureaucratic issues," the official explained.
Other rejections of the closure of INADI
"Argentina was the first country in the world to have an organization that handles complaints of discrimination. For example, in 2022 it handled more than 12,000 queries and 2,558 complaints,"
Mariela Belski, executive director of Amnesty International Argentina, explains to
Clarín .
"It is the duty of the State
to guarantee that all people can live free of violence, discrimination and fear.
We reaffirm the need for public policies that promote a diverse and egalitarian society and the duty of the State to promote them," he adds.
And he concludes: "
INADI cannot be dissolved by the unilateral will of the Executive Branch
since it was created by Congress for the protection and defense of all people who suffer discrimination."
Leandro Cahn, president of the Huéspez Foundation: "We need to sustain spaces for the promotion and protection of rights."
Photo: Silvana Boemo
From the Huésped Foundation, its executive director, Leandro Cahn, maintains: "
In times where violent messages against different groups
in relation to gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, nationality, and religion, among others, are increasing, we need sustain spaces for the promotion and protection of rights".
.
For its part, the
Pride and Struggle Front, which brings together dozens of LGBTINB+ organizations from across the country
, released a statement to "repudiate the recent announcement by the National Government to close the National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (INADI). ) and calls on society as a whole to
defend the continuity of the anti-discrimination body
and the National Congress to stop this measure contrary to the constitution."
.
"As part of a social sector violated by discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity, we repudiate the announcement by the government of President Javier Milei and we declare ourselves on alert for the undermining of the right to equality and non-discrimination. which implies the dissolution of INADI", the text continues.
"The INADI
is the space to which people from the LGBTI+ community turn
in the face of the multiple situations of discrimination that persist in our country, whether in work, education, other institutions or on public roads - he continues -. These tools
empower people to freely live their sexuality and gender identity,
categories protected by the American Convention on Human Rights according to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR)."
For Alejandro Mamani, a lawyer specializing in Human Rights and Migration and member of Identidad Marrón, "
it is worrying and complex that they close the INADI.
We have a law to talk about discriminatory issues and it is in that line that the INADI was created, a decentralized entity of the National State. There are similar bodies in different countries.
It is a useful body that has intervened in countless situations and laws,
its usefulness is evident. It can be criticized for different issues but the solution is not closure."
P.S.