This Friday the adoption of the report containing the recommendations made by the states to Argentina within the framework of its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) took place at the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
But the Government decided to postpone its responses to the sensitive questions until the middle of the year.
There, the Secretary of Human Rights of the Nation, Horacio Pietragalla, presented a controversial report in which he questioned the judiciary in the framework of the Government's attack against the Supreme Court of Justice and the political trial that it wants to open to its members. .
The government also victimized Vice President Cristina Kirchner, pointing out that she was a victim of "lawfare" - an alleged political persecution disguised as legal proceedings - and criticized the media and the business sector.
But as Clarín learned, formally, Argentina received a total of
287 recommendations on Friday from 104 States.
Many are critical.
Instead, the government decided to postpone its responses.
The presentation by Pietragalla, who has already returned to the country, was unusual and controversial because States do not usually attack their democratic institutions.
In fact, Together for Change reported this Thursday that they had sent a letter to the United Nations High Commissioner to repudiate Pietragalla's presentation.
The letter speaks of the "unusual criticism" made by the ultra-Kirchner official.
And he warns that his report and his statements "have the purpose of seeking impunity for the multimillion-dollar corruption crimes of the Kirchner government, which was corroborated by the courts not only with the conviction of the current vice president Cristina Kirchner for acts of corruption, but also of several senior officials of your government who are still in prison with firm sentences".
The Argentine delegation that participated in the adoption of the aforementioned report was made up of Ambassador Federico Villegas Beltrán, Permanent Representative of Argentina in Geneva, and Andrea Pochak, number two of the Human Rights Secretariat.
The Argentine delegation announced that it took note of the recommendations
and that it would answer whether or not it accepted them no later than the 53rd session of the Human Rights Council, which will take place in June 2023.
This position drew attention because it is common practice for delegations to announce, at the time the report with the recommendations is adopted, at least some of them, while the decision on others is postponed for a few months.
In this sense, the Argentine procedure was similar to the one adopted by Venezuela in 2022.
Perhaps this decision had to do with the fact that some delegations such as Germany, Chile and Sweden urged Argentina to guarantee the full independence of the Judiciary
and the Public Ministry for the exercise of their functions, or the fact that Israel has urged to adopt new measures to investigate and bring to justice those responsible for the attack on AMIA.
The German recommendation was the strongest, calling not only to strengthen the independence of the judiciary, but also to protect judges and investigators from "pressure and intimidation."
The German recommendation came only days after the visit that Foreign Minister (Prime Minister) Olaf Scholz will make to Argentina.
The head of government will be this Saturday with President Alberto Fernandez, who took the lead in the political trial of the Court.
Another interesting fact was that the troika of states responsible for reviewing the aforementioned report was made up of Bolivia, Gabon and China, who praised the work carried out by the Argentine delegation participating in the UPR.
