Derechos Humanos / Human Rights

Dos destacados latinoamericanos, José Manuel Vivanco, Director para las Américas de Human Rights Watch, y Andrés Oppenheimer, columnista del Miami Herald, salieron en apoyo de la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH) de la OEA, en dos contundentes artículos (DD.HH., Insulza, Brasil y Alba; y La ofensiva contra los derechos humanos).

La Comisión ha desempeñado un rol importante en la defensa de los derechos humanos y las libertades públicas en la región y ha logrado importantes avances, entre otros, la despenalización de calumnias e injurias y la derogación del desacato, la anulación de leyes de amnistía, el acceso a información de interés público y la derogación de normas discriminatorias.

Realmente es sorprende que el secretario general de la OEA, José Miguel Insulza, no haya hecho una defensa similar y que por el contrario haya apoyado reformar el estatuto de la Comisión en áreas clave para la protección de los derechos humanos como son las intervenciones urgentes de la Comisión, la tramitación de casos y los informes de países.

La Comisión ha tocado los intereses de gobiernos hipersensibles a la crítica (Bolivia, Ecuador y Venezuela) que tienen propensiones y récords autocráticos, que se consideran con el peso para no tener que rendir cuentas de sus políticas o prácticas a un órgano regional y que pretenden limitar las atribuciones de la Comisión.  Como señala Vivanco no es sorprende que los gobiernos del Alba estén complacidos en participar en un proceso de reforma de la Comisión y su Relatoría aunque sí sorprende que Brasil apoye esta estrategia porque la Comisión tuvo la insolencia de solicitarle información sobre  el impacto de un proyecto hidroeléctrico para comunidades indígenas.

May 31 (DP.net).─ Wèi Jīngshēng, 62, celebrated his birthday on May 20, the day Cubans celebrate their independence from Spain. He was born in 1950, the year Mao Tse Tung took control of continental China, forced the Kuomintang government to exile in Taiwan, and invaded Tibet. He was 8 year old child when the Castro brothers took power in January 1959. He is one among the "children of Revolution" born in Asia or America during turbulent times in the XX century.

Wei Jingsheng is a well known Chinese human rights activist deeply involved in the Chinese democracy movement. He was arrested and convicted of "counterrevolutionary" activities, and was imprisoned in China from 1979 to 1993. Released briefly in 1993, Wei continued his dissident activities by talking to visiting journalists, and was imprisoned again from 1994 to 1997. He spent a total of 18 years in different prisons before being forcefully exiled on "medical parole"  to the United States on November 16, 1997.

Wei Jingsheng first crime was to write and to attempt to make public in 1978 an essay titled "The Fifth Modernization" and his subsequent reflections after his first period of imprisonment titled "Courage to Stand Alone - letters from Prison and other Writings".  He received international recognition in the November 1999 National Geographic issue regarding "the power of writing", because one of the major alleged crimes for his conviction were his writings arguing for democracy. The well known magazine underlined how he "would spend 18 years in jail and become a prominent symbol of the power of the written word". It went to suggest that "Chinese authorities feared Wei, recognizing that writing has an almost magical power: Words on paper, created by ordinary citizens, have overthrown governments and changed the course of history".

This fear of the written word is still present in China and in many other authoritarian and totalitarian governments all over the World.  Blogers in Cuba trying to exercise their freedom of speech using their very limited access to the Internet are banned to travel abroad to receive international recognition and awards or for any other reason whatosoever.  Such is the case of Yoani Sanchez, whose blog is banned to most Cubans with access to the Internet, has been repeatedly banned to travel abroad and is constantly harassed and reviled for the crime of attempting free expression.