Protest letter to Argentine government on decision to deny accreditation to WTO Ministerial
Eng.
Mauricio Macri
President
of the Nation
We received
today, with extreme concern, information from the offices of the World Trade
Organization in Geneva, advising that the Argentine government has decided to deny
the accreditation for the upcoming WTO Ministerial Conference, to be held in
Buenos Aires, of a substantial number of local and international civil society
delegates, who had been accredited by the WTO in an opportune manner. This same
information strongly suggests to these delegates that they not travel to Buenos
Aires, as it is likely they would be denied entry into the country.
We
have also learned with extreme concern, of the decisions by your government to
deny visas to people duly accredited by the WTO, and in other cases, to be
delaying or unnecessarily complicating the processing of the same, either to
participate in the Ministerial Conference or in related activities.
We
reject these unilateral and authoritarian measures that violate fundamental
rights of the individuals and organizations involved, curtailing democratic
participation in an arena in which matters of global concern that affect all of
society are to be discussed. They only serve to show the world that your
government has nothing but contempt for the rule of law, human rights and
democratic coexistence. According to the information received, your government
has alleged motives of “security”, without further explanation, in what can
clearly be interpreted as an attempt to prevent the participation of voices
that are critical of the policies that your government and others seek to
advance in the context of this Ministerial.
Matters which themselves have been negotiated totally in secret, such as
the possible signing of a poorly-named “free trade” agreement between the
European Union and Mercosur, or the surrendering of sovereignty and control
over areas of strategic importance such as government purchasing, agroecology,
finances, and the electronic commercialization of personal data.
These
decisions, furthermore, are unheard of.
In more than 20 years of WTO existence, no host government has ever taken
decisions of this nature and breadth. Many of the organizations and delegates
whose accreditation is now being denied have participated actively in
Ministerial Conferences and other institutional arenas of the WTO since its
very creation. They have also participated in parallel spaces of discussion and
mobilization, in different countries the world over, such as in this occasion,
the Week of Action WTO Out! and the Peoples´ Summit Building Sovereignty. Among
them, we could mention the International Confederation of Trade Unions (ICTU),
UNI, the Via Campesina, Friends of the Earth International, the Transnational
Institute, and the Global Justice Network.
The
attitude of your government contravenes regular diplomatic practice for the
international conferences of multilateral organisms. In offering to host the MC11, the government of
Argentina has agreed to allow the participation of the full complement of
participants registered by the international organization in the meeting –
including country delegates, media, non-governmental organizations, and others.
It is inadmissible that the Argentine Government now assumes the power to
decide who can or cannot participate in the WTO meeting, ignoring the decades
of precedents and the official mechanism established by the WTO and agreed by
Argentina as the host country for this purpose.
We
point out, furthermore, that this curtailing of the presence and participation
of civil society calls into serious doubt the capacity of the Argentine
Republic to take on, in addition, the G20 presidency, in particular when the
whole world is aware of the context of social conflict and repression that the
policies of your government are generating.
In addition to the actions informed by the WTO and social organizations
from around the world, there is the assassination of Rafael Nahuel just days
ago, the disappearance followed by death of Santiago Maldonado, the persecution
of indigenous communities and the militarization of the territories where the
upcoming activities of both the G20 and the WTO will take place. Caravans of
National Guard troops have been mobilized over recent days toward the Andean
district and oppressive measures of exclusion and control are announced for the
time of the Ministerial in Buenos Aires.
We
call on your government to reverse these measures immediately and to comply
with its human rights obligations as well as those of citizen participation, converting
to reality the transparency it proclaims. We ask the Director General of the
World Trade Organization to cancel the Ministerial Conference, and move it to
another country, if this extremely serious and problematic situation is not
promptly resolved.
-Buenos Aires, November 30, 2017
(signed)
Adolfo Pérez
Esquivel Nora Cortiñas Mirta Baravalle Beverly Keene Coord. Ncl.
Nobel Peace Laureate Mothers of May Square-F.L. Coordinator SERPAJ
cc. Ambassador Jorge Marcelo
Faurie, Minister of Foreign Relations and Worship
cc. Mrs. Patricia Bullrich, Minister of
Security
cc. Ambassador Susana Malcorra, President
of the WTO Ministerial Conference 11
cc. Ambassador Roberto Azevêdo, Director
General of the WTO