TRANSITION TO DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS
LESSON 20
THE CASE OF CHILE
PROFESSOR TOMÁS VIAL
In this lesson, about transitional justice in Chile, we will address various aspects
related to this concept: the demand for truth, the necessity of social acknowledgement
of human rights violations and the preservation of memory in their regard, the
demand for justice and, finally, the issues still s
pending in Chile.
THE DEMAND FOR TRUTH
In the Chilean transition process, three main commissions have existed: the National
Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, known as the Rettig Commission; the National Commission
on Political Imprisonment and Torture, the Valech I and II Commissions; and the Program for identifying
and repairing victims of political dismissal, that is, the persons who were dismissed from their employments
in the Administration of the State for political reasons.
Truth Commissions are part of the policies for the transition towards democracy
and the clarification and determination of the truth about serious human rights violations.
They are transitory State bodies, with ethical or historical functions, not a jurisdictional function.
THE NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION
The Rettig Commission was created by the recently elected President in April of 1990,
and functioned until February of 1991.
The political context which surrounded the creation of the Rettig Commission was complex,
of great polarization and denial in regards to what occurred during the dictatorship; of laws and political constraints
which impeded the effective investigation of facts, like, for example, the validity
and application of the Chilean Amnesty Law, which obstructed their investigation and punishment
on the part of the Judicial Branch.
Also, although former dictator Augusto Pinochet had left the government, he maintained his position as
Commander in Chief of the Chilean Army.
The Commission started to function on April 25th, 1990, with 8 members appointed
by President Aylwin, 4 persons who had supported the dictatorship, but not its human rights
violations, and 4 others who did not.
The Commission was presided over by Raúl Rettig, former Senator of the Chilean Radical Party, from whom it takes its name.
Its objective was to clarify the truth about those human rights violations
resulting in death committed between September 11th, 1973, and
March 11th, 1990.
The Commission proposed different reparation and prevention measures.
During 9 months, the Commission revised more than 3.550 individual cases, testimonies,
both from Chile and from abroad, and analyzed thousands of documents and archives from the State
and from organizations for the defense of human rights, standing out from among them
the Vicariate of Solidarity.
This commission established, in a nominative way, 2.279 cases of enforced disappearances and/or
political executions.
It did not investigate the cases of persons who were victims of torture, because they were not comprised
within their mandate, although it did refer to torture as a systematic practice.
The final report was delivered on February 8th, 1991, to President Aylwin,
who made it public on March 4th, 1991. Assuming the continuity of the State,
he asked for forgiveness in name of the Chilean State to all the victims and their relatives.
The Commission recommended the creation of a Corporation for Reparation and Reconciliation,
which was subsequently created and, after 5 years of work, added 899 new cases.
Regarding the report, Professor José Zalaquett has deemed it as a "healthy catharsis
for the country" and as "the cornerstone of a transitional policy which sought
the moral reconstruction of our society".
In this sense, it acted as an icebreaker, which charges into the frozen sea and opens its way
ahead.
The Commission's findings, also, served as the foundation for the reparations bestowed by law
upon the relatives of acknowledged victims of political executions and enforced disappearances.
Also, the documents and findings of the Rettig Commission gave way to the necessary
investigations which were later conducted by the Judicial Branch.
THE NATIONAL COMMISSION ON POLITICAL IMPRISONMENT AND TORTURE
During the government of President Ricardo Lagos, the necessity to clarify the truth reemerged,
not only in regards to the crimes which resulted in the death or disappearance
of victims, but also the cases of political imprisonment and torture,
which had not been included in the mandate of the Rettig Commission.
In this government, the "No hay mañana sin ayer" proposal was made, in August of 2003.
As a consequence of said proposal, the government created in 2003 the National Commission
on Political Imprisonment and Torture, with the mission of determining which persons were
victims of privation of liberty and torture for political reasons at the hand of State
agents between September 11th, 1973, and March 10th, 1990, to subsequently propose
a reparation policy, with the commitment of elaborating a list of names of
persons qualified under such categories.
This Commission was presided over by Monsignor Sergio Valech, former Vicar of Solidarity,
hence the name "Comisión Valech", and was composed of seven persons
different from the members of the Rettig Commission, of politically plural composition.
The Valech I Commission determined, in a nominative manner in its report of 2004, that nearly 28.000 cases of political
imprisonment took place.
Regarding torture, the report concluded it was a generalized practice,
The report addresses the context in which the detentions and tortures took place, examining
the different periods of repression, identifying the torture methods used,
establishing which places operated as detention centers and analyzing the consequences such torments had
not only on the persons who were effectively detained, but also on their families.
The Valech Commission, in a similar manner to the Rettig Commission, served as an antecedent
so that legislation could establish reparations for the victims qualified as such.
THE VALECH II COMMISSION
Due to the fact that, after the Valech I Commission, new cases were presented which did not manage
to be qualified out of a lack of information, the necessity to create a second commission became clear.
Thus, the Valech II Commission was created in 2010 by the government of President Michelle Bachelet,
and had as its objective the qualification of persons who suffered privation
of liberty and/or torture for political reasons, cases of enforced disappearance or political execution,
kidnappings or attempts against life which fall under State responsibility, in a
sort of extension of the previous Commission's term for receiving applications of persons
who were victims of human rights violations.
The Commission established 30 new cases of enforced disappearance occurred during the
military dictatorship, and 9.795 new cases of survivors of political imprisonment and/or torture,
increasing official figures to a total of 3.216 cases of persons who disappeared or
were murdered, and 38.254 persons who survived political imprisonment and/or torture.
VICTIMS OF POLITICAL DISMISSAL
Unlike the previous commissions, the system for qualifying victims of political
dismissal went seriously off course, with thousands of cases wrongly qualified as political dismissal.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
In spite of initial resistances, the Rettig report was acknowledged by Chilean society
as a whole, excepting the high military command.
In the year 2000, the so called "Mesa de Diálogo", established the year before and with the double
objective of achieving the acknowledgement of the Armed Forces and of establishing the detailed
truth about the fate and whereabouts of those disappeared, concluded with an acknowledgement
from military institutions, until then non–existent, that there were violations of human rights
in times of the dictatorship.
However, unfortunately, the "Mesa de Diálogo" did not achieve its other objective, which is still pending.
THE PRESERVATION OF MEMORY
In this regard, a multitude of monuments, museums and other sites of remembrance have been established,
among which stands out the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, inaugurated in 2010,
and the Peace for Peace Park at Villa Grimaldi, created in the site of the former general headquarters
of the DINA.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Since 1998, the Chilean Supreme Court no longer applies the Amnesty Law of 1978,
preferring the application of International Law.
Human rights cases are processed under the old, inquisitive criminal procedure system
(Chile established an adversarial system, with the corresponding Prosecutor's Office, in 2004).
Currently, there are 1.328 cases on crimes against human rights, submitted to 15 specially appointed judges
from Courts of Appeals.
The immense majority of those cases are for enforced disappearances and executions, remaining
only a small number of ongoing investigations for torture.
The convictions surpass 300 in number.
RECONCILIATION
The concept of reconciliation has various meanings.
For some, reconciliation assumes that we were once "conciliated".
For others, the word has religious connotations.
In any case, in Chile, the possibility of recurrence of a military dictatorship in the country
seems remote: political adversaries nowadays treat themselves as such and not as human
beings who have no rights.
PENDING ISSUES
In spite of advances in matters of truth, justice and reparation, there are still important
demands from a human rights perspective in relation to the serious violations
occurred during the dictatorial period.
Even now, establishing the fate and whereabouts of approximately 900 disappeared persons is still
pending.
The standard must be to do all that is humanly possible to achieve this.
It is also necessary that the State judicially investigate and punish those responsible
for systematic torture during the dictatorship.
Thank you for watching this lesson.
Please visit moocchile.com, and you are invited to watch our next lesson.
For more infomation >> Вязание крючком. ПЛАТЬЕ. РАЗБОР УЗОРА+СХЕМА+ОПИСАНИЕ - Duration: 33:59. 
For more infomation >> GRINGS - Média - Exercícios de Concursos - ( Aula 5) - Duration: 10:39. 
For more infomation >> Casper SG - Geri Sayım (Official Lyrics Video) - Duration: 2:45. 
For more infomation >> The Big Country Tiny House | Lovely Tiny House - Duration: 4:27. 
For more infomation >> MEDICINE - QUEEN NAIJA (OFFICIAL VIDEO) REACTION - Duration: 7:30. 
For more infomation >> আপনি কেন অসফল তার কারন || how to achieve success in bangla || success motivational video in bangla - Duration: 3:24. 
For more infomation >> News Conference: Loyola Chicago & Michigan - Postgame - Duration: 54:22. 
For more infomation >> Diamond & Silk on the debate over the 2020 census - Duration: 4:23. 
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét