Declaration of the American Association of Jurists on the
Politically Based Persecution in
WHEREAS:
1. Anti-terrorist
laws in several countries have produced worsening repression against movements
dedicated to the protection of human rights.
2. Under the
pretext of combating terrorism, atrocities have been committed throughout
history, from the Condor Plan in
3. Fear is used in
order to persecute, discriminate, imprison and torture, based on race and
religion, as with the Japanese interned in camps in the United States during
the Second World War, and today, with Arabs and Muslims in areas of conflict
and on military bases.
4. The struggle of
peoples for self-determination and national sovereignty is the fundamental
reason for the attacks, repression, and
accusations of terrorism, and criminalization of those who defend the preservation
and protection of natural, economic, historical and cultural resources.
5. The Mapuche and
other Peoples and ethnic groups, those of Western Sahara, Molucas, Palestine
and Puerto Rico, and other parts of the world, have suffered not only the lack
of sovereignty, but their sustainability, to which they have a right and a
power to live with dignity, has been impeded.
6. Political
assassinations have been perpetrated by the military, militia and paramilitary
groups, with governmental endorsement or their indifference and impunity
through all of the Americas and the Caribbean.
7. The political
assassinations of those who struggle for the independence of Puerto Rico, such
as Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, Santiago Mari Pesquera and Angel Cristobal Ruiz, remain
unprosecuted.
8. The repression and persecution of various
groups advocating for the independence of Puerto Rico is currently escalating
by the conduct of the government of the United States and its institutions such
as the FBI, the federal court and the Grand Jury, against people of Puerto
Rican descent and against those born on the Island and in New York, who
struggle for the independence of Puerto Rico.
9. The Grand Jury,
an inquisitorial institution used by the U.S. Department of Justice, provides
no minimum guarantees to those subpoenaed—there is no right to be represented
by an attorney— and refusing to testify can result in imprisonment.
10. Historically,
members of the Puerto Rican independence movement have been sent to prison for
refusing to collaborate with this instrument of repression, intimidation and
persecution used by the U.S. government against the struggle for the ideal of
Puerto Rican independence.
THEREFORE, the
American Association of Jurists, jointly with the AAJ Puerto Rico Chapter,
resolve that:
1. Political
discrimination and persecution based on race, color, language, among other
rights, is prohibited by the Charter of the U.N., the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(ICCPR), the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination, and the Charter of the Organization of American States (OAS).
2. Every
individual has the right to life, liberty, security and dignity (UDHR, Charter
of OAS, and the Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man).
3. Every human
being has the right not to be arbitrarily detained, imprisoned, tortured or
treated in a cruel, inhuman or degrading way (UDHR, Convention Against Torture
and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment).
4. Every person
has the right to freedom of expression and opinion, to receive and disseminate
information, irrespective of borders, and to peacefully meet and associate
(UDHR), to exchange of ideas characteristic of a democratic society.
5. A People’s
right to self-determination is a fundamental right guaranteed by several
international instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Conventions107 and 109
of the International Labor Organization (ILO), in various resolutions of the
United Nations, such as the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to
Colonial Countries and Peoples (Resolution 1514 (XV) of 1960), the Declaration
of the U.N. on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of 2007, and the African
Charter.
6. All Peoples
have, in addition, the right to freely determine their social and cultural
development, including the right to have their resources protected
(International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; ICESCR), with
cultural diversity forming an inseparable part of human dignity (Universal
Declaration on Cultural Diversity of UNESCO), and the right not to be
discriminated against or persecuted as a result.
7. These rights
have been adopted and included in all the constitutions and laws of the world;
they have been ratified by all nations, in international and regional accords,
and have applied since time immemorial.
8. All nations
have the obligation, as members of international organisms, to comply with and
enforce human rights, as required by Articles 55 and 56 of the Charter of the
United Nations of all Member Nations.
January 14, 2008
Vanessa Ramos
President of the
Continental AAJ
Beinusz Szmukler
President of the
AAJ Consulting Counsel
Dinorah La Luz
President of the AAJ Puerto Rico Chapter
Board of the AAJ
Puerto Rico Chapter