Buenos Aires, Argentina – Argentina has renounced its candidacy for the United Nations Human Rights Council for the first time since the organization’s creation. Argentina held the presidency of the Council in 2022, the year before President Javier Milei came to power, and was one of its founding members in 2006 when it replaced the Commission on Human Rights.
The Argentine president, who has previously accused the UN of imposing a “woke agenda” on its members, was criticized by the Council earlier this year for “an organized and deliberate effort to harass and punish judges in retaliation for their judicial work.” Earlier this month, the Council also requested information from the government with regards to their upholding of the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful demonstration, recent attacks on journalists, and other areas of concern.
Whilst no official announcement has been made, government sources confirmed the decision to newspaper La Nación following various NGOs expressing their concern on the matter. Amnesty International said on X that “the renouncement of the role sends a worrying message about its [the government’s] willingness to follow a commitment to the rights of Argentinians.”
This recent development comes as part of an ongoing retreat on human and democratic rights under Milei.
Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli, the Director for the Andes at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), told Argentina Reports that this has been a “radical shift from its post-1985 position, where it held a leadership role” and was “considered a standard setter on human rights issues in the Americas.”
In 1985, Argentina successfully convicted five of the leaders of its last military dictatorship (1976-1983) for crimes that included forced disappearance and torture. The number of victims disappeared is usually estimated at close to 30,000, although Milei and his allies have repeatedly undermined this figure in their attempts to rewrite the historical narrative and justify the dictatorship’s brutal repression.
Sánchez-Garzoli emphasized that the historical narrative “is key to guaranteeing non-repetition of State violence and crimes.”
The Milei administration itself has been criticized for its use of force in order to suppress protests and opposition voices. In June 2024, CELS (Centre of Legal and Social Studies) condemned “the lack of inhibition of this government […] in using police, criminal, and penitentiary force” following a protest in Buenos Aires that saw 33 “arbitrary” arrests. All charges were subsequently dropped.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights stated that it was “particularly concerned about the stigmatizing and criminalizing comments made against demonstrators by high officials, who generally described protesters as ‘terrorists.’”
In March of this year, a demonstration was dispersed in an especially violent manner, in accordance with controversial laws imposed by the Milei government that classify any protest that blocks a road as illegal and allow the police to carry firearms at demonstrations.
The heavy-handed response of the security forces saw more than 20 hospitalizations and 114 arrests, with those detained being subsequently released by the courts due to a lack of information provided by the police. One of those hospitalized was photojournalist Pablo Grillo, who was hit in the head with a tear gas canister and left fighting for his life with a fractured skull and loss of brain tissue. The canister was fired from a gun that the police was previously not allowed to carry at protests.
WOLA stated after the demonstration that “the repression of social protest and the criminalization of protesters have been consolidated as a tool of the Argentine government to intimidate and silence dissident voices.”
The targeting of media workers has been a common theme in what Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has labeled a “deeply alarming sign of democratic backsliding” and a “pattern of violence against journalists.” Argentina has fallen 61 places in RSF’s World Press Freedom Index in the two years since Milei took power, from 26th to 87th.
In his efforts to silence the press, President Milei has also made extensive use of the judiciary. Similarly to his close ally, U.S. President Donald Trump, Milei has repeatedly threatened and sued those who criticize him.
Just two weeks ago, amid the recent corruption scandal, the government obtained a legal measure that banned the publication of new incriminating audio recordings and ordered the searching of two journalists’ homes and work places after their role in breaking the news. The International Federation of Journalists denounced the actions as an “open act of censorship and a violation of the freedom of the press.”
Alarmingly, the Secretariat of Intelligence approved a secret plan in May to allow internal espionage on those who “erode” public confidence in the government and “manipulate” public opinion during electoral processes.
La Nación has criticized the vague language of the document, and suggested that it could be used to justify gathering information on journalists and analysts who question the government’s repression of protests or even its economic policies.
The plan’s inclusion of the spreading of “misinformation” as a cause for espionage was questioned by the conservative newspaper, which noted the Milei administration’s tendency to accuse its critics of disseminating fake news. This raises the possibility that the policy could serve as a tool to intimidate and suppress opposition.
The Milei government has also overseen a broader retreat from Argentina’s previously progressive stances on the global stage. In November 2024, Argentina was the only country that voted against UN measures to advance women’s and indigenous rights. Earlier this year, it withdrew from the World Health Organization.
Sánchez-Garzoli criticizes actions such as these for sending “the message globally that the country does not care about human rights” as well as “mirror[ing] the actions the Milei government has taken to dismantle human rights protections for women and girls, LGBTQ+ persons, and ethnic minorities in the country.”
She also warns that a poor showing in the upcoming October midterm elections could result in “a Milei who becomes even more aggressive towards political activism and protests.”
At the moment, a positive result for the president seems increasingly unlikely. Earlier this month, Milei’s La Libertad Avanza party lost the local elections in Buenos Aires Province — home to over a third of Argentina’s population — by a margin of 13.5%.
Read more: Javier Milei’s political party suffers first major electoral defeat in Argentina
Recent polling following the emergence of the corruption scandal shows that confidence in the government has waned.
Moreover, Milei currently faces significant unrest over his vetoes of bills that would have updated hospital, university, and welfare spending in the context of a monthly inflation rate of 1.9%.
Featured image:
Credit: Diputados Argentina via X