As of December 2009, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) monitors the current trials of former military officials in Argentinean federal courts. The defendants are charged with severe human rights violations committed from 1976 to 1983 under the military dictatorship.
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UPDATES: Trial Monitoring
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ECCHR General Secretary Wolfgang Kaleck, spokesperson and lawyer for the 1998 founded German "Coalition Against Impunity: Truth and Justice for the German disappeared in Argentina", is travelling with Berlin filmmaker Alexandra Weltz (Parkafilm) to Buenos Aires to report back in a Video Blog.

Interview with Nobel Peace Laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, the founding member of the Coalition against Impunity that was founded in 1998 in Germany, has the head of the Service for Peace and Justice (SERPAJ) since 1974. SERPAJ is an ecumenical activist organization based in Latin America that supports the non-violent promotion and defense of human rights.
In 1977 during the military dictatorship Señor Pérez Esquivel was arrested in Buenos Aires, incarcerated for 14 months and tortured. He is one of the few survivors of the death flights of the military regime. In 1980 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and has since been one of the most important international human rights activists.
In the interview, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel talks about concrete strategies for human rights work, points out the co-responsibility of transnational companies for the atrocities during the dictatorship, and emphasizes the right to truth, justice and remembrance.

Here you find the most recent video blog. Others are here.

On December 15th, the Nuremberg district court issued another arrest warrant for Jorge Rafael Videla, the former head of the Argentinean military junta that governed the country from 1976 until 1983, on the suspicion of having been involved in the murder of the German citizen Rolf Stawowiok. In January 2010 the Nuremberg-Fürth state prosecutors' office suspended the proceedings because of the suspect's absence.

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The Council of the European Union decided not to appeal against the European Court's decision of the 30th of September, 2009. Mr. Sison, politician and publicist living in exile in Holland and represented among others by ECCHR's general secretary Wolfgang Kaleck, has been put on the EU "terrorist list" in 2002, leading to the freezing of his assets. After seven years of legal battles, the European Court decided that the decision to put Mr. Sison on the list was unlawful and that his name has to be removed. Mr. Sison, however, has not received any compensation so far. Moreover, he remains listed in the US.

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ECCHR supports victims of political violence under the Argentinean military dictatorship that have pressed criminal charges in Argentina. On 12 November 2009 ECCHR Berlin filed a legal opinion as an amicus curiae (friend of the court) with an Argentinian court of the province San Martín.
In this legal opinion ECCHR points out that the Argentinean government is obliged to investigate the responsibility of corporate actors in connection with the human rights violations of the military dictatorship. It furthermore demonstrates that since the progeny trials of the Nuremberg War Crime Trials investigating the role of economic actors is part of dealing with state crime.

The one-day conference organized by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) at Free University Brussels on 20 October 2009 attracted great interest. Lawyers of affected individuals and groups shared their practical experiences on listing procedures. One key conclusion was that the executive power excludes the judicial one in its listing acts, and in this way often disrespects fundamental procedural safeguards and rule of law standards.

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You can support ECCHR by visiting our events, informing others about our projects, discussing issues with us and - of course - by donating to our work. More information you find here.

On June 25th, 2009, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights submitted a formal communication to the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Prof. Manfred Nowak. In the communication, ECCHR accuses Austria of violating its duties under the Convention Against Torture by failing to investigate and act on accusations of torture leveled against President Kadyrov of the Russian Republic of Chechnya, when he visited Austria in June of 2008.

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