State actions after State crimes: the monitoring role of the public prosecutors in the transitional justice process in Argentina

• In Event: Accountability Advocates: The Long and Winding Road to Justice in Latin America

Abstract

Argentina has a remarkable experience in the field of transitional justice (TJ). It has implemented the full menu of mechanisms in its efforts to address human rights violations (HRV) committed during the last period of military rule (1976–83): a truth commission, restitution of rights, economic reparations, criminal and ‘truth’ trials, and lustration. The study and practice of TJ has developed a great amount of knowledge on these mechanisms and has focused on recommendations, which usually aim to the creation of new, or the optimization of existing State institutions in order to carry on the accountability process.
However, few studies analyse what happens when those State actors are actually carrying on the TJ measures: How do these institutions work on a daily basis? What challenges do they face? Do they have enough funding and/or other resources? Do they cooperate with other State actors, NGOs and/or international actors? Does their work catalyse or delay the TJ process?
This paper analyses the work of the Procuraduría de Crímenes contra la Humanidad (PCCH), a specialized unit under the Attorney General’s Office in Argentina, which is in charge of coordinating the strategic work of the prosecutors on the HRV trials in the country. It will consider this office as one the key actors in the TJ process and will focus on its mandate of producing statistical data to monitor the trials. More specifically, it will discuss the recent elaboration of a database to measure the access to justice for the victims of human rights violations.

Author

• Lorena Balardini, Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA)