Miami (March 1, 2001) - An international delegation of the Inter American Press Association will participate Friday in a hearing in Washington, of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (ICHR) with the Government of Guatemala.
Miami (March 1, 2001) - An international delegation of the Inter American Press Association will participate Friday in a hearing in Washington, of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (ICHR) with the Government of Guatemala.
The IAPA will meet with the Coordinating Presidential Committee on the Policy of the Executive in the Matter of Human Rights of the Government of Guatemala (COPREDEH), at the request of the ICHR, in order to achieve an "amicable solution" in the case of the crime against journalist Irma Flaquer, who disappeared over 20 years ago. Flaquer was kidnapped on October 16, 1980. The IAPA started to investigate this case in 1995, with the launching of its project Unpunished Crimes Against Journalists, as part of its battle against the advances of impunity.
During the hearing, the IAPA and the Guatemalan Government will try to agree upon an agenda of activities for dignifying the victim and creating new mechanisms that would aid in seeking final justice. After the IAPA investigation, the Government of Guatemala, by a decree of President Alfonso Portillo, accepted the institutional responsibility of the State in various cases in which fundamental guarantees were violated, including those of Flaquer.
In the afternoon, the IAPA will adhere to the Inter-American Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression, a public ceremony at which the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Cesar Gaviria; the President of the IAPA, Danilo Arbilla; the Permanent Representative of Chile to the OAS, and President of the Permanent Council, Esteban Tomic Errazuriz; the President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (ICHR), Claudio Grossman, and the Executive Secretary of the ICHR, Jorge E. Taiana, will speak among others.
The IAPA will also have a special meeting with the Special Rapporteur for the Freedom of Expression, Santiago Canton, who will be asked to take action on concrete cases which are limiting freedom of the press in the Western Hemisphere for example, the new project for Compulsory Membership in Nicaragua and the ruling of the Supreme Court of Costa Rica against journalist Mauricio Herrera and the newspaper La Nacion.
On Thursday evening, the Dean of the School of Law at the American University, Claudio Grossman, will offer a reception to the members of the IAPA delegation, headed by Arbilla, and including Rafael Molina, chairman of the Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Ahora, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; Horacio Aguirre, former president of the IAPA, Diario Las Americas, Miami, Florida; Diana Daniels, chairman of the Executive Committee of the IAPA, The Washington Post Company, Washington, D.C.; Andres Garcia Gamboa, IAPA 2nd vice president, Novedades de Quintana Roo, Cancun, Mexico; Juan Ealy Ortiz, regional vice chairman for Mexico of the Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, El Universal, Mexico City, Mexico; Alejandro Miro Quesada C., chairman of the Chapultepec Committee, El Comercio, Lima, Peru; Jayme Sirotsky, chairman of the Inter American Committee, RBS, Porto Alegre, Brazil; Roberto Rock, El Universal, Mexico City; Julio E. Muñoz, executive director of the IAPA, and Ricardo Trotti, Press Freedom Coordinator.
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