The Effectiveness of International Human Rights Pressures: The Case of Argentina, 1976-1983

This Essay focuses on human rights abuses perpetrated by the Argentine government from 1976 to 1983, and international efforts to halt those abuses. The Essay principally compares the effectiveness of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States with the impact of several United Nations bodies in regard to human rights in Argentina. There are at least two reasons for selecting the case of Argentina to assess the effectiveness of human rights pressure. First, an indispensable historical record exists on events in Argentina during the relevant period. The Argentine government made considerable efforts at least for the first several years after 1983 to investigate what happened. The trials of some of the leaders who were responsible for the abuses adduced much evidence, and many of the victims wrote accounts of their experiences. Furthermore, extensive scholarly literature documents the period, although this Essay is the first to correlate human rights efforts with results. Second, relatively reliable statistics exist about disappearances, the most prevalent form of human rights abuse. Such statistics permit an analyst to track the prevalence of abuses against the human rights measures.

This Essay first reviews the human rights situation in Ar gentina. Part II then identifies early indications of the crisis that prompted international measures. Part III describes the responses of various organizations to the situation in Argentina. This section notes the efforts of Argentine organizations to respond to the disappearances and other violations; it also relates the activities of international nongovernmental organizations in alerting the world community to the Argentine crisis. Part III further describes the factfinding and reporting process of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and assesses the United Nations response. Finally, the Essay compares the effectiveness of these various international measures toward the prevention of human rights abuses and suggests which measures apparently led to the cessation of disappearances in Argentina.