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ARGENTINA

second report dated 8 June 1994

Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes has called it an Argentine-Paradox: how could so rich a nation with a huge middle class and the most homogeneous, best-fed, best-dressed and best-educated people in Latin American have proven so incapable for so long of creating a successful nation? Early in this century Argentina was counted among the ten richest nations in the world. Then began decades of military coups and economic decline. Hyperinflation had impoverished twenty percent of the population by 1989 when Carlos Saúl Menem assumed the presidential office. Immediately Menem instituted an emergency austerity programme. Argentina's "economic miracle," led by former Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo,1 reduced inflation from 4,900 percent in 1989 to just 1.6 percent in 1995.2 Yet, the result of Cavallo's economic austerity programme has been high unemployment -- the highest rate in Latin America. And poverty has increased more in Argentina than anywhere else in the region since the end of 1994.3

Unemployment and Labour Protests

According to a recent report, high economic growth did not improve income distribution in Argentina. For example, between 1992 and 1994, the country's 7.7 increase in GDP went to the richest ten percent of the society.4 As a result, many within Argentina who initially backed Menem's austerity package have lost faith in his policies.5 Economists estimate that 700,000 jobs have been lost since Menem came to power, mainly as a result of privatisations.6 At the same time, the government instituted tax increases and cut social spending. Menem has angered many of the unions, such as the Confederación General del Trabajo, the main union federation, with decrees attacking labour. These actions have in turn triggered widespread protests, including general strikes in August and September 1996, and a 5-minute "black-out," with twenty-two percent of homes turning off their lights and people entering the streets beating pots and pans to protest government economic policy.7 The two general strikes brought the country to a near standstill, with eighty to ninety percent of workers staying home. The September strike was the largest union-backed demonstration in the past twenty years in Argentina.8

The anger that gave rise to these protests came in reaction to labour reforms which the government has ordered, or in some cases threatened to order, such as: reducing union control of health benefits; deregulating hiring and firing; reducing severance pay; making it easier for companies to lay off workers; increasing the work shift from eight to 12 hours; and limiting the scope of collective-bargaining. One former union leader stated that "[t]he only thing the workers have left is the constitutional right to strike, but if the government maintains its present posture, soon we probably won't even have that."9

The legislative process does not safeguard workers from government's proposed changes, since many of them have been instituted through an executive decree. Argentina emerged only a decade ago from a brutally repressive dictatorship in which over 30,000 people disappeared, and President Menem's inclination for ruling by decree has not been reassuring. In September 1996, Menem threatened that if Congress did not act quickly to pass his health care proposal, he would have "little choice" but to enact the law by decree.10 Menem did exactly that on 7 October 1996, privatising Argentina's health care.11 Menem has found support for such measures from the IMF and foreign investors, who find them vital to the success of economic reforms, including the resolution of Argentina's debt crisis.

Menem has followed his advisors and appears undaunted by the public outcry against him. He has accused leftist groups of inciting the protests. "They can have one or a thousand strikes, but this economic model is not revocable and it is not up for negotiation," Menem said following the second general strike in 1996. "We are going to demonstrate that the one who gives the orders and governs is the one who was elected by the people."12 Nonetheless, the President's popularity has plummeted to less than twenty percent from eighty percent only two years ago.13 A Gallup poll in August 1996 indicated that eighty percent of the people do not believe Menem is capable of solving their country's problems.14

Corruption

One of the problems Argentines worry about is corruption, which permeates all spheres of society and all levels of government. In April 1997, several judges in the Buenos Aires province launched a massive investigation of ten thousand public officers, including mayors, city council members, and police officers and their families suspected of corrupt practices.15 The legal system is considered one of the main offenders. The Argentine Catholic Church recently attacked the courts, alleging corruption and lack of independence, and warned that the situation posed a serious threat to social cohesion.16

Police Brutality

Police violence has been widely-discussed in Argentina. For many years, the police have been accused of involvement in criminal acts ranging from drug trafficking to prostitution. Several officers were also indicted for involvement in the 1994 bomb attack on the Jewish community centre which killed eighty-six people. Police have also been criticised for a heavy-handed approach to the riots which swept through several Argentine provinces in May 1997. As a result of police repression, at least a hundred people were wounded.17 In April of the same year, police killed an innocent passer-by, Teresa Rodríguez, during an educators' strike in the small southern locality of Cutral-Có. The killing began a wave of protests across the country against police brutality.

Police corruption and violence were manifest in the January 1997 murder of las Noticias reporter, José Luis Cabezas. Cabezas was investigating the crime wave run by corrupt officers of the Buenos Aires police department. Although the investigation continues, several officers have been implicated in the killing.18

In February 1996, reports across Argentina condemned police for their violent repression of a student protest in the city of La Plata, where students were demonstrating against a controversial new education law. Police used rubber bullets and tear gas, and indiscriminately beat students and passers-by, in an attempt to disband the demonstrators. Among those who found herself a target of this excessive force was Hebe Bonafini, the leader of Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo, who was beaten on the head and body by police officers. "If they could have, I believe they would have killed me," Bonafini told reporters after the beating.19 The dean of La Plata University, Luis Lima, commented that the violence brought back "memories of a past we do not want to return to."20 According to a study conducted by the Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS), a research institution based in Buenos Aires, there were a total of 165 civilian deaths at the hands of police officers in 1995.21

According to CELS, the main factors in police violence are their lack of training and inadequate selection procedures for personnel. Inadequate training especially hurts women victims of violence, when they encounter officers who are not properly prepared to deal with gender-based violence against women. Perhaps most worrisome, police violence is perpetuated by a government that does not effectively prosecute those who use excessive force. Groups such as CELS, who have exposed these abuses and demanded a response by authorities, have consistently seen exoneration in the form of early retirement or department shifts, rather than prosecution.22 In April 1997, however, the Buenos Aires governor, Eduardo Duhalde, in the first major police clean-up, has fired police officers suspected of serious abuses. Duhalde acknowledged that citizen's distrust of police has increased to the point that "when people see a squad car at night, rather than feeling protected, they feel fear."

Attacks Against Journalists

Attacks against journalists have been a disturbing indication of the human rights situation in Argentina. In addition to the murder of photojournalist José Luis Cabezas in January 1997, in February a radio and television journalist Santo Biasatti and his family received repeated anonymous death threats. There have been many attacks in the past few years. In November 1993, Mario Bonino, who had worked for the Buenos Aires Press Workers' Union, was found dead. Amnesty International and other human rights organisations documented over 120 cases of physical attacks, threats and harassment involving journalists between 1992 and 1993.23 The Argentine police have been implicated in at least some of these acts.

MEASURES TO ELIMINATE DISCRIMINATION AND BASIC RIGHTS AND FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS - Convention Articles 2 and 3

Jails

More than one NGO feels that the conditions in women's jails warrant mention in this report. The lack of official data on detainees and their alleged crimes does not encourage accountability from prison administrators. Prisoners sometimes remain in jail for long periods of time before their case goes to trial. Jails are inadequate, without sufficient light, space, sanitation or privacy. The prisons are filled to a level that is forty percent above capacity. Detention centres for women contain punishment rooms where conditions are reported to be unacceptable for living beings. Such cubicles have thick doors, no ventilation, light or sanitation. People in charge of jails are often untrained and retain a repressive mentality, the legacy of years of dictatorship.

Incarcerated women, especially those who serve time with their infant children, live in extremely harsh conditions. The conditions are so extreme that there have been riots in some women's prisons.24 During one of the most serious waves of prisoner protests in March/April 1996, when thousands of inmates in five prisons in the Buenos Aires province led a series of revolts and hunger strikes, the inmates at women's prison Ezeiza, joined in the protest, took hostages and put forward their own demands for the improvement of their situation. In the same wave of protests, fifty women inmates staged a solidarity hunger strike in a prison in the city of La Plata.

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN - Convention Articles 3, 5, 6, 12, 15 and 16

Domestic Violence

According to IWRAW's sources, sexual and family violence is part of the more generalised and prevailing violence within Argentine society which has been discussed in the introduction. In a study conducted between 1988 and 1995 by Lugar de Mujer, a large women's NGO based in Buenos Aires, eighty-five percent of reported cases of violence against women were perpetrated by the victim's husband or partner.25 In response to pervasive violence within the family unit, the Argentine legislature passed the Family Violence Law in December 1994,26 criminalizing physical or emotional abuse against spouses, children or live-in companions. Those found guilty face a maximum sentence of one month to one year of prison, or exclusion from the victim's home, workplace or school for a precautionary forty-eight hours.27 Additionally, dependants of a convicted abuser are eligible for financial support and counselling.28

However, IWRAW's sources are concerned that the Family Violence Law has not accomplished its purpose. An Argentine lawyer who has represented victims of domestic abuse is quoted as saying that generally the perpetrator's only punishment is exclusion from the home, and that domestic abuse is only considered a delito leve, or "light crime," which does not involve jail time.29 Thus, judges treat domestic abuse under the Family Violence Law as a civil, rather than a criminal, offence. Women's organisations point out that even the lightest penalty, exclusion of the perpetrator from the home, is often bypassed by judges who believe that the integrity of the family unit, as well as its economic survival, supersedes the safety of the victim.30

In addition, given the prevalence of police violence, women, who must turn to police officers for protection, sometimes find themselves with no help, or even worse, in a more precarious position than they were in the first place. The U.S. State Department reports that the Argentine police customarily do not follow up with an investigation of such abuses. The overall insensitivity of the police toward victims of domestic violence perpetuates the problem by discouraging women from reporting violence.31

Moreover, women may be deeply discouraged by fears of violence from the police themselves. For instance, three policemen from the Entre Rios province in eastern Argentina were arrested for abducting and raping a twenty-three year old woman in 1995.32

Rape and Sexual Abuse

Although statistics reporting sexual abuse in Argentina are among the lowest in the world, with 0.1 cases per 100,000 people,33 recent news reports have unveiled a grave problem of sexual abuse against girls and women in the rural zones. IWRAW received correspondence from a women's group in the rural province of Neuquén claiming that rural girls and women are persistently victimised, and particularly vulnerable, due to their relative economic and political powerlessness. The group states that gender discrimination creates a dangerous environment, because girls and women lack access to the justice system, and their fathers and brothers perpetuate abuse through their silent complicity.34

An example of pervasive sexual abuse in the rural regions was reported in April 1996 in the newspaper, Rio Negro, which circulates in the Rio Negro and Neuquén provinces. The article reported an accusation against the administrator of the boarding school in Rio Negro, Julio Vignau, for sexually abusing and raping female boarders over the past fifteen years.35 The newspaper reported that the silence was finally broken when some of the same women who were once victims of Vignau-- now mothers themselves-- refused to send their children to the boarding school. Reportedly, the abuse was tolerated by the community, including doctors, nurses and social workers, who accepted that women who became pregnant as a result of rape was nothing out of the ordinary.36

PROSTITUTION AND TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN - Convention Article 6

Sex Tourism

In March 1997, Buenos Aires hosted the International Conference Concerning Crime Against Children. Participants warned of increased sexual abuse against minors, especially female, in Latin America because of increased poverty and, at the same time, lack of specific government policies against such abuses. Although the Argentine delegate, Adrian Pelacchi, claimed that no extended networks of child prostitution existed in his country, other delegates warned that sex tourism had become a reality in parts of Argentina. Another Argentine delegate reported that sex tourism existed in the border area between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.37

POLITICAL AND PUBLIC LIFE - Convention Articles 7 and 8

Ley de Cupo

The Ley de Cupo (Quota Law) came into effect in 1993. This law obliges the political parties and electoral alliances to include thirty percent of women in their list of candidates to national and provincial legislatures, as well as to town councils and other elected bodies. As a result, seventy of the 257 legislators (27 percent) elected in 1996 were women, compared with only fourteen (5 percent) in 1991.38 According to a recent article, at a time of growing disenchantment with discredited and corrupt male politicians, political parties are starting to put forward female candidates. For instance, the centre-left Frepaso party has announced that Graciela Fernández Meijide will lead its electoral ticket in the October 1997 legislative elections. Two other parties, the Partido Justicialista (PJ) and the opposition Unión Cívica Radical were also considering nominating female candidates.39 In May 1997, Hilda "Chiche" Duhalde was nominated as the candidate of the PJ Frente Partidario del Trabajo y la Producción.40

In general terms, however, the three years in which the Quota Law has been in effect have not directly translated into more support for women's issues. Some women's NGOs have complained that women in Congress have failed to speak up in support of legalising abortion and for reproductive rights, such as access to safe and effective contraceptives.41 One explanation given for this lack of support is that many of the women in Argentine politics have gained their positions through being the wives, sisters, daughters or lovers of male political leaders, thus serving as puppets for men's agendas.42

Furthermore, some smaller parties are ignoring the Ley de Cupo, and most parties overlook women when it comes to executive posts. Investigations by political researchers indicate that only 12.8 percent, rather than the requisite thirty percent, of the party candidate listings have thus far been led by women.43 Women who do find themselves included in the party candidate listings are usually running for low-ranking posts. They barely made up 1.7 percent of candidates running for regional governor, and only 12.8 percent of vice governor candidates in the most recent elections. Several women's NGOs assert that it has been very difficult to get parties to relinquish their traditionally male candidates for women candidates as the office for which the candidate is running increases in power and prestige.

EDUCATION - Convention Article 10

The former Co-ordinator of the National Programme for Women's Equal Opportunity in Education, part of the Ministry of Education, related her concerns about discrimination in education to IWRAW. During her tenure, the Co-ordinator says that she initiated several reforms, including a gender-inclusive curriculum reform, as well as introductory gender training for educators.

This source says that her initiatives met with great resistance from the Catholic Church, due to her strong stand on gender issues and reproductive rights. Among other things, the Church accused the Programme of destroying the family by including issues such as homosexual rights. Under much pressure from the Catholic Church, the Menem Administration eliminated the National Programme for Women's Equal Opportunity in Education a month before the Beijing Conference on Women, in June 1995. Not only was the department eliminated, but the government revoked significant advances which had been made by overturning laws requiring gender equity in education. According to the former Co-ordinator, the Government agreed to eliminate this programme if the Catholic Church lightened its criticism of the negative effects of the Government's economic reforms on the poor.44

EMPLOYMENT - Convention Article 11

Despite the fact that women are disproportionately affected by the lack of jobs in Argentina, the government has placed partial blame for high unemployment on women. Former Minister Cavallo publicly blamed women's "hurling" themselves into the work force for the high unemployment rate, as well as for an increase in child delinquency.45 This same Minister also told a female member of the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) to "go wash the dishes." 46

Gender Discrimination

Women receive significantly lower wages than their male counterparts for the same work. According to the UNDP Human Development Report released in August 1995, female salaries are worth only 64.5 percent of male earnings in Argentina-- one of the lowest proportions in Latin America.47 According to one expert, those who suffer the highest level of wage discrimination are the most highly educated women. Among professional scientists, for example, the average income for a female is forty-three percent lower than the average income for a male; among skilled technicians, women's salaries are forty-seven percent lower than men's.48

Gender bias in employment was studied by the Gender, Science and Technology Network, an organisation created by Argentine women to study gender discrimination in their fields and attempt to remedy it. The organisation discovered that, although women generally finish their courses earlier and receive higher grades than their male peers, they have a more difficult time finding a job in their field. The Network discovered that within Argentina's most important research organisation, CONICET, men move up the ladder much faster than women, occupying ninety-five percent of the top managerial positions.49

The 1994 Argentine government report gives an elaborate account of programmes it has developed with the assistance of the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank aimed at the incorporation of women into the labour force. According to a representative of Fundación Para Estudio E Investigación de la Mujer (FEIM), however, the bulk of these programmes do not promote women's employment in non-traditional and better paid occupations and will not result in an improvement of women's income levels. Sources also draw attention to the worsening work conditions for women, including longer working hours and a simultaneous loss of social benefits. FEIM reports that in some cases employers have refused to hire young women unless they guarantee that they will not have children. For instance, some employers request a certificate of sterilisation or evidence of the use of contraceptives.50

Informal Sector

According the government's report, women constitute sixty percent of workers in the informal sector, including occupations such as domestic workers or waitresses. IWRAW received information in 1996 about the working conditions of domestic workers from a network of domestic workers in a small city. They state that the greatest obstacle to improving their working conditions is the long-standing tradition of paying domestic workers en negro, or, without receipts. The representatives of this network claim that the Ministry of Labour is not concerned with them and does not enforce the requirement that employers provide receipts.

The members of the syndicate are asking for government protection from exploitative employers and from placement agencies that appropriate half their salaries. According to a women's NGO in Mar del Plata, the recently passed Ley de Empleo, enacted to help protect workers from exploitation, does not afford any protection for domestic workers, but rather marginalises them even more by excluding them from the law.51

HEALTH CARE AND FAMILY PLANNING - Convention Article 12

Access to Health Care and Family Planning Services

According to FEIM, the Argentine government has not complied with its obligations under CEDAW in the area of reproductive rights. In a report sent to IWRAW, FEIM criticised the lack of reproductive health services in public hospitals, and the absence of both school and community programmes dealing with sexuality and reproductive issues, as well as the deterioration of gynaecological and obstetric care at hospitals. FEIM alleges that the recent 300-million dollar World Bank loan for health care reform is a "lost opportunity" for women, since the planned reforms do not address primary problems related to women's reproductive health.52

In order to meet the IMF requirements for the second half of 1996, the government ordered budget cuts, including social benefits and health care.53 In the rural areas, this has meant an abrupt shortage of contraceptives in the health centres. Most poor and rural women have now lost their only access to IUDs and birth control pills.54 Several women's NGOs have complained to IWRAW about the lack of a comprehensive state policy in the area of family planning, which has contributed to continued high abortion and maternal death rates in Argentina.

Since 1987, there has been a huge increase in HIV/AIDS incidence among women, as much as three hundred percent.55 According to a recent press article, the government has failed to provide necessary medication for these patients and, more importantly, has done little to promote prevention.56

Elderly women will also be forced to bear the brunt of the health care cutbacks. In July, Health Secretary Julio Calcagno reported that the government plans to cut as much as twenty-five percent of the budget for PAMI, the state health agency for the elderly.57 Several NGOs articulated fears that these cuts will devastate an already wounded health care system, especially impacting poor women. Access to health care in general has been increasingly difficult in the past few years because of the diminishing state budget for health. Former Argentine Minister of Health and inspector for the Pan-American Health Organisation, Aldo Neri, admitted in an interview that Argentina's health care system is "in critical condition."58

The middle and upper classes obtain health and family planning services through private doctors and clinics, while poor and rural women are dependent upon state clinics which do not always provide even the most basic services. Based on NGO information, there is no strong national policy regarding family planning, which means that local officials, who are heavily influenced by the Catholic Church, determine it for themselves. For example, in the rural provinces of Chaco and Cordoba, in the central interior and north-eastern parts of Argentina, provincial laws which mandated family planning services in public hospitals were vetoed by their local governors.59 Additionally, reports suggest that it is not unusual for families of hospital patients to have to care for their sick, buy medication and other supplies out of their own pocket, and pay high prices for services which are supposed to be free-of-charge.60

Maternal Mortality

Maternal morality rates are high in Argentina-- 65.5 deaths per 100,000 pregnancies.61 Rates in northern Argentina are considerably higher, however, ranging from 102 deaths per 100,000 pregnancies in the Jujuy Province, to 128 in the Formosa Province.62 Abortion is the leading cause of maternal death, constituting between thirty and fifty percent of maternal deaths, depending on region and social class.

Sources say that the Responsible Procreation Law has been stalled in Congress under the influence of the Catholic Church.63 This bill, originally entitled the Ley de Salud Reproductiva, or Reproductive Health Law,64 would require that all public hospitals and centres for primary health carry all reversible contraceptive methods and information regarding them.65 The women's movement backed the bill from the start, but met great resistance. The Minister of Justice testified before the Chamber of Deputies that the Executive Branch refused to support the bill. Opponents defended their position by claiming that the IUD has abortion inducing properties, and that its use goes against the "prevailing system of values."66

IWRAW's sources have protested the prohibitive effect of the government's anti-abortion stance on any plans to remedy this grave health problem for women. However, abortion remains illegal in Argentina, despite the success of women's NGOs in excluding an explicit constitutional prohibition of abortions in 1994.67 There are more than 365,000 clandestine abortions in Argentina each year, from which 100,000 women die yearly.68 Recent statistics on abortion-related mortality revealed an even graver reality. According to the study reported in a periodical la Nación last year, 38.5 percent of maternal deaths occur as a result of abortions. According to Dr.Carlos Gurrucharri, president of the Argentine Gynaecological Society, the majority of women who come to the hospital with abortion-related problems are adolescents as young as 14 years old. He blamed the lowering of age of pregnant women on the difficult socio-economic situation and a resulting "lack of adequate primary education." Meanwhile, abortion has become a good business in Argentina, where it is estimated to earn 150 million dollars per year (the price varies from 300 to 1000 dollars per abortion).69

MARRIAGE AND FAMILY LAW - Convention Article 16

Child Support Payments

One NGO believed that the difficulty women encounter obtaining child support warrants mention in this report. Despite legislation obliging fathers to support their children, there are no penalties nor sufficient legal resources to ensure that this obligation is met.70

It is estimated that seventy percent of fathers are not paying child support in Argentina. The only recourse for women is to file a civil action to claim payment, yet they are discouraged from doing so by the legal fees, the case overload and the inefficiency of the judicial system.71 Another roadblock for women, even after judgement in their favour, is enforcing the judgement. In some cases, if the father has a job, the judge orders a one time deduction from his salary, which legally fulfils the judgement. If the father is unemployed or has moved to another province, payment by these men is considered legally "unrecoverable" due to the lack of resources to enforce payment. Thus, with the current rate of unemployment in Argentina, many women find themselves without any support from former spouses or partners to care for their children.72

 


 

Endnotes:

1 Cavallo was fired by President Menem on 26 July 1996 and replaced by Chicago-educated Roque Fernandez. back

2 "Argentina: Social Problems Increase as Economic Recovery Lags," NotiSur-Latin American Political Affairs, 14 June 1996. back

3 Eleonora Gosman, "Argentina: la Desocupación Más Alta de América Latina-Informe de la CEPAL," Clarín Digital (Buenos Aires), 8 April 1997. back

4 Ibid. back

5 Marcela Valente, "Argentina-Labor: Hyperunemployment," Inter Press Service, 8 October 1996. back

6 Ibid. back

7 "Argentina Opposition Holds Power Blackout: Strong Support," Dow Jones Telerate Energy Service, 13 September 1996. back

8 "Argentina: Strike Demonstrates Massive Opposition to Government's Economic Policies," NotiSur-Latin American Political Affairs, 4 October 1996. back

9 Ibid. back

10 "Argentina's Menem Seeking to Weaken Labor Unions," Capital Markets Report, 26 September 1996. back

11 Michelle Wallin, "Argentina's Menem Announces Health-Care Reform," Emerging Market Reports, 8 October 1996. back

12 "Argentina: Strike Demonstrates Massive Opposition to Government's Economic Policies." back

13 Carlos Gervasoni, telephone interview with IWRAW, 2 May 1997. back

14 "Argentina: Strike Demonstrates Massive Opposition to Government's Economic Policies." back

15 "Investigados por Corrupción en Argentina 3,000 Funcionarios y Otros 7,000 Familiares Suyos," El País International Digital, 22 April 1997. back

16 "Argentine Church Attacks Country's Legal System," Reuters, 26 April 1997. back

17 Stephen Brown, "Argentina Police and Jobless Clash Again in Jujuy," Reuter, 23 May 1997. back

18 Stephen Brown, "Informer Blames Ex-Cop for Argentine Newsman Murder," Reuters, 11 April 1997. back

19 Calvin Sims, "Argentine Activist Hurting Her Cause," New York Times, 10 March 1996. back

20 "Argentina: Police Response Chills Nation," Latinamerica Press, 29 February 1996. back

21 La Violencia Political en Capital Federal y Gran Buenos Aires - Argentina (Buenos Aires: Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales, 1995). back

22 Ibid. back

23 "Argentina: Alarm at Renewed Wave of Attacks Against Journalists," Amnesty International News Release, 18 February 1997. back

24 Gloria Barberis, Centro de Apoyo a la Mujer Maltrada (CAMM), Mar del Plata, letter to IWRAW, 7 June 1996. back

25 Lucrecia Oller, Para Que Ningun Ser Humano Sea Golpeado (Buenos Aires: Lugar de Mujer, 1995), 52. back

26 Ibid., 35. back

27 Ibid., 85-88. back

28 "Beaten, But Not Down," Latinamerica Press, 22 June 1996. back

29 Ana Maria Amado, "Menos Impunidad para la Violencia," Mujer/Fempress, May 1996. back

30 Oller, 38. back

31 U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Argentina Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1995 (Washington, D.C.:U.S. Department of State, 1996). back

32 Ibid. back

33 Alan Morris, "South Africa: Rape Spiralling Out of Control," Inter Press Service, 25 February 1997, online, Nexis, 10 April 1997. back

34 Andrea Diaz, Mujeres por el Derecho a Elegir, Neuquen, Argentina, letter to IWRAW, 26 April 1996. back

35 "Tras 15 Años Enfrentaron el Dolor que Vivieron sus Hijos," Rio Negro [Neuquen, Argentina], 21 April 1995, 22. back

36 Andrea Diaz, Mujeres por el Derecho a Elegir. back

37 Marcela Valente, "El Turismo Sexual Crece Hacia la Region," Inter Press Service, 21 March 1997. back

38 "Argentina:Dictatorship Pushed Women into Public Eye," Inter Press Service, 23 March 1996. back

39 Marcela Valente, "Women Save the Day for Political Parties," Inter Press Service, 4 April 1997. back

40 Rodolfo Lara, "Duhalde Confirmó la Candidatura de Chiche," Clarín Digital, 6 May 1997. back

41 Marcela Valente, "Argentina-Women: A Victory for Women?" Inter Press Service, 10 May 1996. back

42 Ibid. back

43 Ibid. back

44 Gloria Bonder, interview with IWRAW, 13 August 1996. back

45 Ana Maria Amado, "El Neo Papismo de Menem," Mujer/Fempress, September 1995. back

46 "Science Gender Bias," Latinamerica Press, 15 February 1996, 6. back

47 "Argentina--Women: Women Suffer Elusive Ghosts of Discrimination," Inter Press Service, 17 August 1995. back

48 Gloria Bonder, "Women's Studies in Argentina:Keeping the Feminist Spirit Alive," Women's Studies Quarterly 3&4 (1994):90. back

49 "Science Gender Bias." back

50 Mabel Bianco, Fundación Para Estudio E Investigación de la Mujer, Comentarios del Informe de la República Argentina 1993-1996 (26 May 1997, typewritten). back

51 Gloria Barberis, CAMM back

52 Mabel Bianco, FEIM. back

53 "Argentina's Cavallo-3: Cuts Benefits, Tax Exemptions," Emerging Market Reports, 12 July 1996. back

54 Andrea Diaz, Mujeres por el Derecho a Elegir. back

55 "Las Prepagas No Darían Su Brazo a Torce por la Cobertura del SIDA," La Nación On Line (Buenos Aires), 26 March 1997. back

56 Marta García Terán, " El SIDA Creció Más Entre Mujeres y Niños," La Nación On Line (Buenos Aires), 30 November 1996. back

57 "Argentina Eyes Cuts at Retiree Health System: Report," Dow Jones International News, 24 July 1996. back

58 "Health: Medical Crisis in Argentina." back

59 Monica Cogna, Centro de Estudios de Estado y Sociedad (CEDES), letter to IWRAW, 16 March 1996. back

60 "Health: Medical Crisis in Argentina" Inter Press Service, 5 June 1996. back

61 Andrea Diaz, Mujeres por el Derecho a Elegir. back

62 El Foro por los Derechos Reproductivos: Buenos Aires, May 1996. back

63 Gloria Barberis, CAMM. back

64 The name of the bill was reportedly changed in order to avoid any speculation internationally that it would inlcude abortion (which is illegal in Argentina) as a family planning option. back

65 Ana Maria Amado, "Anticonceptivos en Regla," Mujer/Fempress, September 1995. back

66 "Argentina: Brief Account of a Long History and Great Triumph," Women's Health Journal (March 1995): 38. back

67 Marcela Valente, "Argentina-Women: A Victory for Women?" back

68 Oller, 19. back

69 Alejandra Florit, "Cifras Alarmantes en la Argentina - Hay un Aborto por Cada Dos Nascimientos," La Nación On Line (Buenos Aires), 22 July 1996. back

70 Andrea Diaz, Mujeres por el Derecho a Elegir. back

71 Ibid. back

72 Ibid. back

 


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