Rutgers Research Center to Report on Largest Trials in Argentina to Date
Historic Trials for Human Rights Violations and Crimes Against Humanity from 1976-1983
Rutgers University’s Center for the Study of Genocide, Conflict Resolution, and Human Rights (CGHR) has teamed with Argentina’s Center for Genocide Studies at the Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero (UNTREF) in launching the Argentina Trial Monitor (ATM). The ATM project will chronicle the ongoing trials against 61 perpetrators of human rights violations and crimes against humanity from 1976-1983. It will be the largest trial to date in Argentina. (see Introduction below). Despite the global importance of this and other trials in Argentina that have been held since the Argentine Supreme Court declared the impunity laws and amnesties unconstitutional in 2005, there is little English-language information about the trials taking place in Argentina. The Argentina Trial Monitor (ATM) project seeks to address this situation.
ATM will act as a clearinghouse of information on the trials, which have recently begun. Accordingly, weekly legal briefs will be accessible in English. The goal of ATM is to introduce this historic round of trials to the largest possible audience of scholars, practitioners, educators. The site will also offer background on the trials, links to news stories on the proceedings, and a wide variety of audio, visual and educational resources.
About CGHR
The Center for the Study of Genocide, Conflict Resolution, and Human Rights seeks to enhance our understanding of and find solutions to the most pressing 21st century challenges. To this end, the Center promotes cutting-edge research and scholarship on related issues such as genocide, conflict resolution, environmental change, sustainable development, transitional justice, and human rights abuses.
Contact
To learn more about this project, please contact:
Edwin Daniel Jacob, New Media Coordinator
Center for the Study of Genocide, Conflict Resolution, and Human Rights
(609) 577-4762
danjacob@eden.rutgers.edu
The ATM website is http://www.ncas.rutgers.edu/argentina-trial-monitor-website-launch
Introduction-Argentina Trial Monitor (ATM) Project
On November 28th 2012, the most significant trial in Argentinian history commenced. Centered on crimes committed at the Navy Mechanics School (ESMA) from 1976 to 1983, a period during which perhaps 30,000 people were killed in Argentina, the trial will involve 61 defendants and 800 victims. It will be the largest trial to date in Argentina, one that may have to be moved to a 1000 seat auditorium at the University of Buenos Aires School of Law. Despite the importance of this and other trials in Argentina that have been held since the Argentine Supreme Court declared the impunity laws and amnesties unconstitutional in 2005, there is little English-language information about the trials taking place in Argentina. The Argentina Trial Monitor (ATM) project seeks to address this situation.
The Argentina Trial Monitor will be jointly run by the Center for Genocide Studies at the Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero (UNTREF) in Argentina and the Center for the Study of Genocide, Conflict Resolution, and Human Rights at Rutgers University in the United States, with the assistance of some Argentine human rights organizations such as Asociación de Ex Detenidos Desaparecidos and Comisión de Familiares de Campo de Mayo and affiliated Rutgers partners, including the Translation and Interpreting Program in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.
As part of its on-going research on the Argentina trials, the UNTREF Center will produce Spanish-language background briefs and weekly synopses of the ESMA trials. The Center at Rutgers, in turn, will translate the briefs and post them on the English-language ATM website. In addition, the Rutgers Center will work increase awareness about the trials among English-language scholars and the media. To this end, it will also produce additional policy briefs and trial-related materials. In addition to on-going coverage of the ESMA trial, the ATM project will also seek to compile a resource database on past trials. As such, it will become the English-language website on the trials in Argentina. More broadly, the Argentina Trial Monitor will increase our awareness and understanding of the important trials taking place in Argentina, ones that have contributed greatly to the search for truth and justice in the aftermath of mass violence.
Project Team
Project Supervisors: Daniel Feierstein (UNTREF) and Nela Navarro (Rutgers)
Project Leaders: Anna Sverdlick (Rutgers) and Damian Abalos Testoni (UNTREF)
Project Staff UNTREF: Alejandra Stupenengo, Julieta Stupenengo, Florencia Corradi, Natalia Crocco, Milena Duran, Marcelo Ferreira, Julieta Grasetti, Barbara Komarovsky, Guillermo Levy, Julia Nesprias, Maria Belen Riveiro, Andrea Sacchi, Serena Santos, Magali Trepiana, Mariela Zelenay
Project Staff Rutgers: Claudia Casal-Cordero, Humberto Schettino and Mariam Zaidi
Website Development: Dan Jacob (Rutgers)
Center Websites:
UNTREF: http://www.untref.edu.ar/institutos/ceg
CGHR: http://www.ncas.rutgers.edu/cghr
ATM:
http://www.ncas.rutgers.edu/argentina-trial-monitor-website-launch