2023-08-11 10:41:22
© RODRIGO BUENDIA/AFP via Getty Images
In response to yesterday’s assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, Erika Guevara Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International, said:
“Amnesty International is extremely concerned about the current situation of violence in Ecuador, which is facing a sharp increase in its homicide rate, as well as a series of murders of candidates for public office in recent weeks, culminating in the assassination of Fernando Villavicencio last night, apparently for political reasons. The victims of the current wave of political violence deserve truth, justice and reparation, and the authorities must take swift action to investigate these crimes. At the same time, the state of emergency declared in response to these events must not open the door to serious human rights violations that could undermine the security of the entire population of Ecuador.”
In recent months, Ecuador has faced an insecurity crisis, concentrated mainly in the coastal areas near the cities of Guayaquil and Esmeraldas, and linked to organized crime activities. On May 3, the president issued a decree that allowed the deployment of armed forces throughout the national territory “to suppress the terrorist threat” in the country, without putting any time limit on this order, in contravention of international standards on the deployment of armed forces for public security tasks, which require that such decisions be limited in time and geography. On May 17, the president dissolved the National Assembly by decree and called elections for August 20. The state of emergency declared today in response to the murder of Villavicencio, lasting 60 days, is the latest in a series of emergency decrees from the president and suspends a series of rights, including the right to freedom of assembly. In addition, the decree extends the mandate of the police and the armed forces, allowing them to enter residences and premises to conduct searches and seize property, and allows authorities to access correspondence.
In the context of the state of emergency and the suspension of certain rights, Amnesty International reminds the Ecuadorian authorities that certain rights must never be subject to suspension, in accordance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the American Convention on Human Rights. Humans. The right to life, the prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, the principle of legality, that is, the requirement that both criminal responsibility and punishment be limited to clear and precise provisions of the law, and the recognition of the legal personality of all persons are relevant rights in relation to the recent deployment of armed forces throughout the country.
In the current context, the highest Ecuadorian authorities must call on all public servants to increase vigilance of human rights standardsincluding the Siracusa Principles on the provisions of limitation and derogation of the ICCPR and the inter-American standards on the matter, in order to avoid possible arbitrariness that could lead to serious violations of human rights and crimes under international law.
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