2024-02-12 02:30:42
The Union of Workers of the Popular Economy (UTEP) presented a request for protection so that the justice system orders the Ministry of Human Capital to immediately deliver food to the community kitchens, given the “serious situation of existing hunger.” It is interesting to know the request, because it brings together the arguments about what obligations the minister of the area, Sandra Pettovello, has in food assistance. The presentation highlights that there is a budget, “both from the United Nations and national Programs” and “it is available to be used, while state inaction means that many people cannot access a daily plate of food.”
The brief was presented by the head of the UTEP, Alejandro Gramajo, the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS) and Juan Grabois. In addition to stating that the State today has the budget items to reinforce food but does not execute them – something similar to what already happened with the Christmas boxes, which were in the warehouses of the Ministry of Social Development but Pettovello did not deliver to the families. –, the request for protection aims to remember a fact of reality: social programs would not be effective if social organizations, their cooks and socio-community workers did not exist.
Below are the main points of the presentation before Justice:
Rights
The main right affected is the right to food of people who attend soup kitchens and who depend on them for their survival.
The rights to health, to a dignified life and to physical and mental integrity also suffer damage.
It is a non-delegable duty of the State to guarantee the right to food. Argentina has two laws in which it recognized the role of the State in the issue (25724, of 2002, which created the Food Safety Program, and 27642, of 2021, better known as the front labeling law).
There are also international treaties and pacts, to which the country adheres, that recognize the right to food, such as the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights adds non-regressiveness as a minimum obligation, that is, it prohibits states from taking measures that worsen social rights.
The State does not have the physical or logistical possibility of individually reaching all the people who need food reinforcement. For this reason, the work of community soup kitchens and picnic areas is key.
There is a network recognized by the state that covers 41 thousand dining rooms and picnic areas, all registered in Renacom, a registry created by the Ministry of Social Development. The request for protection is to restore the shipment of food to these 41 thousand places.
Tale
The situation for which the protection is presented is already widely known: since Javier Milei assumed the presidency last December, the community kitchens stopped receiving any type of input or transfer of funds. At the same time, due to the increase in food prices and the deterioration of the population’s income, in these two months the number of people who come to ask for a plate of food has increased.
Due to this situation, social organizations have asked to speak with the authorities, especially with the Minister of Human Capital, Sandra Pettovello, who is responsible for the issue. However, they were not attended to. It is also known that the ministry did not distribute the Christmas baskets that Alberto Fernández’s government had left in warehouses to be delivered during the holidays.
On February 2, the UTEP mobilized in front of Minister Pettovello’s office, who stated that she was not going to receive the representatives because they were “intermediaries”, and that if people were hungry she was going to serve them “one by one” and “with ID”, that is, “individually”.
On February 5, 20,000 residents of popular neighborhoods approached the ministerial headquarters and lined up, but Pettovello did not attend to them. Presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni argued that because “she had not summoned them.”
The omission of assistance
The minister “forgets” or “does not know” – the document states – the functions that have been entrusted to her as a public official.
The situation is not that there is a lack of resources – which are approved and are part of the budget – but that “the political decision to cover basic fundamental rights is missing And because of that a total ignorance of the constitutional rights that must be guaranteed to the population”.
There were three ways in which the State delivered food assistance:
The Community Approach Program of the Argentine National Plan against Hunger, financed by the United Nations. This program brought specific international funds into the country. The Ministry of Human Capital must transfer them to community organizations that have soup kitchens, accompany them with technical assistance and training in nutrition, food and gender. This is a program valid until June 2025.
Subsidies to people and soup kitchens (in money or food), financed with the national budget.
The Food Security Plan created by law (25724) intended for picnic areas, which is also financed with the national budget.
In 2023, the budget assigned to the Ministry of Social Development was $2,073,416 million and almost 40 percent was allocated to food policies. That budget was extended to 2024, and its items are available. But until today, they were practically not used, leaving canteens and picnic areas without support at the time when they need it most.
Last week, in the midst of the public debate, Pettovello signed agreements to attend soup kitchens linked to the evangelical pastors of Aciera – the most cheto sector of that creed – and Cáritas. But he still maintains the social movement soup kitchens without any decision.