{"id":1061542,"date":"2023-05-12T14:12:29","date_gmt":"2023-05-12T14:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/humanrightsdefenders.blog\/?p=24503"},"modified":"2023-05-12T14:12:29","modified_gmt":"2023-05-12T14:12:29","slug":"new-sg-of-the-icj-santiago-canton-want-to-mobilise-the-human-rights-community-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/05\/12\/new-sg-of-the-icj-santiago-canton-want-to-mobilise-the-human-rights-community-again\/","title":{"rendered":"New SG of the ICJ, Santiago Cant\u00f3n, want to mobilise the human rights community again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Santiago Cant\u00f3n, secretary general of the International Commission of Jurists. (Geneva Solutions\/Michelle Langrand)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 11 May 2023 Geneva Solutions carried an interview with the incoming Secretary General of the International Commission of Jurists:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new head of the International Commission of Jurists warns of the challenges human rights face as democracies across the world falter and calls on human rights groups to rally behind a new purpose. After spending the last few years in the United States, Santiago Cant\u00f3n, the Argentinian jurist who recently became the new secretary general of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), will call Geneva his home for the next five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The discreet organisation of well-respected judges and lawyers, located in the Paquis neighbourhood and now celebrating its 70th anniversary, is almost as old as the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Born from the ashes of World War II initially to investigate abuses committed in the Soviet part of post-war Germany, the group has made vital contributions over the decades to the human rights architecture. Most notably, they helped push for the creation of an international criminal court and several UN human rights instruments, including the Convention on Enforced Disappearances, first proposed by its then-president Niall MacDermot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cant\u00f3n, 60, also brings with him some heavy baggage of experience in human rights. He was the executive secretary from 2001 to 2012 of the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, one of the arms of the Organization of American States tasked with reviewing rights abuses. Before that, Cant\u00f3n served as the commission\u2019s first special rapporteur on freedom of expression from 1998 to 2001. More recently, Cant\u00f3n was part of the UN Human Rights Council\u2019s commission of inquiry on abuses committed in the occupied Palestinian territories during the 2018 protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a young student, Cant\u00f3n saw his country fall into the clutches of a military junta that would rule ruthlessly for ten years. While initially drawn to diplomacy and foreign relations, Cant\u00f3n knew it wasn\u2019t an option to place his skills at the service of a dictatorship. He opted instead to study international law and human rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of his first experiences, and the one to inspire him the most, was advising former US president Jimmy Carter in his democracy programmes in Latin America, most notably supporting elections in Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic in 1990 at a time when the two countries were emerging from bloody conflicts and transitioning into democracies. He saw the region break away from the chains of military regimes and usher in a new era of democracy and rule of law. \u201c1948, with the universal declaration of human rights, was the big bang of human rights,<\/em>\u201d he told Geneva Solutions. \u201cSince then, the architecture of human rights created throughout the world has been extraordinary<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the tides have turned. \u201cHuman rights are in decline and have been since the beginning of the century,\u201d<\/em> he regretted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Cant\u00f3n, part of it is due to a lack of leadership. \u201cWe don’t have the same leaders in the world, and the governments that support human rights today, do not have the leadership they need to have for political reason<\/em>s.\u201d He said long gone are the Ra\u00fal Alfons\u00edn of Argentina, Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil and Patricio Aylwin of Chile, leaders who stood up for democratic values following their countries\u2019 exit from military rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou do have leadership on the wrong side. And they’re winning,\u201d he added. He cited the leaders of El Salvador and Mexico, as well as Brazil\u2019s Jair Bolsonaro and the US\u2019s Donald Trump, as examples of how populist leaders have successfully appealed to disillusioned populations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTake El Salvador. Here we have someone that has 70 to 80 per cent of popularity. People (feel) that democracy did not deliver. They are tired and want to change everything completely,\u201d he said. President Nayib Bukele\u2019s recent sweeping crackdown that saw over 60,000 <\/a>suspected gang members arrested has been praised by many Salvadorians fed up with the violence and insecurity that has gangrened the country for years. And despite the harsh criticism his methods have drawn from human rights campaigners, political figures across the region are flaunting it as a successful model that can be replicated in their own countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cant\u00f3n cautions against the temptation of wanting to scrap everything. \u201cWe cannot just change everything! There are things we need to keep, and human rights is one of those,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, the usual trio singled out for their authoritarian regimes, Cant\u00f3n prefers to avoid tired narratives. \u201cit’s not a question of left and right, it’s a question of the strength of the rule of law, and the rule of law is declining,\u201d he observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond that, human rights that touch upon issues associated with deeply entrenched cultural values have also been met by a wall of resistance. Cant\u00f3n hasn\u2019t finished unpacking he has already faced a first crisis. A report published by the ICJ in early March on how to apply human rights standards to criminal law was falsely accused<\/a> across the internet of condoning sex between adults and minors. For Cant\u00f3n, the world is increasingly polarised, and he views social media as a significant contributing factor. \u201cIt’s hard to find the middle ground, and when things are so polarised, they keep getting pushed harder towards two crazy extremes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But governments are not the only ones that need to do some soul-searching. Civil society is also struggling to maintain morale, according to Cant\u00f3n. \u201cIt’s very frustrating when you take one step forward, and you have to go back like ten steps,\u201d he said. For the past years, human rights groups have been on the defence, trying to protect hard-won advances. \u201cWe need to mobilise the human rights community again, strongly behind something<\/em><\/strong>,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the initiatives<\/a> the ICJ is working on is the creation of a standing independent mechanism to investigate rights violations. UN-backed probe mechanisms are usually set up on a case-by-case basis and have been accused of being selective and politically motivated. The group of lawyers suggests that such a permanent expert body, created through the Human Rights Council or the General Assembly, could help by making it easier to trigger investigations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIt would be a game changer,\u201d Cant\u00f3n said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/genevasolutions.news\/human-rights\/santiago-canton-we-need-to-mobilise-the-human-rights-community-again?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n

This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Santiago Cant\u00f3n, secretary general of the International Commission of Jurists. (Geneva Solutions\/Michelle Langrand) On 11 May 2023 Geneva Solutions carried an interview with the incoming Secretary General of the International Commission of Jurists: The new head of the International Commission of Jurists warns of the challenges human rights face as democracies across the world falter [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":487,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7707,1004,9721,34484,59793,48034,4772,237,1629,59794,59795],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1061542"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/487"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1061542"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1061542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1061543,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1061542\/revisions\/1061543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1061542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1061542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1061542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}