• by IPS Correspondents (buenos aires)
• Thursday, July 19, 2012
• Inter Press Service

BUENOS AIRES, Jul 19 (IPS) - A group of prisoners convicted of crimes against humanity committed during Argentina’s last dictatorship (1976-1983) have put university and prison authorities in a difficult position by asking to enrol in an academic study programme for inmates financed by the state.

Renovation of the Devoto University Centre, in the prison of the same name, built by inmates in 1985. Credit: Public domain

So far, four jailed human rights abusers – three convicted and one still awaiting final judgment – have applied for enrolment in UBA XXII , a university outreach programme created in 1985 by the state University of Buenos Aires (UBA), which enables inmates to pursue higher education while serving their sentences.

Their request sparked controversy as university authorities and faculty members are adamantly refusing to teach these inmates. While the arguments they give are valid, their refusal could, nonetheless, be considered a violation of the prisoners’ right to receive an education, experts say.

One of the prisoners applying for the programme, the physician Carlos Jurio, sentenced to 13 years for crimes against humanity, has gone before the National Institute to Combat Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (INADI), filing a complaint against one of the university teachers who refused to admit him in his course.

The INADI acknowledged that the situation posed a conflict of rights between the prisoner’s right to study and the teacher’s right to conscientious objection, but was unable to reach a decision and referred the case to the UBA.

The other former military officers demanding that their right to study be respected are Juan Carlos Rolón, who is awaiting sentence on multiple charges of human rights violations during Argentina’s brutal “Dirty War”, and Adolfo Donda and Carlos Guillermo Suárez Mason, who are both serving life sentences for the same crimes.

Rolón and Donda want to study law. Rolón obtained a court order that enabled him to enrol and he is currently studying to sit for examinations without attending class. The examination board has postponed his exams until a court decision is reached on the substantive issue.

Suárez Mason – the son of former commander of the First Army Corps Guillermo Suárez Mason, who died in prison in 2005 when he was serving a sentence for crimes against humanity – has chosen sociology as his course of studies.

The deans of the UBA’s School of Social Sciences and the School of Philosophy and Literature have declared their firm refusal to admit these perpetrators of crimes against humanity into their prisoner education programme.

The heads of the sociology course of study recognise the prisoners’ right to study but demand that their right be guaranteed through courses outside the UBA. The dean of the School of Philosophy and Literature, Héctor Trinchero, argues that “there’s an abysmal difference between a common crime and genocide.”

Trinchero recalled that 423 people connected with his school, including faculty, students and administrative staff, were victims of forced disappearance during the dictatorship. Interviewed by IPS, the founder of the UBA XXII programme, B.Ed. Marta Laferrière, said, “denying the right to education to a person who the justice system has sentenced to jail is a very hard decision.”

© Inter Press Service (2012) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

Where next?

Advertisement