PARLIAMENTARY OVERSIGHT OF THE SECURITY SECTOR IN LATIN AMERICA

In the 1970s and 1980s, the response to political crisis in Latin America all too often was a military coup d'état. Since then, there has been a shift towards the integration of the armed forces into a democratic structure under civilian authority, though such control often remains erratic. This was one of the main points raised by the participants in the Seminar on Parliamentary Oversight of the Security Sector in Latin America, which was held in Montevideo on 1 and 2 July 2005 and was organized by the IPU, the parliaments of Argentina and Uruguay and the Geneva-based Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF). The seminar, which was attended by some 70 parliamentarians from 13 national and regional parliaments, paid special attention to the role of parliament in addressing the legacy of human rights abuse in the aftermath of authoritarianism. The event took place at a time when the host countries, Argentina and Uruguay, were both in a crucial phase in reexamining the scars of their past. Only two weeks before, the Supreme Court of Argentina had scrapped an amnesty law protecting former military officers suspected of human rights abuses under the Argentine military government, a ruling triggered by an earlier decision by the Argentine Congress. At the same time, in an unprecedented move, criminal charges were filed against a former Uruguayan president and his Minister for Foreign Affairs for killings committed under military rule.

In a very personal account to seminar participants, General Martín Antonio Balza of Argentina noted that "violence and guerrillas could be found all over Latin America at the time. But in Argentina, we responded with horrible crimes…theft, transfer of property and thousands of forced disappearances. I feel a strong attachment to my army, in which I have served for 45 years, and it is with immense sorrow that I say these things." While acknowledging that each country had to find its own way to overcome the past, General Antonio Balza highlighted that "an unresolved past becomes eternal" and that, in reference to his country's experience, "the truth had become the first victim". On a more general note, the seminar's discussions pointed to the increase of subregional and regionalinitiatives to tackle security concerns, in which cooperation, not domination, was the defining characteristic. However, advances within a number of Latin American countries were much less clear-cut, and were very dependent on the success of their democratization processes. According to the Rapporteur of the seminar, Professor Gerardo Caetano of Uruguay, the weakness of democratic oversight of the military in many countries could only be countered by a continuous process of democracy-building, part of which requiredparliaments to demonstrate a genuine capacity for self-reform.

Suggestions for better parliamentary oversight included the following:

• Modernization and streamlining of parliamentary procedures, methods of communication and relations with other branches of government and other actors in society;
• Training of parliamentarians and the establishment of a permanent cadre of advisers on security matters;
• The establishment, where appropriate, of parliamentary investigative committees on security matters, with a mandate to issue binding rulings;
• The adoption of legislation on states of emergency ensuring the protection of citizens and duly referring to the existence of non-derogable rights;
• The adoption of legislation on the training of the security and military forces and the police, so as to ensure knowledge of and full respect for human rights and to provide for sound personnel management in today's security environment.

	COMMITTEE ON THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF PARLIAMENTARIANS Call for action Four years of incommunicado detention On 18 September 2001, eleven members of Eritrea's National Assembly, all of them leading political figures, were arrested by the Eritrean security authorities. They have been held in detention ever since. They have no contact with their families or their lawyers. No independent information is available as to the conditions in which they are being held and their state of health. Moreover, no formal charges have been laid against them, and they have never been brought before a judge. The authorities affirm that these parliamentarians committed treason during the Eritrea-Ethiopia war. However, it is widely believed that their arrest and detention is instead linked to an Open Letter which they addressed in May 2001 to President Afwerki calling for democratic reforms. In November 2003, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights found the situation of these parliamentarians to be in violation of their fundamental rights to liberty and security, to a fair trial and to freedom of expression, as guaranteed under the African Charter of Human and Peoples' Rights, and it called for their release. Likewise, the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians and the IPU GoverningCouncil consider their continuing detention to be a gross violation of their human rights, which no argument whatsoever can justify. They have consistently called for their release. The Governing Council has also expressed the wish to carry out an on-site mission, but the Eritrean authorities have so far not agreed to allow such a mission. The Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians believes that energetic representation and action by parliaments everywhere would greatly help to bring about an end to the violation of the human rights of these members of parliament. (Detailed information on this case can be obtained from the IPU Secretariat.)

	IPU PUBLICATION Making reconciliation work: the role of parliaments (2005) The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) have published a handbook for parliamentarians to provide some insights into the particular role played by parliaments in countries which have recently experienced conflict or are going through transition after a conflict, and to highlight the pitfalls to be avoided on the road to reconciliation. An effective parliament is vital to the success of any transition from conflict to peace. "A parliament which is truly representative of all components of society and which offers a national platform for a free and open exchange of views, is in itself an important sign that reconciliation is under way. It is also an important factor in consolidating the reconciliation process" said the IPU Secretary General, Anders B. Johnsson. According to the Secretary-General of International IDEA, Ms. Karen Fogg, "while periods of transition are often characterized by a wide array of economic, social and political challenges, one challenge in particular appears to have an unrivalled impact on the success or failure of reconciliation: How does a nation deal with a legacy of extensive human rights abuse? The handbook seeks to provide some responses to this question".