NATIONAL PROGRAM FOR SCIENCE AND JUSTICE
The Council at the III World Forum on Human Rights
The central theme of the activities carried out were Right to Science and access to knowledge.
The National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) was present at the III World Forum on Human Rights 2023 (FMDH2023) that took place between March 20 and 24 in the City of Buenos Aires. According to the agenda, the National Program for Science and Justice (PNCyJ) participated with a series of proposals under the central theme “Right to science and access to knowledge”.
Within the ECUNHI of the Memory and Human Rights Space (ex ESMA) the photographic exhibition “In poor condition“ by Sandra Nicosia was mounted. She is a Support Staff at the Institute of Social and Human Studies (IESYH) CONICET-UNaM. Through this exhibition, she seeks to account for the daily experience of national and foreign residents on the northern border of Argentina (Misiones, Jujuy and Salta). The images were taken within the project “Diagnosis on the perception of security in the population living on the Argentine northern border” directed by Brígida Renoldi, Director of IESYH.
As regards the role of the PNCyJ, Nicosia highlighted: “the participation of these proposals from the Program seems very appropriate to me since it is a practical and forceful way of bringing scientific research closer to the community, especially in the area of social sciences. And, much more, investigations carried out by the researchers themselves in their territories. It is an opportunity to make the presence of the Council throughout the country and that its researchers try in some way to bring answers to their community”.
In classroom 1 of the building of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, the Founding Line “Casa de Nuestros Hijos, la Vida y la Esperanza”, also from the former ESMA, the discussion took place“How can the social sciences contribute to justice in cases of serious violations of human rights? It was attended by Silvana Turner (Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team), Melisa Slatman (UBA-Public Prosecutor’s Office), Cecilia García (UBA-National Archive of Memory) and Julieta Rostica -researcher of the Council at the Institute of Studies of Latin America and the Caribbean of the University of Buenos Aires (IEALC – UBA) – as moderator.
During the meeting, based on key cases, the experts stressed the importance of working with documents from the Archives, the testimonies for the reconstruction of the facts from History, the possibility of participating in expert opinions from Anthropology. Besides, the idea was to analyze the way in which social sciences can accompany not only the justice processes but also their own actors from a humanitarian vision. In this regard, from Sociology, Rostica remarked that, given the desire to investigate something that serves justice, her experience allowed her to do so and from this she reflected: “Rigorous research is necessary, going back to the archive, building the data because the document by itself does not speak. We have to use scientific research methodology to build the research data. In particular, based on the experience and data we have in Argentina, we can collaborate in cases related to the forced disappearance of people in the region.”
Likewise, in the Feldman Auditorium of the Faculty of Architecture, Urbanism and Design, Maelström 2001 was screened, a feature film by the CONICET Documentary production company of the Institutional Relations Office in conjunction with the technical team of the Program that narrates how a physicist from the Council reconstructed the protest of 12/20/2001, which occurred in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires to determine responsibility for the murders caused during the police repression. The projection was included within the slogan Cinema, memory, justice and human rights.
The FMDH2023 was proposed as a space for public debate on world Human Rights, the main advances and challenges focused on respect for differences, social participation, the reduction of inequalities, promoting equity and social inclusion. It was conceived to bring together and integrate national, regional and international organizations committed to the enforcement of human rights