Ukraine on Chile's agenda: an example to be followed by Argentina and the rest of the democratic countries in the region

Chile has become a true example for the Latin American region of a respectful country and genuine promoter of human rights and respect for the principles of international law contained in the Charter of the United Nations signed on June 26, 1945, in San Francisco, USA, as well as the international treaties signed and applicable in the matter since then.

The invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation on February 24 of last year and the preceding military actions, in addition to violating Ukrainian sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, have caused severe violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.

Our country's reaction has been sadly confused and lukewarm, something unforgivable in light of the international human rights policy that we usually exhibit as a characteristic note of the values we embrace, coinciding with a democracy that is at its worst levels since its recovery—in December 1983, registering an increasingly low quality.

In Chile, in addition to the meetings between Gabriel Boric, its President, and Volodímir Zelenski, the President of Ukraine, in particular the last one, held electronically on March 21 (1), the Chilean Congress has just carried out last Tuesday, April 4, the first special session of a Latin American parliament to receive the Ukrainian President (2), a historical event that the world, the region, and especially Chileans and Ukrainians, will remember forever.

Before, on August 17, 2022, the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile had managed to interview him (3).

Link 1: https://www.biobiochile.cl/noticias/nacional/chile/2023/03/21/boric-se-reune-via-telematica-con-volodimir-zelenski-conversaron-sobre-el-apoyo-de-america-latina.shtml

Link 2: https://www.youtube.com/live/XiX2rLrH9n0?feature=share

Link 3: https://youtu.be/mVNVsxAh8YI

Argentina, inaugurated by the hand of Raúl Alfonsín, its first constitutional President since the return of democracy on December 10, 1983, a human rights policy that extended both inside and outside the country, becoming a State policy.

However, despite the severe complaints of violation of the human rights of the Ukrainian civilian population, war crimes, and even possible crimes against humanity committed by the troops and the Russian government, the Argentine government appears distant and disinterested. Geopolitical interests are confused with the humanitarian dimension, something genuinely inexcusable.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights report, presented on March 24, confirmed Russia's commission of war crimes since the beginning of the invasion.

https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/countries/ukraine/2023/23-03-24-Ukraine-35th-periodic-report-ENG.pdf

Curiously, that same day, Argentina celebrated the "Day of Remembrance and Justice", which commemorates the "victims of the last military dictatorship".

On the one hand, the loss of sensitivity and the profound contradiction of the Argentine government when contrasting the declared defence of human rights for the Argentines who died or disappeared between 1976 and 1983 and the denial of said recognition to the Ukrainian people, on the other, is outrageous.

The double game between the conduct of the ruling party in the government and the National Congress is also highly objectionable.

Alberto Fernández, President of the Argentine Nation, has not only been profoundly erratic in his relationship with Ukraine and the Russian Federation, to the point of offering the country as Russia's gateway to Latin America.

See the meeting with Vladimir Putin in early February 2022, just weeks after the invasion of Ukraine: https://youtu.be/JHawNLcb2uM

To this is added the deliberate obstruction of its vice president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, to prevent the Congress of the Argentine Nation from dealing with anything related to the war.

See, in this regard, my opinion note of March 18:

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/ruling-party-congress-argentine-nation-face-russian-cincunegui

The International Center for Parliamentary Studies, Research and Prospects of the School of Politics, Government and International Relations of the Faculty of Law | Austral University arranged an interview with Dr Oleksandr Merezhko, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations and Interparliamentary Cooperation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (Parliament), his colleagues Olga Sovgyrya, Mariia Ionova, and Solomiia Bobrovska, on July 18 of 2022.

On the Argentine side, Dr Alfonso Santiago, Ambassador Lila Roldán Vázquez de Moine, Senator Lucila Crexell, Representatives Graciela Cama?o and Cornelia Schmidt Liermann (mc), Senator (mc) Pedro Del Piero and myself intervened. Leaders such as Federico Pinedo, Miguel Nanni, Oscar Piquinella, Daniel Basile, Fernanda Berdinelli, Néstor Perl, and Roksolana Hnatyuk, among many others, accompanied the debate.

However, it was impossible to get the Congress of the Argentine Nation to put on the agenda not a single one of the more than forty parliamentary initiatives presented by opposition legislators to "talk" about Ukraine.

Shameful, undemocratic, and contrary to the international policy tradition of the Argentine Republic in the defence and promotion of human rights.

As an example of what the government or the Argentine Congress should have done and did not do, I allow myself to describe and transcribe below the joint session organized by the Chilean Congress, cited above.

First spoke, the President of the Chilean Chamber of Deputies, Vlado Mirosevic Verdugo , who said: "Ukraine is an independent Nation with the right to free self-determination in its indivisible and inviolable territory, and therefore we express our repudiation and rejection of the unilateral military invasion initiated by the Russian government on February 24 of the year two thousand and twenty-two, violating the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine contrary to the Charter of the United Nations (applause) which was widely rejected the majority of its Member States; an invasion that has been contrary to international law that Chile has always and uninterruptedly defended. For this reason, we declare our support and solidarity with the people of Ukraine, and we endorse the request for the immediate cessation of the military invasion of the Russian government in Ukraine, the restoration of peace through civilized dialogue in the multilateral instances that the concert of nations has to resolve such conflicts. We embrace the Ukrainian people through you, Mr President Zelensky, expressing our solidarity, our affection, and making wishes for the prompt establishment of peace and the end of violence, pain, and the humanitarian crisis."

Then it was the turn of the President of the Chilean Senate, Senator Juan Antonio Coloma Correa, who, addressing Zelenski, said: "We received him in a decisive historical context for his country, and that under his leadership, his destiny is at stake in a dramatic and heroic every day. We receive a Head of State whose mandate is legitimized by the popular will freely expressed at the polls and who, for more than a year, has had to lead the defence of his homeland with determination and courage. Began the invasion of Ukraine, the State of Chile, through its Foreign Ministry, has had a coherent and categorical conduct: it has condemned the warlike actions of the Russian Federation, considering it a flagrant rupture of the international order, a manifest violation of commitments and treaties signed by a permanent member of the Security Council Both the Chilean government and both branches of the National Congress have made a clear and unequivocal statement that this attack represents a disregard for the norms of international law, starting from the prohibition of the use of force and respect for the territorial integrity of States, and this is how our country has acted in the United Nations General Assembly by supporting the resolutions condemning the aggression against Ukraine. The breach of international obligations by any State is of the greatest seriousness for the global legal architecture and, consequently, for world security. Violating the provisions established in the Charter of the United Nations and multilateral and bilateral treaties merits the resolute condemnation of all States, forcing the offender to face the competent jurisdiction with all its consequences. Violations of the territorial sovereignty of any State invariably trigger a critical situation, of a multidimensional nature, both in terms of human rights and humanitarian. The facts that derive are known: acute migratory crises, thanks to violations of the Geneva Conventions, and widespread violations of human dignity, among other scourges. Cicero's phrase that in times of war, the law is silent, to illustrate the supposed uselessness of the law in the face of conquest or invasion, is no longer valid in the global concert. International law has been gradually strengthened, and today, we can invoke them to defend all States and their inhabitants from abuse. This implies, however, a commitment and an unequivocal will of all state actors, the global one, in the sense of making their institutions and regulations effective. President Zelensky: Rest assured that we will persevere in our political support for all those States that suffer aggressions that violate international law and that, at the same time, we will support the inhabitants of those countries from the humanitarian point of view, as you have done Chile with Ukraine to the extent of limited capacities. We are a country that has always tried for a peaceful solution to disputes. When discrepancies with other States have been expressed, we have resorted to, or have presented ourselves to, the competent international jurisdictional instances, strictly abiding by their rulings. They give us the necessary moral quality to defend the legal structure of world security and work to protect and strengthen it. Welcome, Mr President. We carefully listen attentively to your message and concepts, with a spirit of the allegation and a deep vocation for peace. Thank you so much".

Finally, it was the turn of Volodímir Zelenski, whose words are transcribed below: "Ladies and Gentlemen of the Chamber of Deputies. Very grateful for your words. A very cordial greeting. I see our flag in your room. Thank you very much for respecting our flag to our State. Ladies and Gentlemen. Dear members of the National Congress of Chile. Special representatives of the diplomatic corps. Dear journalists. Chilean people. Allow me to start my address with a story. The story is about a place where children like to draw a lot. They are ordinary children, but the pictures are scarce, on the walls, in the school, in the basement, in the village of Yahidne, in the Chernihiv Oblast region, where Russian soldiers converted an ordinary rural school into a concentration camp. They gathered all the inhabitants of the village there, everyone in the basement, adults and children, older people, women and children—less than 200 m2 for more than 360 people. Possibly you have not heard of this place. But I want to tell you about him. Tell about the drawings in this basement in Yahidne, in which the children drew what any child in any country draws, their friends and relatives, their life, their dreams, soccer players, others their heroes. The children tried to write verses of our National Anthem on the walls, and the adults did calculations on the walls. How many days passed in that basement, and how many people died, unable to bear those conditions? Their last names are up to now on those walls. I visited this place yesterday; I saw it. From March 3 to 30 of last year, there was a concentration camp in Yahidne. At first, people were allowed to go outside, one by one, sometimes, at least to the bathroom; and then they took that away from them, not a minute of sun or sky, the darkness of the basement, the confined space, the dust, and a bucket instead of the bathroom. We know precisely about ten deaths. The people could not bear it. We also know of those shot in the village and those who disappeared. And now I don't want to speak publicly about what the occupiers started doing when people said they had to bury the dead. It was hell on earth, hell that came to Ukraine together with the Russian army. It is possible that on the continent, in some countries, there are still some positive or nostalgic memories about the period of relations with the Soviet Union or about Russia that appeared after 1991. Still, this concentration camp in Yahidne is characteristic of the enemy we have to deal with. Why was it necessary to mock people like that? What is the reason for keeping an entire village in inhumane conditions in a basement for three weeks? It is the fascism of the 21st century. That's how it works. It is a dictatorship. That's how it works. And when we ask our partners for arms, we ask for them only for defence. We have recovered almost 1,900 Ukrainian towns and cities thanks to our defenders. Yaguine I s one of those villages. There are many villages, towns and cities that received even worse treatment. They were just burned. Imagine a town that was very strong before. For example, almost all the buildings were destroyed in Zaporizhia, Kherson Oblast, Ukraine, where more than two thousand people lived. 96% are damaged by bombing. This is how Russia came. Imagine more than fifty almost-destroyed villages in at least one region. Imagine a city famous for tens of years for its industry with its seaport, and now it is a dead city, dead for Russia—our Mariupol. Just imagine one of the most significant Ukrainian values. For hundreds of years, they have been fertile fields that made the land prosperous in the south of our country; in the east, areas now contaminated with Russian mines. Many times the Russian missiles that did not explode from the missile systems are on this earth, reminding us that in the aggression of one State against another, there can be no justification. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Chilean people, we still have to liberate more than 1,900 cities and towns in Ukraine from Russian evil. That is why we created the coalition of countries that help Russia to defend our national independence and the lives of our people. That is why I proposed the peace formula last fall. These are ten points capable of restoring security to Ukraine and restoring to Europe and the whole world the stability violated by Russian fascism. That is why we are going to support you, the Chilean people. Life always has equal value, the highest value. Nothing in the world justifies the extermination of the lives of civilians, the subjugation of free peoples, and bandit attacks on other countries for profit. I am very grateful to the Republic of Chile for condemning the Russian aggression; for the support of the respective resolutions of the UN General Assembly. I am very thankful to the President of Chile, Gabriel Boric, for our significant agreements, particularly for his country's participation in humanitarian demining in our land. This is all that 174,000 km2 of our territory contaminated with Russian mines needs. We are building a global coalition to accomplish these and other tasks like them, and I am sure we will.

Burning villages and towns cannot be a norm anywhere in the world. The torture chambers with which someone wants to subjugate people cannot be typical. Concentration or filtration camps where they gather people and where people die cannot be the norm. Wars like the one Russia is now carrying out against Ukraine cannot be a norm since Russia itself, converted, cannot and will not be a norm. It is a fascist state, a terrorist state, and a state of evil. A State that deserves to be treated fairly by the world, to be treated as a criminal. Chilean people, Ukraine invites you to join our peace efforts. Your vote at the UN in support of the renewal of the security and territorial integrity of Ukraine is always crucial; your participation in the realization of the points of our peace formula, and that may not only be humanitarian demining, but it will also surely give more strength to the rules-based international order. I invite you to support our efforts for world food security, which depends on the joint efforts of all countries because large areas of our land are contaminated with mines or are in bombing zones. Russia is blocking our ports and shipping in the Black Sea. The food market is destabilized. We have managed to unlock a part of supplies, but the world needs more so that the volumes in the market and the prices of groceries on all the continents are stable. You can be leaders of the stabilization efforts of your continent. Please support the efforts of the International Criminal Court, which recently issued an arrest warrant against Russia's dictator in the case of the forced deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia and an attempt to destroy their identity through illegal assimilation and adoption, illegal adoption with living relatives. There is no crime that Russia has not committed in waging this war. No town can be indifferent or neutral to this evil because we are all human; we all want the children of our towns to be happy; be safe; study; and enjoy life; and not draw on the walls in captivity, in basements and the fields. Thank you very much for your attention. Thanks for the support. May the dictatorship always lose, and life always wins. Glory to Ukraine."

The entire session can be seen at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/live/XiX2rLrH9n0?feature=share

Regarding the treatment of Ukrainian children, please see the pictures of the concentration camp set up by the Russians in the village of Yahidne.

https://www.infobae.com/america/fotos/2022/04/08/25-fotos-de-yahidne-el-pueblo-ukraniano-saqueado-donde-los-rusos-encerraron-a-mas-de- 300-inhabitants-in-a-basement-many-did-not-survive/

Let us also think of the Ukrainian boys and girls kidnapped by the Russian army.

As the General Prosecutor of Ukraine reported, almost 500 Ukrainian boys and girls have died, and nearly 1,000 were injured, most of them from the Donetsk region.

What kind of human rights does the Argentine government claim to defend?

More than ever, I want to value parliamentary diplomacy and convey to the reader why it is essential, especially in the face of governments like the current one that do not respect State policies and that act against national interests and with their backs to the people.

Although headed by the executive branch of the day (the government), foreign policy is developed based on precedents and, in particular, respecting the National Constitution, international treaties and laws. Among these precedents are the guidelines that, set within the framework of the Nation's foreign policy, are considered "of State", that is, those that have been adopted with high levels of consensus and maintained over time by governments of the different political sign. One of them is the Argentine policy of "human rights" in its international dimension, which was violated in the case of Ukraine.

Why is parliamentary diplomacy important?

Because unlike "official" diplomacy, exercised by the governments in power, where a principle of hierarchy prevails to which the political authorities of the national government and the diplomatic corps must submit, parliamentarians are "peers", and the relationship that, therefore, is of the "horizontal" type.

The Congress of the Argentine Nation not only recognized specific powers in matters of foreign and defence policy, such as the ratification of treaties, the extension of agreements for the appointment of diplomats, and the authorization for the entry and exit of troops, among many others. Also, powers are recognized in matters of political representation and parliamentary control.

Legislators can promote requests for reports from the executive branch related to foreign policy issues, make petitions, and even promote statements with a particular political orientation, which, if they achieve the proper support (the votes), can become decision-makers adopted by one of the two chambers or by Congress itself.

When analyzing specific cases, such as the violation of human rights in Ukraine, it is appropriate to determine whether the position of the President and the ruling party in Argentina belongs to a "State" or "Government" foreign policy.

The conclusion is that the foreign policy of the ruling party is "of the Government" (it is not shared with the opposition) and that it violates a "State" policy (the protection and promotion of "human rights").

Since it is severe, the Argentine political community should take note and act accordingly.