Right Livelihood Award Laureates call to end human rights violations in Chile

The open letter “No more human rights violations in Chile” is signed by 28 Right Livelihood Award Laureates, two Latin American campuses of the Right Livelihood College and other members of the Right Livelihood College. After 20 days of massive protests in Chile and after serious human rights violations and repression by state security forces, Laureates from around the world express their support for peaceful protests and call on the Chilean government to listen to the citizens claiming social justice. 

We, the undersigned Laureates of the Right Livelihood Award, widely known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize”, wish to express our dismay and rejection of the violence deployed by “Carabineros” and other military and police forces in Chile against citizens exercising their right to peaceful protest. So far, October 23, 2019, and according to data provided by the National Institute of Human Rights (INDH), there were 18 deaths, 535 people injured (210 by firearms) and 2,410 arrests. With total impunity, even the detention of girls and boys has been carried out. In this context of violence and death, we manifest the following: The direct responsibility that President Sebastián Piñera has in the situation generated, not only for having aggravated the dramatic situation of the poorest sectors with an unconscious increase in transport tariffs but also for having ordered and allowed the armed forces savagely repressed peaceful protests.

1. Everything indicates that the president of Chile did not enforce the provisions of the Constitution for cases of exception, and that he should therefore be charged by the Justice and eventually tried. Chile has been and is in a de facto state of siege.
2. We denounce internationally that the totality of the actions deployed by the Chilean military forces was illegal because the Constitution was violated and people were arrested during the curfew (“Toque de Queda”), in open violation of the regulations in force. For Chilean legislation, the simple fact of not respecting the curfew is a fault with fine penalties, not a crime.
3. We strongly support the Judges of Chile in dismay at the situation in that country, who have declared that they will investigate to the last consequences all human rights violations that were committed and continue to be committed.
4. We accompany the presentation made by the constitutional lawyer of Chile, Jaime Bassa, before the Human Rights Commission of the Senate, where he showed that the actions of the armed forces of Chile are illegal and exercise what is called “De facto State Violence” They do not have legal support to do so.
5. We denounce that military forces have detained people in unqualified places, kidnapped people in their homes, abused and tortured in a framework of open illegality and impunity.
6. We request the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) to urgently send sellers to collect information and testimonies about the serious human rights violations that occurred and continue to occur in Chile.
7. What must prevail in Chile is dialogue and respect for the laws, not blind violence and the illegality allowed ironically from the State itself.
8. We stand in solidarity with the peaceful protest of the citizens of Chile, and we summon all the social actors of the entire world to ensure that the provisions of the Chilean Constitution on states of exception are applied, and that the brutal and illegal repression cease immediately.
9. For peace there is no need for weapons and cruelty. Social justice, equity, respect for human rights, respect for minorities, gender balance, real democracy and participation are needed.

We want to finally communicate that all those who sign this Open Letter: the laureates with the Alternative Nobel prize; the two Latin American Campuses of the Right Livelihood College (the Córdoba Campus of the Faculty of Psychology of the National University of Córdoba in Argentina and the Valdivia Campus of the Universidad Austral in Chile), as well as members of the Right Livelihood College (1), we are attentive to the answers given by the authorities of the Executive Power, the National Congress and the Judicial Power of Chile. We also commit ourselves to spread internationally any new human rights violations that occur in Chile.

In Memoriam of Manfred Max Neef, from Chile, Alternative Nobel Prize 1983 (Right Livelihood Award)

(1) The Right Livelihood College (RLC), the College of the Recipients of the Alternative Nobel Prize, has campuses in universities of nine countries: University of Lund (Sweden), University of Bonn (Germany), University of Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), University of Port Harcourt (Nigeria), University of California Santa Cruz (USA), Austral University of Valdivia (Chile), National University of Córdoba (Argentina), Tata Institute of Social Sciences (India) and School of Welfare-University of Chulalongkorn (Thailand). Its Global Secretariat is located in Bonn (Germany).

Signatories

Laureates of the Right Livelihood Award

Joan E. Garcés, España
Premio Nóbel Alternativo 1999
(Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1999)

Tony Clarke, Canadá
Premio Nóbel Alternativo 2005
(Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2005)

Monica Hauser / Medica Mondiale, Alemania Premio Nóbel Alternativo
(Right Livelihood Award Laureate )

Jacqueline Moudeina, Chad
Premio Nóbel Alternativo 2011
(Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2011)

Comisión Pastoral de la Tierra (CPT), Brasil Premio Nóbel Alternativo 1991
(Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1991)

Movimiento de los Trabajadores Rurales Sin Tierra (MST), Brasil Premio Nóbel Alternativo 1991
(Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1991)

Swami Agnivesh, India
Premio Nóbel Alternativo 2004
(Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2004)

Maude Barlow, Canadá
Premio Nóbel Alternativo 2005
(Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2005)

Sima Samar, Afganistán
Premio Nóbel Alternativo 2012
(Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2012)

Martin von Hildebrand / COAMA, Colombia Premio Nóbel Alternativo 1999
(Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1999)

Daniel Ellsberg, Estados Unidos (USA) Premio Nóbel Alternativo 2006
(Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2006)

Fernando Funes Aguilar, Cuba Premio Nóbel Alternativo 1999
(Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1999)

Fernando Rendón / Festival Internacional de Poesía de Medellín, Colombia Premio Nóbel Alternativo 2006
(Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2006)

Walden Bello, Filipinas
Premio Nóbel Alternativo 2003
(Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2003)

Yetnebersh Nigussie, Etiopía
Premio Nóbel Alternativo 2017
(Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2017)

Anwar Fazal, Malasia
Premio Nóbel Alternativo 1982
(Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1982)

Raúl Montenegro, Argentina
Premio Nóbel Alternativo 2004
(Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2004)

L. Hunter Lovins, Estados Unidos (USA) Premio Nóbel Alternativo 1983
(Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1983)

Erik Dammann / The Future in Our Hands, Noruega Premio Nóbel Alternativo 1982
(Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1982)

John F.C. Turner, Reino Unido
Premio Nóbel Alternativo 1988
(Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1988)

Henk Hobbelink / GRAIN, España Premio Nóbel Alternativo 2011
(Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2011)

Angie Zelter / Trident Ploughshares, Reino Unido (UK) Premio Nóbel Alternativo 2001
(Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2001)

Alice Tepper Marlin, Estados Unidos (USA) Premio Nóbel Alternativo 1990
(Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1990)

Martin Almada, Paraguay
Premio Nóbel Alternativo 2002
(Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2002)

Dipal Barua / Grameen Bank, Bangladesh Premio Nóbel Alternativo 2007
(Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2007)

Theo van Boven, Holanda
Premio Nóbel Alternativo 1985
(Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1985)

Fernando Basil / AHRC, Hong Kong SAR, China Premio Nóbel Alternativo 2014
(Right Livelihood Award Laureate 2014)

Helen Mack Chang, Guatemala Premio Nóbel Alternativo 1992
(Right Livelihood Award Laureate 1992)

Latin American Campuses of the Right Livelihood College

Campus Valdivia, Right Livelihood College, Chile
Universidad Austral, Chile
Christian Henriquez, Coordinador del Campus / Campus’ Coordinator

Campus Cordoba, Right Livelihood College, Argentina
Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina
Raúl A. Montenegro, Director del Campus / Campus’ Director

Members of Right Livelihood College Campuses

David Shaw, Right Livelihood College, Campus Santa Cruz, USA.
Ángela Morales Araya, Right Livelihood College, Campus Valdivia, Chile.
Bárbara Siegenthal, Right Livelihood College, Campus Córdoba, Argentina.
Francisco Rapela, Right Livelihood College, Campus Córdoba, Argentina.
Dolores Hernández, Right Livelihood College, Campus Córdoba, Argentina.

Contact

Raúl A. Montenegro
Email: biologomontenegro@gmail.com
Cell Phone / WhatsApp: +54 9 351 5 125 637
Phone: +54 3543 422236
Skype: raulmontenegro.ar