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Argentina

Monthly Event Reports

January 2023 | Tensions between President Alberto Fernandez and Judiciary intensify

As Argentina marks the beginning of an electoral year, President Alberto Fernandez formally requested that Congress impeach four Supreme Court justices. This follows a ruling last month in which the Court restored federal tax revenues to the opposition-controlled city of Buenos Aires. In the impeachment proceedings, the four justices are accused of violating Article 1 of the Constitution, which is meant to protect federalism in Argentina. The government is expected to present leaked communications as evidence of corruption which are purported to show improper coordination between members of the Court and opposition officials. President Alberto Fernandez claims the ruling was an “unacceptable intervention of the judicial power over other powers in Argentina, demonstrating the outrageous ties between part of the political class and the judiciary.” Opposition Congressmembers have condemned the impeachment request, alleging it is an undemocratic attack on the judiciary by the government. Similarly, Human Rights Watch warned the impeachment process was “an assault on the rule of law”. 

December 2022 | Vice-President sentenced to six years in prison for corruption and banned from public office

Confrontation between Argentina's Executive power and the Judiciary continued as Vice-President Cristina Fernández was sentenced to six years in prison and a lifetime ban from holding public office in the ‘Vialidad’ corruption case. The government criticised the ruling, on the eve of which President Alberto Fernández delivered a national broadcast that sought to discredit the judiciary.  Moreover, a potential constitutional crisis appeared to be developing after the federal Frente de Todos (FdT) coalition government led by President Alberto Fernández said it would not comply with a Supreme Court ruling on a tax revenue dispute in the city of Buenos Aires.

October 2022 | Minister of Women, Gender and Diversity resigns in protest over the eviction and arrest of indigenous women in southern Argentina

Argentina’s federal security forces evicted several Mapuche families from a territory considered sacred by the Indigenous community. Community members had inhabited the areas while demonstrating for better treatment of Indigenous Peoples in the country – part of a long-time struggle by the Mapuche for recognition of their language and cultural heritage, as well as for better economic treatment from the government. The event highlights an escalation in the government’s pressure on the Mapuche community to force them off the lands they claim, as well as the discrimination they continue to face. The operation (ordered by President Alberto Fernández’s government) was widely criticized as arbitrary and as contrary to the Mapuche community's human rights. In protest, Argentina’s minister for women, gender, and diversity, Elizabeth Gómez Alcorta, resigned and expressed her opposition to the operation.

September 2022 | Argentinian politics shaken by assassination attempt

The investigation into the assassination attempt of Argentina’s Vice President Cristina Fernández has shone a light on worrying radical groups that have emerged in Argentina out of hatred of the political class. This highlights how aggressive and radicalized politics has become in Latin America. The case has triggered further criticism from the government against the judiciary and media, which, it argues, is biased against Peronism. Some analysts see the attack as a step beyond political polarization, representing general disenchantment with politics as a whole rather than with a specific political position. They argue that mistrust and loss of legitimacy of the institutions of democracy are leading to anger with politicians, highlighting the importance for leading political figures to seek conciliation rather than stoke division.

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GSoD Indices Data 2013-2022

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Basic Information

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Population Tooltip
45 808 750
System of government
Presidential system
Head of government
President Alberto Fernández (since 2019)
Head of government party
Justicialist Party
Electoral system for lower or single chamber
List Proportional Representation
Women in lower or single chamber
44.8%
Women in upper chamber
43.1%
Last legislative election
2021
Effective number of political parties Tooltip
2.68
Head of state
President Alberto Fernández
Selection process for head of state
Direct election (modified two-round)
Latest Universal Periodic Review (UPR) date
06/11/2017
Latest Universal Periodic Review (UPR) percentage of recommendations supported
93.09%
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Human Rights Treaties

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State Party State party
Signatory Signatory
No Action No action
United Nations Human Right Treaties
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
State Party
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
State Party
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
State Party
Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women
State Party
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment
State Party
Convention on the Rights of the Child
State Party
International Convention on Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families
State Party
International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance 
State Party
International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
State Party
International Labour Organisation Treaties
Forced Labour Convention
State Party
Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention
State Party
Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention
State Party
Equal Remuneration Convention
State Party
Abolition of Forced Labour Convention
State Party
Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention
State Party
Convention concerning Minimum Age for Admission to Employment
State Party
Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention
State Party
Regional Treaties
American Convention on Human Rights
State Party
Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
State Party
in
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Attributes Over Time

Representative government neutral Representation
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Representative government neutral Rights
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Representative government neutral Participation
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Representative government neutral Rule of law
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GSoD Indices

Factors of Democracy
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