Inter-American Human Rights Commission hears many complaints, issues initial findings

by Willy Carrera Loza

During its recent three-day visit to Panama, the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, a branch of the Organization of American States, received numerous complaints at its temporary headquarters in the Hotel El Panama. The commission also issued a preliminary report while it was here, stating that Panama has made advances in the human rights field, but that major problems exist with respect to the penal institutions, freedom of expression and the courts. The commissioners then returned to Washington, where they will elaborate a more comprehensive report on this country's human rights situation.

At a press conference, the commissioners called for "definitive actions" to be taken "without delay" to remedy the problems cited in their initial findings. Commission president Claudio Grossman bluntly stated that the Panamanian prison system is "gravely" afflicted by overcrowding and linked it to the high percentage of inmates awaiting trial in preventive detention and an unacceptable backlog on the criminal courts' dockets. According to Grossman the commission has found that the Panamanian government must make a more serious effort to reduce prison overcrowding by cutting the number of people who must await their trials in detention. "What is more," he added, "the commission has received information that there is no classification of inmates, and found that pre-trial detainees and convicts live together in the same cells."

The commissioners called the situations in the La Joya and La Joyita penitentiaries "really deplorable, after they found more than 4,000 men housed in facilities with capacities for about half that number. As a result, they noted, many prisoners are obliged to sleep on the floor, or on hammocks slung from cell bars, and the sanitary facilities are "deteriorated and insufficient. They called conditions at the two correctional facilities a health hazard.

On the subject of freedom of expression in Panama, the commissioners expressed their concern that despite promises made during special rapporteur Santiago Canton's visit in July of last year, to date there has been "no progress" toward broader guarantees of this freedom. They said that they had received numerous complaints that Panama's Attorney General, Jose Antonio Sossa, has embarked on a "systematic campaign" against journalists. Grossman said that the many complaints indicate that Sossa has abandoned the impartiality required of a nation's top law enforcement official and warned that the commission will investigate these allegations.

Grossman said that the criminal penalties imposed for news reports about public officials or private individuals who voluntarily immerse themselves in questions of public interest are a "disproportionate sanction," given the roles that free expression and access to information must play in a democratic society. The commission's initial report advised that, as a means to control abuses by public officials, those with government responsibilities must have less protection against public criticism than that enjoyed by private individuals who are not involved in public affairs, and concluded that laws protecting the "honor" of public officials "unjustifiably" give them legal protection that other members of society do not enjoy.

 

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