EUROsociAL+ support to Public Defender’s Office (PDO) for ensuring access to justice in the area of ESCR for people who are vulnerable
The “Workshop on Access to Justice in the area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR)” took place at the Public Defender’s Office (PDO) as part of the project “Promoting access to justice in the area of economic, social and cultural rights (Phase 1: diagnosis and roadmap)” which is supported by EUROsociAL+.
At the opening of the meeting, the Ombudsman, Stella Maris Martínez, stated that a significant part of the work of the Public Defence Service (PDS) in the interior of the country is linked to violations of economic and social rights. However, she said that “we are still not getting to all the people that we need to get to; we need to open more channels because there are people who do not know that they have certain rights and others who do know but do not know where to turn to get them enforced”. She therefore concluded that “we [the public defenders] must inform the people that we can channel their rights”.
The main aim of the project is to strengthen the institutional abilities of the PDO to ensure access to justice in the area of ESCR for people who are vulnerable. This first phase consists of a diagnostic analysis that seeks to determine more precisely the demands relating to ESCR that exist in the different regions of the country, the types of cases that come to official public defenders and the obstacles existing for access to justice regarding these topics.
As part of the diagnostic work, the workshop was led by the international expert Camilo Sánchez León, LL.M. from the University of Harvard, Doctor of Law from the National University of Colombia and currently research director at the Centre for Studies in Law, Justice and Society (DEJUSTICIA).
During the event there was a roundtable coordinated by the PDO through its Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Programme, led by Sebastián Tedeschi and International Institutional Relations Unit, led by Sebastián Van Den Dooren. Representing the PDO were Eduardo Peralta (official public defender to the Federal Courts of First and Second Instance of General Roca), María Mercedes Crespi (official public defender to the Federal Courts of First and Second Instance of Córdoba), Martín Bomba Royo (official public defender to the Federal Courts of First and Second Instance of Salta), Guillermo Miguel Garone (official public defender to the Federal Court of First and Second Instance of Río Grande), Roxana Fariña (official public defender to the Federal Court of First Instance of Bariloche), Miguel Ángel Rossi (official public defender to the Federal Court of First Instance of Dolores), Gustavo Vargas (official public defender to the Federal Court of First Instance of Eldorado), Florencia Plazas (official public defender to the Federal Courts of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires), Julia Emilia Coma (official public defender to Federal Court of First Instance No. 1 of Lomas de Zamora) and Mariano La Rosa (official public defender to the Federal Courts of Fiscal and Tax Enforcement). Also present were the coordinators of Programmes and Commissions for the PDO, César Balaguer (official public defender – Migrant Commission), Mariano Gutiérrez (assistant defender – PDO Work Team at Access to Justice Centres), Guillermo Todarello (official public defender – Prisons Commission), Gustavo Iglesias (official public defender – Programmes and Commissions coordinator), Rosana Feliciotti (Health, Disability and Elderly Adults Affairs Programme), Raquel Asensio (Gender Affairs Commission) and Analía Alonso (Social Problems and Community Relations Support Programme).
Others participating were Alicia Beatriz Alcalá (general defender of the province of Chaco), Maximiliano Benítez (general defender of the province of Entre Ríos), Luis Duacastella (deputy general defender of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires), Andrea Pescarmona (coordinator of the Public Defender’s Office of the province of Mendoza), Patricia Aranda and Victoria Galende (representing the General Defender’s Office of Chubut), Mariano Marcelo Mascioli (Santa Fe Criminal Defence Public Service), Cecilia Donate (General Defender’s Office of Río Negro), Víctor Abramovich (attorney general to the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation), and Ezequiel Nino (Chief of Staff of the National Ministry of Justice and Human Rights National Directorate for the Promotion and Reinforcement of Access to Justice).
From civil society, there were representatives of various social organisations and NGOs: Ana Laura Lobo (ANDHES), Sebastián Pilo (ACIJ), Santiago Cané (FARN), Vanina Piccardo (TECHO), Elizabeth Aimar (RALS), Nicolás Caropresi (Confederation of Workers in the Popular Economy), Ana Dones (REDI) and Mariana Incarnato (DONCEL).
From the information collected at the workshop, the international expert from EUROsociAL+ will work with a local team to draw up a draft Road Map and outline the activities that will be implemented in the second stage of the project.
Área de políticas de gobernanza democrática. Democratic governance area / EUROsociAL+. Defensoría General de la Nación / Public Defender’s Office
