[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 147 (Wednesday, October 16, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7533-S7534]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RECOGNIZING JANET HINOSTROZA
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I want to bring to the attention of my
colleagues a courageous Ecuadoran journalist who has been recognized by
the Committee to Protect Journalists International Press.
Janet Hinostroza has anchored the investigative news show ``30 Plus''
for the past decade and hosted the news program ``La Manana de 24
Horas,'' both on the private Ecuadoran television channel Teleamazonas.
She also hosts a radio program on 98.1 FM Mundo and is the local
correspondent for Univision, while managing a production company
specializing in journalistic programming and audiovisual products.
Ms. Hinostroza has attracted the wrath of the Ecuadoran authorities
for reporting on such important issues as human and arms trafficking,
the Ecuadoran police, corruption, and extrajudicial killings. She
recently investigated a scandal involving a loan by a state-owned bank
to a businessman who defaulted. I am informed that her reporting
uncovered irregularities in the loan and connected the businessman to
the then-head of Ecuador's central bank, who was President Rafael
Correa's cousin. As a result, she received anonymous phone calls
threatening her safety and she had to temporarily leave her television
news program.
Teleamazonas, like many Ecuadoran news outlets that engage in
reporting critical of the government, is regularly targeted with
harassment by official censors. Ms. Hinostroza's program is required to
designate regular time slots, legally reserved for reporting official
information in times of crisis, to present presidential rebuttals to
her reports, contrary to Ecuador's broadcast laws.
In recognition of Ms. Hinostroza's brave and important work and
commitment to fighting for a free press, next month the Committee to
Protect Journalists will award Ms. Hinostroza the International Award
for Freedom of the Press.
Unfortunately, the harassment of Ms. Hinostroza is only one example
of a steady deterioration of democratic principles in Ecuador. It is
the responsibility of democratic governments to foster an environment
of pluralism, and nothing is more basic to that than public access to
information from a free press. Instead, the Ecuadoran Government has
carried out a relentless assault on the media, and recently it went a
step further by restricting the autonomy of nongovernmental
organizations.
A decree adopted in June creates burdensome new procedures for
nongovernmental organizations, both Ecuadoran and international, to
obtain legal status to operate in the country. Like a free press, civil
society plays a crucial oversight role in any democratic society. The
Ecuadoran decree is similar to what we have seen in other countries
whose repressive governments are using laws and decrees to silence
their critics.
I ask unanimous consent that excerpts from a recent report by Human
Rights Watch about the Correa government's latest efforts to
consolidate power and silence its critics be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From Human Rights Watch, Aug. 12, 2013]
Ecuador: Clampdown on Civil Society
(Washington, DC).--Ecuador should revoke a presidential
decree that grants far-reaching powers to the government to
oversee and dissolve nongovernmental organizations, Human
Rights Watch said today.
On June 4, 2013, President Rafael Correa adopted a decree
that creates new procedures for Ecuadorean nongovernmental
organizations to obtain legal status and requires
international organizations to undergo a screening process to
seek permission to work in Ecuador. The decree also grants
the government broad powers to intervene in groups'
operations. It gives the government authority, for example,
to dissolve Ecuadorean groups for ``compromis[ing] public
peace.''
``The Correa administration has damaged free speech,
expending a lot of its energy focusing on the media, and now
it's trying to trample on independent groups,'' said Jose
Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch.
``Officials can now essentially decide what groups may say or
do, seriously undermining their role as a check on the
government.''
Correa presented a draft proposal of a similar decree in
December 2010, but it was shelved after criticism from local
and international groups.
Under the decree, the authorities are creating an
electronic Unified System of Information of Social Groups,
which would store documentation from organizations.
Ecuadorean organizations are required to file a series of
documents to obtain legal status and approval of their by-
laws. Groups have one year from the publication of the decree
on June 20 to present the required paperwork.
Government officials from ministries related to the work
done by the group--for example, the Health Ministry if the
group works on health-related topics--review the
documentation and have the authority to grant or deny the
group legal status. Once they obtain legal status, groups
must inform authorities when they select directors and a
legal representative and if they add or remove members. They
must also provide the government with information about
projects with international funding, and get government
authorization to revise their by-laws.
The decree limits groups' ability to choose who can be a
member or participant, undermining their right to free
assembly, Human Rights Watch said. The decree imposes on
Ecuadorean groups an obligation to respect the ``right'' of
anyone who ``due to their place of residency or having a
specific labor, institutional, union, occupational, or
professional qualification directly related to the objective
or nature and/or purposes of the organization, is interested
in participating in it.'' Groups with certain territorial
coverage or those that are ``the only ones in their
location'' may not reject people with a ``legitimate
interest'' in participating.
The government officials who grant a group legal status
have broad monitoring powers to make sure that it only
carries out `authorized' work. Officials may dissolve a group
if they consider the organization is ``mov[ing] away from the
objectives for which it was created,'' or if it is involved
in activities that ``compromise public peace'' or ``interfere
with public policies that undermine national or external
security of the state.''
International groups seeking to work in Ecuador must
request permission from the Technical Secretariat of
International Cooperation, providing information on the
``purposes and work they wish to carry out in the country.''
They have to provide documents that ``demonstrate [their]
legal existence,'' including their by-laws in Spanish. The
government will then ask Ecuadorean embassies and consulates
in countries where the international group operates for
information about the ``legality, solvency, and seriousness''
of the organization. Based on this information, it will
decide whether to sign an agreement with the international
group to authorize it to work in Ecuador.
The decree also imposes vaguely defined prohibitions on
international groups--for instance, they are not allowed to
conduct activities that ``undermine security and public
peace.'' It also allows government officials to monitor a
group's activities ``to ensure the true fulfillment of its
obligations'' and to revoke the international agreement if
they decide the group violates it.
On August 7, a lower court judge rejected a constitutional
challenge filed by Fundamedios, an organization that monitors
freedom of expression, against the decree. The group has
filed an appeal, which remains pending before the courts.
Under international law, however, as part of their duty to
promote and protect human rights, governments must ensure
that human rights defenders are allowed to pursue their
activities without reprisals, threats, intimidation,
harassment, discrimination, or unnecessary legal obstacles.
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights held in 2003 that
``[r]espect for human rights in a democratic state depends
largely on human rights defenders enjoying effective and
adequate guarantees so as to freely go about their
activities, and it is advisable to pay special attention to
those actions that limit or hinder the work of human rights
defenders.''
The rights to freedom of expression and association may be
subject to limitations, but the limitations must adhere to
strict standards so that they do not improperly impede the
exercise of those rights. Any restrictions should be
``prescribed by law, necessary in a democratic society, and
proportionate to the aim pursued'' and should not ``harm the
principles of pluralism, tolerance and broadmindedness.''
Article 16 of the American Convention on Human Rights
states that the right of freedom of association ``shall be
subject only to such restrictions established by law as may
be necessary in a democratic society, in the
[[Page S7534]]
interest of national security, public safety or public order,
or to protect public health or morals or the rights and
freedoms of others.''
In 2012, the UN special rapporteur on the rights to freedom
of peaceful assembly and of association has called on
countries to ensure that these rights ``are enjoyed by
everyone and any registered or unregistered entities'' and
that no one is subject to ``harassment, persecution,
intimidation or reprisals'' for exercising them. Moreover,
the rapporteur has stated that, ``[s]uspension or involuntary
dissolution of associations should be sanctioned by an
impartial and independent court in case of a clear and
imminent danger resulting in a flagrant violation of domestic
laws, in compliance with international human rights law.''
``Instead of adopting reasonable measures to facilitate the
work of nongovernmental organizations, the Correa
administration is following the lead of countries such as
Russia, Bahrain, Uganda, and Venezuela, which have imposed
unjustified restrictions that violate fundamental rights and
limit spaces that are critical to democratic society,''
Vivanco said.
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