[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 15996-15997]
[From the U.S. 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

[[Page 15997]]

     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 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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