On International Human Rights Day, the Secretary of the Presidency, Álvaro Delgado, considered that the COVID-19 pandemic conditioned the free expression of human rights in health, economic, social and political issues. In addition, he announced the launch of the National Human Rights Plan and highlighted development, education, democracy, culture and the involvement of society as the main axes.
Under the slogan “Dignity, freedom and justice for all”, the event took place in the Torre Ejecutiva auditorium, with the presence, in addition, of the Secretary of Human Rights of the Presidency of the Republic, Sandra Etcheverry, and the president of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Ricardo Pérez Manrique
Also in attendance were the resident coordinator of the United Nations (UN) in Uruguay, Pablo Ruiz Hiebra; the former president of the Institute of Human Rights and Ombudsman, Mariana Blengio Valdés, ambassadors and national authorities.
The Secretary of the Presidency announced that Uruguay is finalizing the first national plan linked to human rights and highlighted development, education, democracy, culture and participation as the main axes of that document. It is a set of actions and goals, which are part of a common strategic conception. The plan will promote the inclusion and equal rights of the population and will allow the coordination of efforts to promote human rights among different State institutions.
He also referred to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health, economic, social and political aspects. “For me, it is important to refer to this version and vision of human rights, which is not the classic one, which is how the pandemic conditioned society in the free expression of different human rights,” he said.
In the same way, he expressed that the first human right that a government has to ensure in the midst of a pandemic is the right to health. In this sense, he recalled the actions related to investments in health and care. “There was never a shortage of respirators, CTI beds, there were vaccine supplies in a timely manner,” he said.
Likewise, he referred to the right to education and stressed that during the pandemic “Uruguay was the country that was without face-to-face classes in the Americas and the world for the fewest days.” Alluding to the rights of children, he mentioned the launch of the adoption campaign focused on children over 5 years of age and the actions of the Government that support early childhood. “In the middle of the pandemic, we allocate 50 million dollars a year to care for children from 0 to 3 years old,” he said.
Delgado affirmed that the Government made progress in strengthening the rights agenda, “with a constant concern to ensure the satisfaction of the country’s basic needs.” He also recalled that for the first time in the country’s history, Uruguay accessed a $5,500,000 loan from the Inter-American Development Bank exclusively for gender policies.
Etcheverry, for his part, stressed that human rights “must be the cause of our efforts and the reason for our greatest efforts,” adding that the commemoration of this day is an instance to remember and reflect on. He maintained that a restructuring is being developed in the Human Rights Secretariat, with the aim of positioning it “with doors open to the citizenry.” “We are articulators with everything related to population problems,” he said.
In addition, he announced that this secretariat is dedicated to the elaboration of the first National Human Rights Plan. In this sense, he stated that for the construction of the document, all State institutions are committing to sign commitments so that they are reflected in the plan, which will be presented next year.
