The Buenos Aires Legislature set up a “Special Monitoring Commission for Video Surveillance Systems” of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires, following the request of several organizations and based on irregularities found by the justice system in the facial recognition mechanism.
“We regret that the devices that the law provided for in order to regulate the operation of the cameras have not been generated before. After this, we assume the responsibility to work to think about security from a Human Rights perspective”I point out this Friday to Télam the Buenos Aires legislator of the Front of All (FdT) Victoria Montenegrowho will be one of the members of this instance.
Commission settings
The commission was created by means of a decree signed by the first vice president of the Legislature, Emmanuel Ferrario, from the government party Let’s Go Together.
Among the members will be the president of the Justice commission, María Inés Parry, from the UCR-Evolución bloc, and the president of the Security commission, Paola Michielotto, from Vamos Juntos.
There will also be Facundo del Gaiso (Let’s Go Together), Victoria Montenegro (Frente de Todos) and Roberto García Moritán (United Republicans).
In this way, Montenegro is the only member that represents an opposition bloc, since Let’s Go Together, UCR-Evolution and United Republicans are part of the Together for Change interblock.
The creation of this commission was planned from October 2020 in the Buenos Aires law 6,339, but the Legislature had not conformed it.
For Montenegro, this was due to a “political decision by the head of government,” Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, that the local Legislature “does not regulate or follow up on the measures taken by the City Government.”
In the Buenos Aires Legislature, Together for Change has 32 deputies, out of a total of 60.
Last Monday, the Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS), Amnesty International, the Association for Civil Rights (ADC), Vía Libre Foundation and the Observatory of Argentine Computer Law (ODIA) asked the Buenos Aires Legislature to create the commission , based on the irregularities denounced and verified by the Justice on the use of the Buenos Aires Government of the facial recognition mechanism.
