Chile | Lecture and discussion

Lecture and discussion on „Justice and human rights – Chile 50 years after the military coup“ with Carlos Margotta Trincado (President of the Chilean Human Rights Commission, CCHDH, Santiago de Chile) and Pedro Crovetto (economic, social and political scientist)

The human rights lawyer Carlos Margotta defended survivors of crimes against humanity committed during the Pinochet dictatorship in order to put an end to the systematic impunity for these crimes. He initiated court cases against those responsible for the enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions and torture. In 1987, he founded the Agrupación de Abogados Defensores de los Presos Políticos (Association of Lawyers in Defence of Political Prisoners). In the same year, he was part of the delegation of human rights organisations that took part in the sessions of the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva and denounced the violence of the dictatorship. In 1988, together with other lawyers, he founded the Chilean section of the Associación Americana de Juristas (AAJ). In 1994, he taught human rights at the law faculties of the ARCIS and Bolivariana universities. During the social protests in the course of the disputes over a new progressive constitution from October 2019, Margotta filed 64 lawsuits against the far-right president Sebastián Piñera and his interior and defence ministers for committing serious human rights violations against demonstrators. Under his leadership, the Chilean Human Rights Commission defended 26 political prisoners and secured their release. Margotta also initiated the preparation of an international complaint against Piñera and other political and military authorities, which was filed with the International Criminal Court (ICC) on 29 April 2020 for crimes against humanity. The investigation is pending.

Welcome: Dr Irmtrud Wojak (Fritz Bauer Forum, Bochum), Bianca Schmolze (Medizinische Flüchtlingshilfe/ MFH, Bochum)

Discussion moderator: Pedro Crovetto (social, economic and political scientist, Bochum)

The lecture will be translated from Spanish into German, followed by a discussion with the participants.

A joint event in the series of the Bochum Alliance „Solidarity and Remembrance“.

Photo: Diego Jimenez