Puerto Rico Human Rights Situation to be Denounced before OAS

San Juan, Mar 14 (Prensa Latina) For the first time, the Interamerican Commission of Human Rights (ICHR), attached to the Organization of American States (OAS) will hold in Washington a public hearing on the situation in Puerto Rico, it was known here today in this capital. The organization that has historically evaded petitions so the Puerto Rican reality under the colonial regime imposed by the United States is known, pretends to listen next Tuesday in its Washington headquarters the report of different Puerto Rican groups that advocate for human rights.



Among the main topics that Puerto Rican organizations will present to the attention of the ICHR, is the case of political prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera, who has been in jail for 33 years in the United States, 12 of them in solitary, for fighting for his homeland�s independence.



Lopez Rivera, 71, is condemned for seditious conspiracy due to the link he had with the already disolved Armed Forces for National Liberation (FALN) of Puerto Rico, which operated in the 70 and 80 decades of the past century in New York and Chicago.



Another issue to be presented is the situation of women rights, the community LGBT, migrants, racism, xenophobia, human traffic and child abuse, included their right to an inclusive education of excellence.



Another issue to be denounced is the U.S. pretension to apply the death penalti in this Caribbean island they invaded in 1898, despite being rejected by the people and what is established by the Puerto Rican constitution.



The ICHR has the power to emit decisions and statements on the violation of human rights in the United States, including Puerto Rico, which since 1952 is an associated free state to the U.S., allowing it to manage some domestic areas.



The government of Puerto Rico will have to respond publicly to the denounciations presented, what is considered an opportunity to adopt a plan of actions that attends seriously the charges of discrimination, institutional violence, inequality and lack of judicial response on such issues.

Puerto Rico Human Rights Situation to be Denounced before OAS