The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) [official website] on Friday urged [press release] Argentina to release activist Milagro Sala who has been detained since the beginning of the year in the Jujuy province. Milagro Sala [AP report], an elected parliamentarian, was detained in January after participating in protests. The commission held that the detainment violates international rights, which uphold protests as legitimate forms of speech. They called on Argentina and the province of Jujuy to end her pretrial detainment.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) urges the State of Argentina to give prompt attention to the decision issued by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention that establishes the preventive detention of Milagro Sala as arbitrary, calling for her immediate release. The UN Working Group, in its opinion 31/2016 [opinion, PDF, in Spanish] published on October 21, determined that the preventive detention of Milagro Sala as from January 16 was arbitrary in violation of the standards of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights [official text] to which Argentina is a Party.

Sala’s arrest and detainment come at a time where Argentina is undergoing political change. Former Argentinian president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner went before a judge in October for questioning [JURIST report] as part of the investigation into her alleged corruption for granting public works contracts. An Argentine federal court concluded [JURIST report] a human rights trial in August against military officers during the dictatorship era and acquitted five defendants and sentenced 28 to life and 10 to between two-and-a-half and 21 years in prison. In March a judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York lifted injunctions [JURIST report] blocking Argentina from paying its restructured debt.