The project reaffirms the province’s unrestricted commitment to human rights, the fight against any form of discrimination, including antisemitism. Likewise, adherence to National Law No. 23,592 on discriminatory acts is indicated.
In addition, it adopts the definition of antisemitism established by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance; empowers the State Prosecutor’s Office to denounce in cases of antisemitism; urges the State to sue acts of discrimination and antisemitism; and stipulates the implementation of policies for the promotion of human rights, prevention of discrimination and antisemitism between the Ministry of Government and the General Council of Education.
Bordet delivered the project to the head of the Senate, Laura Stratta, in order to “go to a more just, inclusive, tolerant and democratic society,” he said.
The president of the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA) participated in the act . Subsidiary Entre Ríos, Pablo Soskin, and the head of the Israelite Association of Paraná, Daniel Soskin.The
president of the Chamber of Deputies, Ángel Giano, and the state prosecutor, Julio Rodríguez Signes, were also part of the act.
During the meeting, Bordet valued “everything we have been working on and that is summarized in different decrees and resolutions of the General Council of Education”, and stressed that the future Law “is a much stronger instrument that transcends government efforts”.
“As the organizations put it, this is embodied in a legal text,” stressed the provincial president, and stressed that the decision to translate these definitions into a law means “giving it a higher rank, which generates the commitment of all political forces.”, for which he hopes that “it will be approved unanimously”.
In addition, he trusted that “Entre Ríos is the first province to have an anti-discrimination and antisemitism law”, and called for progress “towards a more just, inclusive, tolerant and democratic society”.
“This was the commitment we had assumed. It is one more step in everything that we have been working together to solve specific cases. Compiling it into a law gives us the certainty that this policy will have projection over time”, explained Bordet.
Lay the groundwork
In her turn, Lieutenant Governor Stratta stated that the initiative “has to do with building a province that is tolerant, fair and discourages discrimination. There are instruments that have been marking this path, when they incorporated the concept of antisemitism in a decree, or the incorporation of the Shoah into the educational curriculum”, she remarked.
In the same sense, she considered: “This was a very valuable contribution that you wanted to make from the organizations and institutions. That is why we started working on this law that will lay the foundations to continue building a fairer province. The value is not only what the text proposes, but the articulated work that we have been sustaining throughout this time and that bears fruit”.
“If there is a characteristic that Governor Gustavo Bordet has had, it is to make social dialogue a cult, but above all to work so that this dialogue is later translated into concrete actions and that truly allow us to build a better society. This project is the result of that joint work. The truth is that we are very happy that it is the first province to have a law of these characteristics, which logically assumes this process and allows us to have a State policy in the province of Entre Ríos”.
Open doors
For his part, the president of the DAIA Subsidiary Entre Ríos, Pablo Soskin, spoke of “friends, more than officials, because we traveled a path in which we were able to understand each other and put ourselves in the place of the other, which is the most difficult thing as a society. As a man from Entre Ríos, one wants his province, his city, to be the first to take up the baton, the vanguard. It is not so normal that the doors are as open as we have them in that government to collaborate and work, “he remarked.
In this sense, he maintained that “when one finds the doors open, one tries to achieve more things. Today’s is not one more step because a circle that began with the Week of Shoah, which is the educational part, has been closed because if education does not exist, all the work we can do is always reaction and not education and prevention”.
“We have a province free of discrimination. Not only antisemitism, which is what refers to the Jewish community, but discrimination in general. That is why this law is important because it adheres to the anti-discrimination law and looks at all types of discrimination,” he insisted.
Then, he stated that “this province has zero tolerance for discrimination. When the governor says that there is no room for discrimination in this province, this is what the province is doing today. That is, beyond adhering to the concept of antisemitism of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance with all its examples, and adherence to the anti-discrimination law, the fact that through the State Prosecutor’s Office a commitment is made to denounce any act of discrimination in the province and sue in the federal, is what we call the first.
In this context, Soskin insisted: “The province of Entre Ríos is the first that, in the face of any act of discrimination or antisemitism, will denounce the fact and will become a plaintiff. Becoming a plaintiff means that the province feels the offense as its own,” he remarked before also mentioning the presentation of the development plan for the Circuit of Jewish Colonies that Governor Bordet made days ago.
“We are the ones who are taking the first step in issues as sensitive that for us continues to be a source of pride because we always want more building for all discriminated groups”, he pointed out.
By way of closing, he thanked the governor, the deputy governor, the president of the Chamber of Deputies and the State Attorney, in addition to all those involved in the project. “I congratulate this province, our province, for this achievement. We who were persecuted for so long, when we see a State take this measure, we really feel at home,” he concluded.
The bill
bill states that the province of Entre Ríos reaffirms its unrestricted commitment to human rights, the fight against any form of discrimination, including antisemitism. Likewise, adherence is indicated, insofar as it is a matter of its competence, to National Law No. 23,592 on discriminatory acts.
In addition, the definition of antisemitism established by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance is adopted, which indicates that it is a certain perception of Jews that can be expressed as hatred of Jews. The physical and rhetorical manifestations of antisemitism are directed at Jewish or non-Jewish persons and/or their property, at the institutions of Jewish communities and at their places of worship.
It is also indicated that the State, through the State Prosecutor’s Office, will file a complaint in cases in which events occur that fall within the definition of antisemitism and any other form of discrimination.
In another article, it is established that the State may file a complaint in cases that investigate acts of discrimination and antisemitism, and may act jointly with organizations with legal status that are committed to the fight against discrimination and antisemitism.
Finally, it stipulates that the Ministry of Government and Justice will implement policies for the promotion of human rights, prevention of discrimination and antisemitism, in coordination with the General Council of Education.
