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ITF joins international campaign to stamp out human rights violations in El Salvador
26 May 2005
The ITF has pledged to stand by its international partners in their condemnation of El Salvador’s poor human rights record, most recently exemplified by the expulsion of a leading trade union adviser.
The federation made the statement in a letter to Salvadorean President Antonio Saca on 16 May. This strongly denounced the violent ejection of Dr Pedro Enrique Banchon, adviser to Salvadorean doctors’ union Sindicato de Medicos Trabajadores del Instituto Salvadoreño del Seguro Social on 28 April. It also called for the return of Banchon, an Ecuadorean national married to a Salvadorean, and respect for human and trade union rights as outlined in the International Labour Organization (ILO) convention on migrant workers and the Inter-American Charter on Human Rights.
Banchon was accused of carrying out political activities – non-nationals are prohibited by law from doing so – and of attempted corruption.
The ITF along with South American ITF affiliates – the Argentine Centro de Capitanes de Ultramar y Oficiales de la Marina Mercante, the Peruvian Sindicato Nacional de Marinos de Ultramar, Fluviales, Lacustres y de la Marina Mercante del Peru and Unión Centros de Marinos of Uruguay – promised to join an international campaign against rights violations in El Salvador and for Banchon’s return.
On 4 May, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, the European Trade Union Confederation and the World Labour Confederation sent a joint letter to the European Commission outlining why El Salvador should not benefit from the Generalised System of Preference. This guarantees trade benefits for countries doing business with European Union member states. El Salvador, states the letter, has failed to ratify ILO conventions on trade union freedom and collective negotiation; ratification of these and other labour and human rights conventions should remain a precondition of inclusion in the system.
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