UN Human Rights "Expert" Has Served as a Paid Advisor to Argentina

UN Human Rights "Expert" Has Served as a Paid Advisor to Argentina

December 3, 2014 You'll remember we posted about a certain UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) letter one of our members received a while back. The UNHRC issued its formal response this past week. Didn't see it? That's because it was issued on Thanksgiving Day, when the entire country was on vacation. Give it no mind, as the letter simply regurgitated many of the Argentine government's inaccurate claims. Coincidence? Apparently not. It turns out that the Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt on the enjoyment of human rights, Mr. Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, worked (or is it works?) for the Argentine government for years. According to a profile of him from the NYU Past Global Fellows from Practice & Government,

"Since 2005 he has been working for the Argentina state. He played a leading role in the nationalization of the Buenos Aires water company (AySA), of which he was consequently appointed managing director representing the federal government. He was rapporteur of the Argentinean judge in the arbitral case "Impregilo v. Ente Binacional Yacyretá" in the International Chamber of Commerce, and later became the institutional coordinator of the defendant in this case. He is now working as a consultant to the National Defense Minister of his country."

It's unclear from the website whether Bohoslavsky still works for the government, but either way, it is clear he was employed by the Kirchner government for years. That's rich given his title at the UN is "Independent Expert" and more so given the fact that President Kirchner recentlylost her composure in a letter to Obama and threatened relations between the two countries would worsen over her discovery that ATFA co-chair Nancy Soderberg also serves on a U.S. government advisory committee on document declassification.  Unlike Soderberg, who is not paid for her service, Bohoslavsky has been, or might still be on the payroll of the Argentine government. Speaking of the UN, a great piece was written this week on the UNHRC's support of Argentina, and on the country's desperate attempts to drum up support for a legal framework for sovereign debt restructurings. The article, written by two Heritage Foundation scholars for Fox News.com and titled Argentina's Debt Crisis: Country turns to UN to avoid accountability, stated,

"Rather than learn anything from this unhappy history, however, Argentina is opting for stubbornness, bullying and intimidation of its debt-holders, all with a helping hand from the United Nations, as it refuses to pay back bondholders for billions of dollars."

The article went on to remind everyone that the UNHRC's council "includes some of the world's worst human rights violators in its membership," and noted that "Argentina's latest default  is different from earlier defaults, which were driven by economic crises. The 2014 crisis, though rooted in a previous $100 billion default that occurred 13 years ago, is a deliberate—and unnecessary—choice of the Argentine government." The authors then explained to readers that "following the court's ruling, Argentina could have complied or at least paid interest on the bonds while trying to renegotiate a more favorable debt arrangement. Instead, this summer it decided to pay nothing, abandon negotiations, and rely on demagoguery to press its case in the court of public opinion." The piece ended by stating that the US opposed Argentina's efforts at the UN, and that "U.N.-endorsed demagoguery is no way to resolve a problem of habitual economic and fiscal incompetence. Unfortunately, however, it may be an effective means for seducing other countries to join Argentina in the misery of being a financial pariah." We couldn't have said it better ourselves.

To find out more, visit www.factcheckargentina.org and follow us on Twitter @ATFArgentina.