The guarantee system of rights of Uruguay continues to show signs of weakening, he warned International Amnesty in its 2023/24 annual report. In addition to situations in detention and freedom of expression centers, the difficulty of access to public services mental health and the drinking water quality They were points of particular concern in the country for the organization.
The warnings of Amnesty regarding the prison situation, as well as the impunity of crimes against humanity during the dictatorship are not new; but in each report they deepen the alarm scenario. The same thing happened regarding the improper use of the State security apparatus, starting with the trial against the former presidential custodian. Alejandro Astesiano; and about the lack of “effective measures to address the violent crimes, a topic that, in addition, became central during times of electoral campaign.
But in the report published on Wednesday by the international organization – which reviews the present in the access to rights in all countries of the world during the last year—, drew attention to two issues closely related to the particular situation of the country: access to mental health, on the one hand, and the quality of drinking water, on the other.
Mental health for everyone?
On March 1, 2023, in his annual speech Accountability before him Parliament, President Luis Lacalle Pou announced an investment of 20 million dollars in mental health and addiction prevention and treatment programs. In fact, it was the only new budget item announced and enabled during the year, although little else has been done about it.
However, Amnesty’s annual report points out as one of the major pending issues the persistence of obstacles to accessing public mental health services “due to insufficient availability of appointments in a context of increased demand at the national level.”
In this regard, the organization exemplifies with figures from the Ministry of Health which, in 2022, registered “823 deaths by suicide, which represented a rate of 23.2 suicides per 100,000 inhabitants, more than double that of the rest of Latin America”.
The issue of addictions also influences security and violent crimes, where organized crime and drug trafficking play a fundamental role in the expansion of violence. Far from advancing a comprehensive approach that works not only from punitivism but also from prevention and support, the government resorts to paths that are, in principle, controversial: such is the case of the law of mandatory State to assist homeless people that will be voted on in May in Deputies, which enables state organizations to remove these people against their will.
What the drought left
The historic drought What did you experience Uruguay During the past year, it has revealed the work pending to be done in terms of the quality of drinking water and access to this vital resource. During the first semester, part of the metropolitan area was affected by the shortage of water suitable for consumptionnot only because of the smaller quantity but also because of the conditions in which the liquid reached homes.
“In July, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation and UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights They urged the government to prioritize water for human consumption. According to the organization State Sanitary Works and the information provided by the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of the Republicthe considerable increase in salinity levels had been affecting for some time the quality of the drinking water consumed by more than 60% of the population, especially the most vulnerable groups,” Amnesty stated, in summary, in its report.
In this regard, the government is working on the construction of a new drinking plant in Saint Joseph, known as the Arazatí project -either Neptune-, But progress takes time, as well as a large investment. Work is expected to begin in the second half of the year.
Source: Ambito
