Situation of political prisoners in Chile (general policy of the Council of Europe - Human rights in the world)
Recommendation 830
(1978)
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 27 January 1978 (25th Sitting) (see Doc. 4115see Doc. 4115, report of the Committee on Population and Refugees). Text adopted by the Assembly on 27 January 1978 (25th Sitting).
- Thesaurus
The Assembly,
2. Recalling the Chilean Decree No. 77 of October 1973, condemning to exile persons suspected of upholding opinions contrary to those of the regime, and also Decree No. 504, of May 1975, giving political prisoners the right to have their prison sentences commuted into exile, provided they have an entry visa to another country ;
3. Condemning the principle of a legislation which forces opponents of the regime to choose between exile and prison ;
4. Having ascertained that a considerable number of convicted prisoners have been refused commutation of sentence despite the fact that they have received the required visa ;
5. Strongly condemning the attitude of the Chilean Government which is not even abiding by its own laws ;
6. Considering that most of the visas issued to convicted prisoners in Chile have been granted by Council of Europe member states,
7. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers :
invite the governments of those member states which have granted visas to Chilean political prisoners to press the Chilean authorities to allow such prisoners to have their sentences commuted into exile and to leave the country ;
urge all member states to continue to facilitate- pursuant to Assembly Resolution 608 (1976)- the admission and resettlement of Chilean political prisoners and refugees on their territory ;
in view of the seriousness of the situation throughout the southern part of South America (Argentine, Chile and Uruguay), also take the above-mentioned action in respect of Argentinian and Uruguayan citizens who are in similar circumstances.
