Buenos Aires, Jun 27 (EFE).- The Argentine federal courts have accepted the request by the Women for Justice Network to declare unconstitutional the Executive Branch’s proposal to appoint two more men to the Supreme Court of Justice, according to the NGO Amnesty International Argentina.
The Women for Justice Network – made up of judges and judicial officials from different jurisdictions and courts in Argentina – presented a lawsuit on June 18 of unconstitutionality of the nomination of federal judge Ariel Lijo and constitutionalist Manuel García-Mansilla made by the Government of Javier Milei, considering that “it violates its conventional, constitutional and regulatory obligations.”
In order to admit the application for processing, the Argentine State and Senate must submit within three days “a report giving an account of the public interest involved in the request,” that is, the Court is waiting for the relevant explanations to decide whether or not to issue a precautionary measure in compliance with the requested protection.
The case was filed before the 8th Federal Administrative Litigation Court, headed by Cecilia Gilardi Madariaga de Negre, reported the Network, which has the support of Amnesty International, the Latin American Justice and Gender Team (ELA) and the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL).
García-Mansilla is a lawyer expert in Constitutional Law who has been dean of the Faculty of Law of the Universidad Austral since 2019, and would take the place of Supreme Court judge Juan Carlos Maqueda, who will turn 75 on December 29, when the law will force him to abandon his position.
Lijo has been a federal judge since 2004 and has accumulated a large number of rejections. He would fill the vacancy left in the body by Elena Highton de Nolasco, who left the Supreme Court on November 1, 2021.
For both jurists to be new members of the Court, they must receive the support of a two-thirds majority in the Senate. That is why the Network has asked the Justice to order the Upper House not to begin the analysis of these documents until the claim of unconstitutionality is resolved, since advancing in that process would be – in their opinion – validating an unconstitutional act. .
According to AI Argentina, the proposal to appoint two men is unconstitutional because it “discriminates against women who meet the conditions to access the highest court,” “deepens the historical lack of representation of women” in the Supreme Court and “reinforces harmful gender stereotypes that reproduce the subordination of women.”
AI also considers that the appointment “goes against” constitutional obligations, international treaties with constitutional hierarchy and decree 222 of 2003, which regulates the appointment of Supreme Court judges, currently made up of four men.
For its part, the Network considers the Executive’s argument that the gender “requirement” is “in no way exclusive” for the nomination of candidates to be “erroneous.” EFE
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