Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Estella de Carlotto, head of the human rights group Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, has been nominated for a Nobel peace prize. Working with the Abuelas, she has dedicated herself to finding the kidnapped children of victims of the 1976 – 1983 military dictatorship. Carlotto told the Argentine Daily Perfil that she was “very happy about the news and is hopeful that she could receive the prize in December”. This is now the fourth time that the Abuelas have been nominated.

The Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo was founded in 1977 in order to find the kidnapped children of political prisoners who were “disappeared” by the military regime. The organization dedicates itself to identifying the abducted children of victims and putting them in contact with their biological families. To help with this work, it has instigated the creation of a National DNA bank. So far the group has identified 101 children. It estimates that there may be around 400 more still to be found.

The Abuelas also strive to raise awareness of what happened during the dictatorship and to prevent similar crimes ever being committed in Argentina. Among other things, they have campaigned for torture facilities to be converted into national “spaces for memory”, dedicated to those who were killed.

Buenos Aires senator Daniel Filmus nominated the Abuelas for the prize. He said that “as an organization, the Abuelas not only give us an example of recovering the memory of the past, but also of looking for a better future.” Filmus said their candidacy “is intended to recognise no only the work of the Abuelas in defending human rights and working against the affects of the dictatorship in Argentina, but also the great impact that their work has had on a national and international level in terms of the right to identity.”

The Abuelas were recently involved in a legal case with the adopted children of owner of the Argentina daily Clarín. Felipe and Marcela Herrera Noble are suspected of being the biological children of victims of the dictatorship. However, they did not want to have their DNA compared with the National Data Bank. This has led to a protracted legal dispute about how to reconcile the families’ right to find their abducted grandchildren with the children’s right to privacy.