José Delfín Acosta Martínez y familiares, Argentina

A selection of key paragrap(s) can be found below the report.

91. The Commission cannot fail to note that both Mr. Acosta and the Da Luz brothers were foreigners and Afro-descendants, a fact that José Delfín Acosta himself underscored during the police operation. As indicated previously, rules allowing the police to deprive a person of liberty based on suspicions and for citizen security reasons, if they are not accompanied by proper safeguards to ensure objectivity, end up being used arbitrarily and based on prejudices and stereotypes regarding certain groups who happen to be traditional victims of discrimination, such as persons of African descent. Thus, given the existence of edicts that did not establish said safeguards, the total lack of objective grounds given in this specific case and the circumstances surrounding it, including José Delfín’s own assessment of what was happening — which was not disproved by the State through any diligent investigation — the Commission determines that his detention was not only illegal but, given the lack of legal definition (tipicidad) of the scope of the powers used, also arbitrary and discriminatory.