In 2008, students and teachers from the Don Orione de Wilde School and activists from the People's Children organization were reportedly subjected to threats, acts of intimidation, attacks and kidnappings for taking part in a "Hunger is Crime" campaign against malnutrition among children in Argentina. On 24 July 2008, Gerli, a boy from the Don Orione charity's John XXIII orphanage, was kidnapped, taken into a car and threatened by a group of heavily armed masked men. On the night of 26 September 2008, a teacher from the same orphanage was kidnapped and heavily beaten by a group of hooded assailants who demanded he end his involvement in the campaign. On 3 October 2008, another teacher from the same orphanage was threatened in the same way.358

On 4 April 2007, police officers killed Carlos Fuentealba, a member of the Neuquén Association of Teachers, during a hunger strike for better wages. He was hit on the back of the head by a tear gas canister fired from two metres away by a member of the Zapala Police's special forces. The officer was later charged with voluntary manslaughter.359

[Refworld note: The source report "Education under Attack 2010" was posted on the UNESCO website (www.unesco.org) in pdf format, with country chapters run together. Original footnote numbers have been retained here.]

358 International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders Annual Report 2009 (FIDH, 2009), 153.

359 International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), 2008 Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights (ITUC, 2008).

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