Xumek is a non-governmental organisation made up of students and professionals from a variety of social science backgrounds, who have in the last number of years, brought to light cases of serious human rights violations. The organisation is independent of any political affiliation and its main objectives are to raise awareness of human rights abuses and the need to challenge them within society andprovide free advice and support to victims of human rights abuses. The organisation also promotes public policy related to the promotion and protection of human rights at a provincial, national and international level.

"My name is Pablo Salinas. I am a lawyer with a doctorate in law, a university lecturer and co-ordinator of human rights in the Mendoza Province, Argentina. I am 36, married with four children.

When I was 7 years old I was kidnapped with my mother by the armed forces in Córdoba Province. Under state terrorism, the 1976-1983 military dictatorship in Argentina kidnapped, tortured, murdered and left a toll of 30,000 disappeared.

My mother was tortured and raped. I was rescued by my maternal grandparents. My mother gained her liberty four years later in 1980. She was not taken to court but had to remain under state supervision.

Because of the damage suffered by my family at the hands of the military dictatorship I decided to study law and then to fight in defence of human rights.

In 2004 as a petitioning lawyer in the case of the Penitenciarias de Mendoza we won provisional measures from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights against Argentina to protect the position of inmates.

We also secured the admissibility of the case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

I represent around thirty families of the disappeared in the cases the Argentinian government has now brought against the repressive forces of the dictatorship of 1976- 1983, thanks to a judgement passed by the Supreme Court that ended the laws giving impunity.

I also represent the Ecumenical Movement for Human Rights (Movimiento Ecuménico por los Derechos Humanos) in the same cases against the repressive forces, and the Mendoza government will take action against them due to my intervention.

In April 2007 the office of my legal practice was the target of offensive graffiti and I received intimidating phone calls and threats. The office of the Ecumenical Movement for Human Rights of Mendoza, which brings cases against the oppressors, was also vandalised. The vandals were the AAA, a paramilitary organisation supported by the state in the dark years of dictatorship.

I was invited to the Front Line Platform in 2007 and I was moved by Mary Lawlor’s speech when she called us "fiery hearts" as it is only too clear that all those who defend human rights work in solitude, confronting risks all around them in their efforts to attain rights and advance democracy.

All states have an obligation to support our work and guarantee our security.

This is my modest testimony.

I urge everybody to continue fighting knowing we are not alone and more and more people are committing themselves to our struggle."