The report, based on the testimonies of victims, witnesses, civil society organizations and public authorities, details the rights violations inflicted by Chilean authorities. It reveals a situation of generalized abuse of human rights as a result of repression as a state policy throughout the country.
It states clearly that security forces, especially Carabineros de Chile, made excessive and disproportionate use of force to purposely punish and reprimand protesters. It also bears a series of recommendations that aim to guarantee the respect of memory, truth, and justice and suggests a reform of public institutions to prevent further occurrence of these regrettable events.
The confirmed human rights violations since the beginning of the social protest involve at least four extrajudicial executions by state agents and hundreds of cases of torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment during arrests and while in custody. Other violations accounted for include sexual abuse and rape on detainees, thousands of injuries caused by the inappropriate and abusive use of less-lethal weapons by security forces and massive arbitrary arrests.
The Mission’s conclusion leaves no doubt that the current situation of human rights violations in Chile cannot be understood outside of the political decisions which triggered it. Moreover, it affirms that these violations were the result of the adopted measures by all means inadequate to protect the population and end the unjustified, arbitrary and disproportionate state violence.
Artículo 19, World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), Perú Equidad, Alianza Global contra la Incineración de Basura (GAIA), Madres de Plaza de Mayo Línea Fundadora (Argentina), Liga Argentina por los Derechos Humanos (LADH), International Federation for Human Rights (IFHR), Central de Trabajadores de la Argentina (CTA Autónoma), Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS) and Comité por los Derechos Humanos en América Latina (CDHAL) participated in this mission.
Full report in Spanish here
Photo: Reuters