Chile Human Rights

Human Rights Concerns

There have been slow advances in justice in Chile, despite some positive developments. Torture and ill treatment remained matters of concern. Indigenous Mapuche activists were subjected to human rights violations.

Chile submitted its third periodic report on the implementation of the UN Convention against Torture. In response, the UN Committee against Torture, while noting a number of positive developments, expressed concern that certain legislation, including the Amnesty Law, jeopardized the full exercise of fundamental human rights and entrenched impunity. It also criticized the definition of torture used in Chilean legislation and several aspects of the mandate of the National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture, set up by the government in 2003 to identify victims of torture under the military government and propose reparation measures.

Human rights violations continued to occur in the context of land ownership disputes, affecting the Mapuche community especially.