Submitted by CRIN on
SUMMARY: A compilation of extracts featuring child-rights issues from the reports submitted to the second Universal Periodic Review. There are extracts from the 'National Report', the 'Compilation of UN Information' and the 'Summary of Stakeholder's Information'. Also to be included will be the final report and the list of accepted and rejected recommendations.
Chile - 18th Session - 2014
Tuesday, 28 January, 09:00 - 12:00
National report
Compilation of UN information
Stakeholders' information
Accepted and rejected recommendations
National Report
9. Within the framework of the Human Rights Council, Chile promotes the integration of the human rights of women and the gender perspective (Res.6/30), good governance and the work of civil society; it also actively participates in the thematic issues of childhood and disability and in strengthening the human rights treaty bodies and special rapporteurs, whose autonomy and independence it upholds. Chile believes that a constructive dialogue with all the mechanisms is a prerequisite for ensuring the efficacy of the multilateral system of protection.
V. Achievements, best practices and challenges
A. Women
Recommendation 22: The right to health and sexual and reproductive rights
38. In 2010 Act No. 20.418 was enacted. The Act sets norms on information, counselling and services regarding birth control and establishes government policy on sex education and free access to emergency contraceptives in the public-health system. In 2011, 36 per cent of women of childbearing age used contraceptives provided by the Ministry of Health’s birth-control programme.
39. SERNAM caters for pregnant women and adolescent mothers through its AMA programme. In addition, the Specialized Centre for Care and Support during Motherhood answers calls and provides free counselling for anyone facing problems relating to motherhood or fatherhood.
Recommendations 25 and 26: Work
41. Action by the Government has been primarily centred on increasing training for women and enhancing their employment and entrepreneurship opportunities and secondly on helping them to achieve a life-work and on encouraging men and women to share responsibility for family life. This has been implemented via four programmes: (a) the programme for working women heads of households; (b) the 4 to 7 programme, which provides support for women caring for children aged from 6 to 13 years of age, in the form of after-school educational and recreational activities for children; (c) the women in business programme; (d) the good labour practices programme.
42. In September 2013, the Government submitted a bill to introduce social security for pre-primary education at the cuna (up to 2 years of age) and medio menor (from 2 to 3 years of age) levels; the purpose of the bill is to ensure that pre-primary education is available to all working women.
B. Children and adolescents
44. Chile Crece Contigo (Chile grows with you) (CHCC) is a comprehensive child- protection subsystem under the responsibility of the Ministry of Social Development. Its purpose is to enhance child development, and in particular the development of vulnerable children (recommendation 56). CHCC provides individualized follow-up of the development of children during early childhood and combines benefits and specific services in accordance with their needs at each stage of their growth. It also provides support for the families and communities in which children grow up in order to ensure that they do so in suitable conditions and in an environment that is appropriate, friendly, inclusive and hospitable and which meets the specific needs of each Chilean child. Access to nurseries and kindergartens is one of the specific services for vulnerable children that is guaranteed by the Act governing the subsystem. In 2012, CHCC catered to a total of 895,573 pregnant women and children.
Recommendation 50: Reintegration of young people
45. In June 2013, a total of 14,162 adolescents (1,495 female and 12,667 male) were serving some form of criminal penalty in Chile. Of the total, 12.9 per cent (5.6 per cent of the total number of females and 12.3 per cent of the males) were serving their sentence in a closed or semi-closed centre while the remaining 81.1 per cent were serving their sentence outside.
46. In 2012, as part of the effort to strengthen reintegration, the Adolescent Criminal Responsibility Act was amended so as to allow adolescents to leave closed centres for education, work or training. Another step forward has been the implementation of the 11 measures of the so-called Plan for Youth, which are designed to improve living conditions on premises where they are deprived of their liberty. To this end, among other measures the budget assigned for training young persons serving a sentence either in or outside a closed centre was increased from US$ 271,834 in 2012 to US$ 1,152,645 in 2013. In addition, training has constantly been provided for staff, in particular those who work directly with adolescents, with a total amount of US$ 278,804, being assigned to train 539 staff members in all Chile’s closed centres.
Recommendation 53: Combating the worst forms of child labour
47. Chile is engaged in a variety of efforts to combat the different forms of violence affecting children and adolescents, including the worst forms of child labour and commercial sexual exploitation of children. As well as helping to implement the Second Framework for Action 2012–2014, under the leadership of the Ministry of Justice, SENAME operates 16 specialized projects for the victims of the commercial sexual exploitation of children in 10 of Chile’s regions. In 2012, these programmes catered to 1,209 child and adolescent victims – 995 female and 214 male. At the same time, 94 specialized intervention programmes continued to operate throughout Chile along with 120 Offices for the Protection of Rights to prevent commercial sexual exploitation of children.
48. Since 2010, an annual course on the commercial sexual exploitation of children, involving some classroom teaching, has been provided by the Inter American Children’s Institute under the technical leadership of SENAME; the course is designed for members of teams dealing with the commercial sexual exploitation of children, teams working with street children, teams from comprehensive intervention programmes and for representatives of relevant public agencies. In 2012, training was provided for 170 professionals.
49. An intersectoral panel deals with the worst forms of child labour; its objectives include the drafting of a protocol on the provision of care for the victims of commercial sexual exploitation of children and the development of agreements to make it possible for them satisfactorily to return to school. A single register of the worst forms of child labour has been developed, which consolidates information on all children and adolescents whose rights have been violated by economic exploitation, in order to coordinate this task. In 2012, the system registered 870 cases, 63 per cent of which concerned males and 37 per cent females. A total of 83 per cent of the cases detected involve persons over 15 years of age.
Street children and adolescents
50. Between January and June 2013, SENAME attended to 422 street children and adolescents through seven projects nationwide. A technical panel also convenes representatives from the projects in order to review methods of intervention and to further develop the gender and sexual diversity focus in designing joint strategies. For its part, the street children programme of the Ministry of Social Development catered to 178 children in six of Chile’s regions.
C. Migrants
Recommendations 56 and 71: Refugees
53. Act No. 20.430 on protection of the rights of refugees was promulgated in 2010, thereby fulfilling Chile’s international commitments in this area. The new legislation lays down a broad definition of the term refugee, recognizes the principles of non-refoulement, the higher interests of the child, family reunification and cost-free issue of documents. The Act also clearly sets out the rights of refugees, lays down a procedure for awarding refugee status and the grounds on which that status may be withdrawn.
The rights of migrants
55. Chile has implemented a policy to accept and integrate migrants by applying the principle of encouraging regular resident status. The State guarantees all migrants certain rights, regardless of their migratory status, such as labour rights, health rights for pregnant women, the right to schooling and preschool education for children and adolescents and access to the Child Protection Network and the Network to Protect Victims of Domestic Violence.
D. Indigenous peoples
Health and education
73. In respect of culture and education (recommendation 64), the Language Rescue Plan was launched in 2012 after it had been found that only 11 per cent of the indigenous population speak and understand their language. Ten thousand people were trained during the Programme’s first year. In addition, more than 150 intercultural kindergartens, which use teaching tools based on the culture of the indigenous peoples, have been established. The teaching of indigenous languages is provided in 44 of them.
74. The bilingual intercultural programme (recommendation 55) has made it possible to teach the indigenous language in schools. In 2013, its coverage extended to 500 schools and more than 60,000 pupils. In addition, between 2010 and 2013 five secondary schools of multicultural excellence were established all of them in the Araucanía region.
75. In 2012, the number of scholarships awarded to indigenous students rose significantly to the historic figure of 69,758 worth a total of US$ 24,186. The funds allocated to the 13 indigenous students’ homes increased by US$ 331,776.
E. Persons with disabilities
78. In addition, the National Service for Persons with Disabilities (SENADIS) has signed a number of agreements to ensure that disability is included as a variable in the programmes and policies of public and private bodies. Noteworthy among them are the agreement with the Ministry of Education (MINEDUC), which in 2012 alone made it possible to award more than 300 scholarships exclusively to higher-education students with disabilities and the implementation, in 2013, of projects worth more than US$ 679,009 to improve access for higher-education students with disabilities.
H. Persons deprived of liberty
89. In Chile, in 2012 women made up 8.7 per cent of the prison population. In the same year, a round table of State and civil-society institutions was organized to address prison policy from a gender perspective. The round table gave rise to a number of initiatives, such as the social skills for women programme — designed to develop their personal empowerment and reduce the likelihood of them becoming repeat offenders — and the Open Roads programme — a comprehensive strategy to provide support for the children in the womb or breastfed children whose mother is deprived of her liberty.
K. Economic, social and cultural rights
Education
106. Education has been one of the main thrusts of the Government’s efforts. Since 2010, a strategy to resolve three of the main problems facing education in Chile — funding, coverage and quality — has been deployed; this has involved an increase of more than US$ 3,300 million10 in resources allocated to education between 2010 and 2014, equivalent to an increase of 35.3 per cent. In 2014, the Ministry of Education will have the largest budget of all the ministries, US$ 9,445,866 million, representing 21 per cent of the entire annual budget of the central Government.
107. In the legislative sphere, there have been several significant steps: the adoption of Act No. 20.501 on quality and equity in education; of Act No. 20.529 establishing the national system to ensure the quality of and to supervise preschool, basic and intermediate education; of Act No. 20.536 on violence in schools and of Act No. 20.637 to increase State subsidies to educational establishments. The draft constitutional reform, which was submitted in June 2013, is also vital to the attainment of these objectives. Under the reform, preschool education, which is the stage during which the principal cognitive and non- cognitive developments take place, will become mandatory.
Education in rural areas
108. The level of coverage of basic education in rural areas in Chile is 94 per cent. The challenges requiring a response in this area mainly concern the attainment of national standards of learning, the provision of better technical and educational facilities and expanding the coverage of preschool education. In order to take up these challenges, a range of policy measures have been implemented. These include the nationwide presence of 379 “Rural Microcentres for Teachers”, which are local support networks for teachers in rural areas, covering 62 per cent of rural schools; the “Escuela +” (School +) programme, which offers access to virtual teaching tools; the Enlaces (Links) programme, which supplies and updates computer equipment for rural schools and develops specialized interactive teaching tools for rural schools, thus enhancing the connectivity of education in rural areas; rural school transport to help overcome absenteeism because of distance or accessibility and the preschool and nursery school programme whose aim is to ensure that the obligation to provide education and full formal educational coverage for children aged from 4 to 5 is attained by 2015. In addition, a range of preferential benefits have been maintained to guarantee the education of the most vulnerable children in rural areas, together with special bonuses for teachers who teach in rural schools (recommendations 55 and 56).
Human rights education
109. The second article of the General Education Act, which was adopted in 2009, stipulates that “Education is the process of permanent learning that embraces the different stages of peoples’ lives and which (...) is based on respect for and appreciation of human rights and fundamental freedoms.” Accordingly, the primary education curriculum includes teaching pupils to understand and appreciate the natural, social and cultural environment, together with specific classes on the rights of the child. Secondary education explores these subjects in greater depth and also includes the study and examination of the human rights violations that occurred under the dictatorship. Lastly, a survey carried out in higher education establishments as part of the World Programme for Human Rights Education of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), found that 48.2 per cent of them include the development of human rights as a subject in their strategic corporate plans and that 63.5 per cent have included it as a specific subject in the curriculum (recommendation 17).
Compilation of UN information
31. In 2011, several special procedures had sent a communication on allegations of the disproportionate use of force and the arrest of demonstrators. According to reports received, high school and university students had carried out several protest marches. In August 2011 protests were alleged to have taken place in the city of Santiago and in 12 other towns in the country. The State police and security forces had responded with excessive use of force. More than 500 persons were said to have been arrested, many of whom were minors. Similarly 14 students and some hundred police had reportedly been injured. The Government had sent detailed replies.
32. The Working Group on Disappearances recommended that Chile regularly review the Carabineros’ operational protocols for mass demonstrations and assess their practical application, and immediately register all cases of deprivation of liberty during mass demonstrations. In the case of minors, families must be notified as soon as possible.
37. CMW noted that there were still cases of human trafficking82 and CEDAW expressed concern at the lack of preventive measures to address the root causes of trafficking. It was recommended that Chile protect victims and provide legal and medical assistance, including temporary residence permits, protection shelters, social rehabilitation and reintegration programmes.
38. UNHCR welcomed the adoption, in 2011, of Law No. 20.507 regarding trafficking in persons. It however remained concerned about adequate protection for trafficking victims. UNHCR recommended that the Government develop a standard operating procedure for the identification of victims of trafficking and those who may be in need of international protection.
C. Administration of justice, including impunity, and the rule of law
41. UNCT noted that the Adolescent Criminal Responsibility Act did not establish organically specialized courts. Several institutions, including the Supreme Court, had recognized the problems arising from the lack of specialization in the juvenile justice system. UNCT recommended that the State party establish by law judges and courts specializing in children’s rights.
D. Freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, and right to participate in public and political life
48. CEDAW was concerned at the reported disproportionate use of violence by the police, including sexual abuse against female students during social protests. CERD, CAT and CEDAW raised similar concerns.
F. Right to health
55. CEDAW deeply regretted that parliamentary initiatives aimed at decriminalizing abortion had failed. It reiterated its concern that abortion remained a criminal offence in all circumstances. It urged Chile to review its legislation on abortion with a view to decriminalizing it in cases of rape, incest or threats to the mother’s health or life. UNCT recommended that the State party bring existing legislation into line with CEDAW recommendations regarding the decriminalization of therapeutic abortion in order to protect women’s right to life and health.
56. UNCT reported that in 2013 the State party had approved the regulation for Act No. 20418 on exercising the right to receive birth control guidance, including the distribution of the emergency contraceptive pill to minors under the age of 14 years. UNCT recommended that the State party guarantee universal access to sexual and reproductive health throughout the national territory, with an emphasis on adolescents and young people and ensure the implementation of Ministry of Health Decree No. 49, which orders the issue of the emergency contraceptive pill to minors over 14 years of age.
G. Right to education
58. At the end of her visit to Chile in 2011, the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights stressed the importance of adopting a human rights approach in the education sector, considering that education was a key right, as asserted in a number of international instruments.
59. UNESCO indicated that Chile had some of the deepest and most persistent education inequalities in Latin America. Recent reforms were attempting to strengthen equity by expanding and improving early childhood care. CEDAW was concerned about high illiteracy rates among rural and indigenous women. UNESCO recommended that the Government continue to focus on overall improvement in the quality of education provided, in particular in rural areas, and ensure expansion of the bilingual intercultural programmes for minorities.
60. UNCT welcomed the increase in public expenditure on education as a percentage of the national budget. Challenges remained, however, in terms of access to some educational levels, to quality education for all and accessibility.
61. While welcoming the introduction of a penalty for schools that exclude students on the ground of pregnancy, CEDAW was concerned about the increasing number of teenage pregnancies causing high school dropout and about the persistence of school expulsions on the ground of pregnancy.
62. CMW remained concerned that some schools reportedly refused the re-enrolment of migrant children who had not regularized their immigration status.
H. Cultural rights
63. CERD recommended revitalizing the indigenous languages and promoting the use of indigenous languages in primary and secondary education.
I. Indigenous peoples
65. The Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples noted the advances made in the socio-economic situation of indigenous peoples but considered that a wide gap still existed compared with the non-indigenous population in terms of the enjoyment of economic, health and education rights.
73. UNCT reported that the use of the Counter-Terrorism Act for the prosecution of indigenous persons had been criticized. Between 2010 and 2011, 48 persons had been brought to trial under the Counter-Terrorism Act, 32 of whom had links with the Mapuche people. The Act had been modified so that the law would not be applied to minors under 18 years of age under any circumstances. CERD recommended that Chile reform the Counter-Terrorism Act (No. 18.314) to ensure its application only to terrorist offences and not to members of the Mapuche community for acts of protest or social demands. CAT had similar comments.
J. Migrants, refugees and asylum seekers
78. CEDAW was concerned that the exception to the jus soli principle relating to foreigners in transit was systematically applied to migrant women in an irregular situation, and that their children could not receive Chilean nationality at birth and could only opt for Chilean nationality within a period of one year following their twenty-first birthday. CMW was also concerned about cases of children of parents in an irregular situation who could find themselves in Chilean territory without a nationality. CERD encouraged the State party to ensure that the draft bill for the amendment of the Migration Act provided that migrant workers in an irregular situation could apply for Chilean nationality for their children if they did not have another nationality.
79. CERD noted the regularization of the migratory status of pregnant migrant women and the access for migrant children to the public health-care and education systems. CMW recommended that Chile establish a national information system on migration.
80. CMW was concerned about the obstacles to family reunification reportedly faced by some migrant workers and the absence of a legal framework regulating family reunification.
Stakeholders information
Information provided by the accredited national human rights institution of the State under review in full compliance with the Paris Principles
2. Instituto Nacional de Der echos Humanos (INDH) drew attention to the promulgation of the Anti-Discrimination Act (No. 20,609), which covered discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation. The definition of the offences of trafficking and smuggling of human beings (Act No. 20,507) had been extended to include forced labour, slavery and the removal of organs. Act No. 20,519 stipulated that anti-terrorist legislation should not be applied to minors.
B. Implementation of international human rights obligations
5. INDH reported instances of abuse by the police and has filed 14 complaints of torture. There have also been complaints of sexual abuse of adolescents committed by police officers during demonstrations and sexual abuse of indigenous children and women committed during police raids in indigenous territories.
10. INDH said that the State should enforce Act No. 20,418, which requires municipalities to supply the morning-after pill to all women requesting it. There has been no change in the criminal provisions governing abortion, which continue to exclude any possibility of exemption from criminal liability. A group of lawmakers submitted a bill on therapeutic abortion in 2012.
11. INDH said that the right to education was being undermined by two discriminatory mechanisms: school fees and pupil selection. The right to education should be included within the scope of the judicial safeguard afforded by the remedy of protection established in the Constitution.
I. Information provided by other stakeholders
16. Joint Submission 1 (JS1) and Joint Submission 10 (JS10) recommended that Chile ratify the third Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
2. Constitutional and legislative framework
22. Joint Submission 2 (JS2) recognized that, despite significant legislative progress, the State had not finalized reforms that would incorporate the Convention on the Rights of the Child in national law. JS10 stated that a bill on comprehensive protection for children that is not consonant with the Convention is before Congress.
3. Institutional and human rights infrastructure and policy measures
27. JS2 considered that the institutional situation in relation to services for children and young people was alarming. Programmes designed to protect children’s rights were run separately from social monitoring programmes. JS2 recommended that the State establish a specialized ombudsman’s office for children which enjoyed organizational and operational independence.
28. JS3 expressed concern about the lack of effective public policies focused on preventing the alarming number of teenage suicides in Chile, including among persons belonging to the LGBTI community. JS3 recommended that the State ensure that its policy for addressing teenage suicide is adequate and gives due attention to particularly vulnerable groups.
III. Implementation of international human rights obligations
A. Equality and non-discrimination
33. JS7 stated that teenage pregnancy rates and levels of homophobic and transphobic bullying are still rising. JS7 urged the State to take action to prevent discrimination and violence on grounds of gender identity and sexual orientation in educational establishments.
35. Ciudadano Global (CG) said that various forms of discrimination against different groups, including migrants, still existed. According to JS2, severe discrimination persists against indigenous children, migrants, refugees, persons with disabilities, persons from disadvantaged social and economic backgrounds, and persons living in rural areas. Discrimination is most widespread in health care and education.
B. Right to life, liberty and security of the person
38. JS3 stated that public demonstrations had been severely repressed in recent years. Many of those arrested claimed to have been tortured and ill-treated. Girls had even reported various forms of sexual violence. F-1367 reported that in 2011 alone a total of 15,807 persons had been arrested as a result of social mobilization activities at the national level. Legal proceedings had been brought against 114 of these persons, 28 of them had received some form of sentence and only 3 had been remanded in custody. F-1367 also highlighted the practice of forced nudity for minors. It recommended that the State investigate, punish and provide redress for abuses suffered by teenagers, children and young people in the context of social mobilization activities during the past 23 years.
44. JS3 stated that the Domestic Violence Act (No. 20,066) addresses violence against women in a fragmented manner and that there are persistent shortcomings in the provisions governing its application, such as the requirement that the abuse be habitual. The scant budget and the lack of a preventive approach, of protection for victims and of a centralized national register of cases of femicide remain major weaknesses. JS7 said that lesbian victims of domestic violence and transgender women, who are constantly abused, are not recognized as victims under the protection system. CIMUNDIS regretted the lack of accurate information about the incidence of sexual violence against women and girls with disabilities. JS3 recommended the adoption of a comprehensive law on violence against women.
45. The Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children (GIEACPC) reported that corporal punishment of children was lawful in Chile. GIEACPC hoped that States would make a specific recommendation that legislation is enacted to explicitly prohibit the corporal punishment of children in the home and in all alternative care settings.
47. JS1 highlighted the adoption of laws to prevent and combat the sexual exploitation of children. The areas that require most attention are connected with the development of public-sector prevention and victim support policies. JS1 recommended the adoption of programmes to prevent the sexual exploitation of minors, particularly through the use of new technology.
48. The Unified Federation of Workers (CUT) highlighted the lack of a policy for eliminating child labour. Informal child labour continues in various sectors of production, particularly in farming, shops and street vending. About 67,000 children under 15 years of age and around 102,000 teenagers aged between 15 and 17 are working. JS2 recommended the organization and operation of a child labour intervention network in which each institution is given specific functions and preset budgets. JS10 called on the State to prepare a report on child labour containing reliable figures.
C. Administration of justice, including impunity, and the rule of law
53. Associazione Comunità Papa Giovanni XXIII (APGXXIII) recognized that much had been done within the Juvenile Justice System following the implementation of the Law on the Penal Liability of Teenagers (Act 20,084 of 2007). However, the Government should draft a policy guaranteeing children and teenagers in conflict with justice a proper trial and promoting effective social reintegration. APGXXIII recommended the State to guarantee an effective and sufficient specialization of the stakeholders in the Juvenile Justice System, and adopt suitable tools to begin a constructive dialogue with civil society involved in this topic.
D. Freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, and right to participate in public and political life
56. In August 2011, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) expressed its concern regarding acts of violence during the student protests in August 2011, which included the detention and disproportionate use of force against hundreds of protesters, including high school and university students. IACHR urged the State to adopt the necessary measures to ensure full respect for the rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association, imposing only those restrictions as may be strictly necessary.
G. Right to health
64. JS3 stated that in the field of sexual and reproductive health the situation was critical. Abortion is still illegal and the State has not even initiated any democratic debate on the issue. Furthermore, although health-care facilities are under a legal obligation to offer forms of contraception, this requirement is not respected because municipal authorities impose restrictions on the distribution of certain contraceptives on ideological grounds. JS3 recommended that the State amend its legislation so that abortion is no longer a criminal offence, in order to guarantee the exercise of sexual rights and prevent maternal deaths caused by clandestine abortion.
H. Right to education
69. JS2 stated that the education system continues to be marred by institutionalized discrimination on the basis of children’s social and economic background. The Corporación Nacional de Prevención del Sida (ACCIONGAY) said that discriminatory mechanisms remain in place in the education system in that educational establishments are permitted to exclude students on the basis of the social class, race, religion or gender of the children or their parents.
70. CG stated that although accessing the right to education had become easier for migrants in a regular situation, children of migrants in an irregular situation had major difficulties. It also noted that discriminatory acts in educational establishments were often linked to the presence of migrants.
J. Indigenous peoples
72. JS8 reported that more than one third of the Mapuche lived below the poverty line and less than 3 per cent received education beyond high school. JS6 stated that the highest levels of poverty were to be found among indigenous women, who also had the lowest levels of political participation and access to education and employment in Chile.
K. Migrants
80. JS3 noted that the Aliens Act of 1975 does not guarantee migrants’ rights and is unsuited to the current migration situation. JS3 also expressed regret that children born in Chile to foreign nationals in an irregular situation do not have the right to Chilean nationality. JS3 recommended that the State should establish a legal framework for the protection of migrants’ rights and guarantee that children born in Chile have the right to Chilean nationality.
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