In this regard, the report notes that "serious human rights violations in Chile since October 2019, during social protests, were not isolated allegations, but an expression of entrenched practices of state violence in law enforcement and security forces, which have been identified for years and have been largely verified throughout the country as part of the latest mobilizations," as well as in face of the protest of the Mapuche people, of which the treaty bodies have been repeatedly alerted.
The document adds that "the security forces, in particular the Carabineros of Chile, have made excessive and disproportionate use of force, with the intention of punishing and instructing the protesters" and that there is a "less indiscriminate and criminal use of weapons" particularly referring “to the huge number of people who are victims of severe eye trauma and upper body injuries, including those to the head.
The verified violations "include at least four cases of extrajudicial executions at the hands of state agents, hundreds of cases of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment at the time of detention and in police stations, cases of sexual violence and rape of those being held in detention, thousands of people injured by the abuse of the least lethal force during public meetings and thousands of others arbitrarily detained by the forces", those who are of an arbitrary nature and in accordance with Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, some of them constituting crimes against humanity.
In order to address these widespread violations, the Mission’s report makes a total of 23 recommendations, in the short and medium term, to restore social order and guarantee the right of assembly and demonstrations in the country.
1. Create a Commission of historical clarification that, given the human rights violations and possible international crimes that have occurred since 18 October 2019, will establish the political and administrative responsibilities for the violations and monitor the progress of the corresponding criminal cases, evaluating compliance with the State’s obligation to carry out a prompt, comprehensive and effective investigation.
2. Promptly investigate human rights violations committed and take immediate disciplinary and/or criminal action against public officials responsible for human rights violations, in particular in cases of violation of the right to life and personal integrity and including the hierarchical superiors who authorized or endorsed the police operations.
3. Initiate a process of profound reform of the Carabineros of Chile aimed at democratizing its structure and reviewing its role in Chilean society, adapting its rules, protocols and regulations to international human rights standards.
4. Repeal the current rules on the right of assembly and regulate it in accordance with international human rights law.
5. Suspend the use by Carabineros of firearms, pellets and less lethal equipment, particularly as part of social protests, until they are properly regulated, cases are investigated and responsibilities for injuries suffered to date by the population are determined.
6. Guarantee the assistance of the Public Defender’s Office in an effective and adequate manner from the first moments of detention, ensuring that interviews with persons deprived of liberty are arranged prior to hearings and are of a duration and content that guarantees the adequate exercise of the defence and the systematic detection of possible cases of torture, ill-treatment and sexual violence.
7. Establish action protocols for the Public Defender’s Office and the Public Prosecutor’s Office, guaranteeing the adequate detection, documentation, reporting and punishment of torture and ill-treatment, according to their respective competencies, keeping records of all cases identified, reported by the victims, formalized and with sentences.
8. Undertaking by the Public Defender’s Office, the National Prosecutor’s Office and the Judiciary of unannounced inspections of places of detention run by the Carabineros, the Investigation Police and the Justice Centres.
9. Train all relevant judicial officers in the proper application of the Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment - Istanbul Protocol - in all their interventions and at all stages of the criminal process.
10. Protocolize medical action, with special emphasis on the proactive detection of injuries and possible cases of torture, in accordance with the Istanbul Protocol, that the detainee’s consent be expressly recorded and that the report, in accordance with confidentiality, be delivered in a sealed envelope addressed to the guarantee judge.
11. Ensure that all detainees have access to medical injury control in public health institutions without the presence of the security forces or the military.
12. Create a single register to collect information from all health centres, public and private, on people injured in demonstrations.
13. Provide the necessary conditions for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to effectively carry out its on-site visit in the country.
14. Ensure that victims of sexual violence have rapid access to protection and support services, including treatment of possible injuries related to sexual violence by health professionals (treatment of infections and other sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV, traumatic gynaecological and obstetric fistulas, access to pregnancy testing, including emergency contraception, and psychological support).
15. Ensure that journalists, photojournalists, photographers, human rights monitors and health care staff and volunteers are able to carry out their work properly and that attacks and arrests against them cease.
16. Establish a mechanism, with the participation of the Chilean National Human Rights Institute (NHRI) and non-governmental human rights organizations, to monitor and ensure compliance with the recommendations given in the reports of international bodies and human rights organizations that have made reports on the demonstrations.
17. Strengthen the work of the Chilean NHRI at the national level by ensuring that there are no obstacles to the full implementation of its mandate, in particular in relation to the control of the situation of deprivation of liberty during the first hours of detention and protection against torture and ill-treatment.
18. Make the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture (MNPT) effectively operational. In order to guarantee the functional autonomy of the National Mechanism, it should not be subject to any form of subordination to the Chilean NHRI. The organization chart of the Chilean NHRI shall reflect the requirements of the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture, which specifies that the national preventive mechanism should have operational autonomy with regard to its resources, work plan, conclusions, recommendations and direct and confidential contact with the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture.
19. Ensure conditions so that civil society organizations can effectively and freely fulfil their role of protecting human rights, providing documentation, records and contact with persons deprived of liberty.
20. Reject legislative proposals aimed at penalizing or imposing administrative restrictions and sanctions on social protest, including proposals that penalize the total or partial blocking of public roads.
21. Publish, by the competent bodies, at the local, national, regional levels, detailed data on protests (number of demonstrators, number of people injured and arrested, if any) and police operations, including information on assigned police personnel, acquisition of lethal and less lethal weapons and ammunition and their costs, use of lethal and less lethal weapons and ammunition, protocols for the use of force, and user manuals for each type of weapon.
22. Publish administrative decisions on the authorization to use force and the dispersal of demonstrations in official media.
23. Esnure effective control of police activity by the Public Prosecutor’s Office as part of the exercise of the right to protest.
See the full report here