CHILE: Human Rights Institute to Keep the
Past from Coming Back
By Pamela
Sepúlveda
SANTIAGO (IPS) - The Chilean parliament has
approved the creation of a national
institute for human rights, another step
towards fulfilling the human rights agenda
of the government of socialist President
Michelle Bachelet.
The new National Human Rights Institute (INDH)
will keep a constant watch to make sure that
torture, political killings, executions or
exile never happen again in Chile, minister
of the presidency José Antonio Viera Gallo
told the press.
The announcement was made the same week that
Chile commemorated the 36th anniversary of
the Sept. 11, 1973 military coup d'état
which ushered in a 17-year dictatorship.
The INDH will be an autonomous public-law
corporation, charged with drawing up an
annual report on the state of human rights
in the country and making recommendations to
guarantee that they are universally enforced
and respected.
It will also propose measures for the
protection and promotion of human rights,
while working to bring national laws,
regulations and practices into line with
international treaties that Chile has
ratified.
In addition, it will promote actions to
locate and identify the remains of the
1973-1990 dictatorship's victims of forced
disappearance. Some 3,000 people were killed
and disappeared, 35,000 were tortured, and
thousands went into exile during Gen.
Augusto Pinochet’s regime.
The new Institute will be run by a
nine-member board, two of whose members will
be appointed by the president, two by the
Senate, two by the lower house of Congress,
one by the deans of university law schools
and two by non-governmental human rights
organisations.
"We can say that the human rights agenda has
been practically completed during the
Bachelet administration. Today Chile is a
state party to all the international
mechanisms for respecting and safeguarding
human rights," Viera Gallo said.
Civil society organisations welcomed the
creation of the INDH, but warned that some
of its regulations fail to ensure the
autonomy essential to its work.
Hernán Vergara, a lawyer and head of Amnesty
International-Chile, told IPS that the
Institute needs to be given functions and
powers that guarantee its impartiality and
transparency.
Bachelet has promised to exercise a form of
veto that empowers her to amend a draft law
after it has been approved by Congress.
Amendments introduced at this stage must be
returned to parliament for ratification.
Bachelet wants to modify four areas of the
law, including restoring the Institute's
authority to bring court action for
genocide, crimes against humanity and war
crimes. Although it was included in the
original bill, this provision was eliminated
in its passage through the Senate.
"We welcome the creation of the Institute,
although we will wait and see what
amendments the executive branch makes, in
terms of greater autonomy and the
composition" of the Institute's authorities,
Vergara said.
He said that in the bill as it stands, most
of the members of the Institute's board are
to be named by the executive and legislative
branches - a questionable arrangement that
makes the board both judge and plaintiff,
and overly dependent on the government of
the day.
"So what guarantees would there be if
someone wants to bring a complaint about
possible human rights violations or
non-compliance occurring within the state?"
he asked.
According to Viera Gallo, if the president's
proposed amendments are confirmed by
parliament, the government hopes to
promulgate the law in November, when the
INDH will finally take shape.
Another aspect of the executive amendment to
the INDH bill, highlighted by Vergara, is
the reinstatement of the independent
National Truth and Reconciliation
Commission, which investigated and
pronounced on cases of forced disappearance
during the military regime, and of the
National Commission on Political
Imprisonment and Torture.
These commissions were established for
specified terms, now expired, after Chile's
return to democracy. The official reports of
their findings allowed the state to document
the crimes committed by state agents during
the dictatorship.
Based on the combined information from both
reports, the state recognises that over
30,000 people were victims of crimes against
humanity committed during the de facto
regime headed by Pinochet, who died in
December 2006 without ever having been
convicted in a court of law.
But associations of victims' relatives and
human rights organisations claim this figure
does not reflect the real magnitude of the
persecution and the human rights violations
perpetrated by the armed forces.
"We have always believed in the possibility
that some people, for different personal or
family reasons, did not testify before the
commissions. Therefore we think there are
still people who do not feel that any
reparations have been made to them in
relation to violations committed by state
agents," Vergara said.
When the law is finally passed and the new
Institute set up, the two commissions will
be reinstated for six months to register new
complaints.
On Sept. 11, throngs of people participated
in ceremonies marking the anniversary of the
coup that overthrew former socialist
president Salvador Allende (1970-1973) with
floral tributes, banners reading "Allende
Lives", photographs of victims, loud cries
for justice, candles, music and poetry.
But as on previous anniversaries of the
coup, hooded protesters blocked streets and
set fires in poor neighbourhoods on the
outskirts of Santiago, and clashed with the
police. One young man, 23-year-old Alexis
Rojas García, was shot in the head and died
during the disturbances. It is not clear who
fired the bullets that killed him or whether
he was participating in the roadblocks.
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