Human Rights and Public Protests in Chile during 2011: the public hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

• Main Author: Branislav Marelic Rokov
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Universidad de Chile 2012-07-01
• Series: Anuario de Derechos Humanos
• Online Access: https://anuariocdh.uchile.cl/index.php/ADH/article/view/20574

The large scale public protests that took place in Chile in 2011 were met with  violence on the part of the State: the right to freedom of assembly was curtailed, protesters were subjected to harsh repression and those detained were even tortured. In the face of this treatment, a group of students along with lawyers from the Citizens Advisory Program of Instituto Igualdad brought their case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights so as to present these human rights violations in a public hearing. This article describes the context in which the decision was made to bring the matter before this international body, the content of the claim presented to the Inter-American Commission, as well as the State’s answer  and the Commission’s reaction to the presentation of these facts.