INTERNATIONAL COMPLAINT AGAINST THE STATE OF CHILE

FOR REPRESSION OF MINORS

A presentation before the Committee on the Rights of the Child, an instance of the United Nations, presented organizations related to human rights in order to denounce the serious situation of defenselessness and the repression that children and adolescents have suffered in our country.

November 29th 2020, CODEPU Corporation

The shooting of children in the Carlos Macera home, linked to the National Service for Minors (SENAME) in Talcahuano, is not an isolated situation. Since before the social outbreak and more frequently every day, minors have been facing unacceptable situations of vulnerability.

The Corporation for the Defense of the Rights of the People, CODEPU, together with the Foundation for the Protection of Children Damaged by States of Emergency, PIDEE, the Foundation 1367 Casa de Memoria José Domingo Cañas and the Association of Relatives of Detained, Disappeared and Executed Politicians from the Maule-Chile Region, made their presentation with the intention that the international organization examine compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and stop the repression against children and adolescents.

The complaint indicates that in the violence that our childhood faces “two serious logics of systematic violation of human rights present in Chile intersect: that of repressive violence that has been orchestrated against the civilian population by the government to contain social protest - which has resulted in more than eight thousand acts of human rights violations registered to date- and, the logic of violence, lack of protection and ignorance of the rights of our childhood that affects us as a society.

The reading of the testimonies of more than a dozen cases, only a sample of what has happened- of the knowledge of the attached documents that reinforce the complaint becomes evident, as the letter indicates that “regarding the repressive logic, It is already clear that there is an institutional doctrine installed in the police forces, to attack and suppress with force any protest manifestation of the most deprived, in any field, damaging its participants, with all the consequences of human rights violations that this brings with it. This doctrine was encouraged by the current High Command and the Political Power. Let us remember the words of the former Director General of Carabineros Mario Rozas about no sanction to his men for the acts of repression in the October 18 Revolt.

The letter states that “contrary to what the Minister of the Interior and the President of the Republic seem to think, it is not necessary to clarify any particular circumstance to establish whether there was abuse or excess of the police function in the shooting of two children in the Center of SENAME, but to be honest that what happened is the direct consequence of the policies and instructions with which the Government has faced the discontent of Chile and that it has been cruel to Children and Adolescents.

The presentation requests that the following necessary provisional measures be adopted, to avoid possible irreparable damage to the victims of the violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, proceed to the review of all the protocols of SENAME, as well as the protocols of the Carabineros de Chile on acting with Girls, Boys and Adolescents.

At the same time that a commission of experts is appointed in order for them to be constituted in our country to oversee compliance with the protocols mentioned above and a series of recommendations that the Committee itself delivered to the Chilean State, aimed at strengthening the protection of rights of children and adolescents in the context of police procedures.

To review the presentation visit Here.

(Text only available in Spanish)