Government presents legislative human rights agenda

The important legislative human rights agenda promoted by the Government of President Gabriel Boric was presented this morning as part of the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the coup d’état. 

The Government is committed to recognizing the victims who experienced atrocities during the dictatorship, clarifying the truth and making significant progress towards justice. 

To protect democracy, it is necessary to strengthen memory so that the errors and horrors of the past are not repeated. 

The president also launched the National Search Plan for victims of the dictatorship. 

The Government’s legislative human rights agenda establishes concrete measures to fully recognize the victims of the dictatorship. 

Below are the measures that will advance the legislative human rights agenda. 

Legal classification of absence due to forced disappearance

One of the objectives of the creation of the legal classification of absence due to forced disappearance is the creation of a special register “of people absent due to forced disappearance”. The register will be held by the Civil Registry and Identification Service, and be accompanied by a correlative certificate. 

The register must also be made available to the state administration. 

Classification of the crimes of forced disappearance and extra-legal execution 

The classification of the crimes of forced disappearance and extra-legal execution complies with the obligation of the Chilean State to incorporate them into national legislation, outside of the regime of crimes against humanity. 

Enable those who have presented their testimony to the Valech Commission to request that the moratorium on secrecy is lifted 

This will allow the courts access to specific testimonies, and make background information available, under reserve, to the National Search Plan. 

This measure makes background information obtained by the National Political Imprisonment and Torture (Valech) Commission available, under reserve, for analysis and systematization as part of the work to reconstruct the trajectories of disappeared persons that will be carried out by the Justice and Human Rights Ministry, in compliance with the National Search Plan. 

It also enables those who have presented their testimony to the Valech Commission, or their descendants, to request that the moratorium on their case is lifted. 

This reparation measure defends the wishes of those victims who have presented their testimony to the Valech Commission, allowing the courts of justice to access specific testimonies. 

The partial lifting of the secrecy of the Valech report is intended to enhance the background information that can be used to find more than a thousand Chileans who remain missing to this day. This work will be carried out as part of the National Search Plan. 

National Memory and Heritage Policy 

The Chilean Government’s legislative agenda seeks: 

• To create a Memory and Heritage Policy. 
• To improve financing and maintenance mechanisms for spaces of memory (sites, memorials, plaques, etc.). 
• To strengthen the regulation of sites of memory, memorials and others, with a memory preservation and human rights education perspective. 

Elimination of the secret, reserved and restricted circulation designation of a set of laws dictated during the dictatorship (“secret laws”) 

This measure will contribute to the transparency and knowledge of a set of laws and other legal texts that until now have been kept secret or with restricted access. 

This will be done by promoting a bill to end the secret, reserved and restricted designation of a set of laws and other legal texts dictated during the dictatorship. 

The Chilean Government hopes that the measures announced will contribute to advancing truth, justice and reparation, always prioritizing the victims. 

For this, it is essential that all the initiatives promoted focus on taking responsibility for what many of our compatriots suffered.