IACHR and Its Special Rapporteurship for Freedom of Expression Conduct Second Joint Monitoring Visit to Chile

March 18, 2024

Washington, D.C. – The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and its Special Rapporteurship for Freedom of Expression are to visit Chile over the period March 18–20, in the context of their joint mechanism to follow up on the recommendations held in the report Situation of Human Rights in Chile.

The aim of this visit is to gather information on site about compliance with the recommendations made in the IACHR's 2022 report, to enable the joint mechanism to draft its first follow-up report. The IACHR delegation is led by the Commission's Rapporteur for Chile, Commissioner José Luis Caballero Ochoa, with the support of Special Rapporteur Pedro Vaca, the IACHR Executive Secretariat's Chief of Staff Patricia Colchero, and other members of the Executive Secretariat's technical team.

The IACHR is set to hold high-level meetings with Chilean authorities, international organizations, autonomous institutions, victims, and civil society. In those meetings, the IACHR delegation will seek to establish any progress made and any remining challenges in the adoption of reparations for victims of social unrest, in relevant investigations, in reparations concerning health, and in regulations and legislation on social protests.

In compliance with the report's recommendation 48, the Special Rapporteurship for Freedom of Expression will conduct monitoring activities that focus on protecting and promoting the exercise of free, plural, safe, sustainable, and reliable reporting in the country; the exercise of community journalism; the fight against deliberate misinformation; guarantees in access to information; the exercise of the right to freedom of expression online; and freedom of expression as a right that helps to fight discrimination and exclusion.

The Commission commends the State of Chile on its openness to cooperate and engage in talks in the context of this joint follow-up mechanism and to enable monitoring of its human rights obligations with regard to the Inter-American System.

A principal, autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), the IACHR derives its mandate from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has a mandate to promote respect for and to defend human rights in the region and acts as a consultative body to the OAS in this area. The Commission is composed of seven independent members who are elected in an individual capacity by the OAS General Assembly and who do not represent their countries of origin or residence.

No. 054/24

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