Rights violations continue in Chile, report declares.

The situation with regard to the protection of fundamental human rights and freedomes in Chile in 1984 continued to deteriorate, says a report on the situation of human rights in that country by Justice Rajsoomer Lallah of Mauritius, a Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights (A/39/631).

The report stated that the central issue continued to be the maintenance of the "present system of government" in the face of "widespread popular aspirations" for the restoration of the democratic order and the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Popular protest stemmed from the desire to recover the right to take part, without discrimination, in the political life of the country and to choose the type of democratic system in which the people wished to life. In accordance with international norms to which Chile had subscribed, those rights were "inalienable". However, the Government of Chile was continuing to strengthen legislative and administrative measures to "enforce the denial of this central right with most adverse consequences on other basic rights and freedoms".

According to the report, the right to life "has been violated more frequently than in previous years". At the same time, there was a mounting climate of violence in the country for which both the Government and its security forces bore a responsibility. In addition to seven victims belonging to security forces, 46 civilian victims were reported between 29 November 1983 and 3 July 1984, in which cases those allegedly responsible were agents of the security services. The outcome of judicial proceedings against members of the security forces presumed responsible for violations of the right to life continued for the most part to be negative. Instances of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of a similar nature were also increasing.

It was the hope of the Special Rapporteur, the report observed, that the Government of Chile would adopt early and decisive measures to demonstrate its commitment towards the restoration of the political and civil rights of its people without discrimination and, by those means, to put an end to "systematic violations" of those rights which were now in their eleventh year.

In a statement introducing his report, Justice Lallah pointed out that the state of siege which was in operation after the overthrow of the President in 1973 and was lifted in 1978 was restored on 6 November 1984. He stated that under a state of siege, "which is a further state of emergency", the Executive was invested with wide powers which related, among other matters, to restricted residence, house arrest, arrest in places which were not prisons, expulsions, extensive restrictions on the right of association and of assembly and censorship of information and correspondence. Recourse to amparo (enforcement of constitutional rights) and to the "remedy of protection would appear to be completely suspended".

He said the attitude of the authorities in maintaining the present legal order until its scheduled end in 1989 had hardened and none of the organic laws dealing with political parties and the electoral process that were said to be in preparation had been enacted. There had been signs that "a few" were losing hope that peaceful and collective protest would achieve their aims and had resorted to violent means against persons and property. There had also been isolated violent action by "gangs" unsympathetic to those who were striving for change to a democratic order.

The report said that Chile, in a letter of 3 August 1984 to the Special Rapporteur, said it had "rejected from the outset the establishment by the Commission on Human Rights of this discriminatory and selective procedure with regard to Chile, which not only was instituted without the necessary prior consent of Chile but also departs from generally applicable and universally accepted rules and infringes clear provisions of the Charter of the United Nations". Chile therefore would not collaborate with the Special Rapporteur.