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Stavenhagen's mission to Chile
July 18-29, 2003
The Special Rapporteur visited Chile between 18 and 29 July 2003. In 1993, Chile adopted the Indigenous Peoples Act (Act No. 19.253), in which the State recognizes indigenous people as "the descendants of human groups that have existed in national territory since pre-Colombian times and that have preserved their own forms of ethnic and cultural expression, the land being the principal foundation of their existence and culture". The main indigenous ethnic groups in Chile are listed as the Mapuche, Aymara, Rapa Nui or Pascuense, Atacameño, Quechua, Colla, Kawashkar or Alacaluf, and Yámana or Yagán. Indigenous peoples in Chile currently represent about 700,000 persons, or 4.6 per cent of the population.
Despite the efforts made since the country's return to democracy, the indigenous population continues to be largely ignored and excluded from public life as a result of a long history of rejection, social and economic exclusion and discrimination by the majority in society as the Special Rapporteur states in his report. Chile has still not undertaken constitutional reform in this area and has not yet ratified the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention (No. 169) of the International Labour Organization (ILO).
Poverty
Human rights problems continue to affect all the indigenous peoples in the country, although public attention has mostly focused on the situation of the Mapuche people. Attention should be drawn above all to the high levels of poverty among indigenous peoples and their low standard of living, which, according to various human development indicators, is below the national average. The Government's welfare policies are important but have so far not been sufficient to redress this situation. One of the most serious long-standing problems affecting indigenous peoples in Chile, according to the Special Rapporteur, relates to land ownership and territorial rights, as a result of a long process that has left them stripped of their lands and resources.
The Government has made significant efforts in the economic and social field in the last 13 years, but there is a pent-up demand for social services by native communities. While many indigenous people have benefited, like others, from the sustained economic growth of recent years, their standard of living is still well below the national average and that of non-indigenous Chileans. Despite falling poverty levels, profound economic inequalities affect indigenous people more than other Chileans. In the field of health, for example, attention has been drawn to the systematic discrimination against indigenous people in access to medical services and in the quality of these services. Their communities' traditional medicine has been devalued and ignored, if not banned altogether. The few attempts made to promote intercultural medicine in some hospitals in indigenous areas have produced promising results but the programme is still in its infancy.
Education
Despite the efforts made in the area of bilingual intercultural education, the majority of indigenous communities are not yet benefiting from this programme, and the educational system has not yet fully met the demand from indigenous people for the protection, preservation and promotion of their traditional culture. Calls for the preservation of their cultural identity were heard in all the regions visited. The Atacameño and Quechua peoples in the north, for example, complain about the loss of their language as a result of the "Chileanization" to which they were subjected after the War of the Pacific. The Rapa Nui people sees its identity threatened by the rise in immigration to their island and their traditional authorities' inability to do anything about the implications of the inflow.
Recommendations
On the basis of these conclusions, the Special Rapporteur recommends the Government of Chile, among others, that the process of constitutional reform in relation to indigenous matters should be speeded up; that ILO Convention No. 169 should be ratified promptly; that any sectoral legislation in conflict with the Indigenous Peoples Act should be revised; tha a programme to cut poverty in indigenous communities should be set up, with a realistic and clearly defined agenda; and that the necessary steps should be taken to set up a national human rights institution. It is also recommended that urgent attention be paid to the prevention and resolution of conflicts over land tenure and use; that the Land Fund should be streamlined and expanded; that access by indigenous communities to water and maritime resources should be guaranteed; that the necessary measures should be taken to avoid criminalizing legitimate protest activities or social demands; and that high-quality, bilingual legal assistance should be provided.
Use the link below to download the Special Rapporteur's official report on the mission to Chile
Stavenhagen's report - Chile
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