Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women

Eighty-ninth session

Summary record of the 2101st meeting

Held at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, on Tuesday, 15 October 2024, at 3 p.m.

Chair:Ms. Peláez Narváez

Contents

Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 18 of the Convention (continued)

Eighth periodic report of Chile (continued)The meeting was called to order at 3 p.m.

Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 18 of the Convention (continued)

Eighth periodic report of Chile (continued) (CEDAW/C/CHL/8; CEDAW/C/CHL/QPR/8)

At the invitation of the Chair, the delegation of Chile joined the meeting.

The Chair invited the delegation of Chile to continue replying to Committee members’ questions.

Articles 7–9

A representative of Chile said that the Government had launched its feminist foreign policy in 2023. One of the key aims of the policy was to increase the representation of women in decision-making positions in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The proportion of ambassadors who were women had risen from 12 per cent in 2022 to 24 per cent in 2024, and women were now serving as ambassadors in the country’s most important embassies. In the past two years, gender parity had been achieved among the students at the Diplomatic Academy. Consequently, women’s representation in the diplomatic corps was likely to increase over the coming years. The Government promoted the participation of Chilean women in international organizations, and along with other countries in the region, was campaigning for the next Secretary-General of the United Nations to be a woman.

The Government had identified the relationship between gender and trade as one of the eight priority areas in its feminist foreign policy. In 2006, Chile and Uruguay had signed a free trade agreement that contained a chapter on women and trade, and since then, all the trade agreements signed by Chile had contained such a chapter. Under the feminist foreign policy, efforts were made to modernize existing trade agreements. Chile had recently won an award from the World Trade Organization for ensuring gender equality in trade.

The Government conducted studies of women’s participation in international trade, including an analysis that monitored trends in the export of products and services by companies led by women. It had found that, in 2023, 28 per cent of companies that exported products had been led by women, and that such companies accounted for over 37 per cent of the value of the country’s exports.

A representative of Chile said that, under the new Public Procurement Act, the State gave priority to bids put forward by companies that were led or majority-led by women, especially small and medium-sized enterprises. The gender parity rules applicable to parliamentary elections had given rise to a significant increase in women’s participation in the National Congress. Since the establishment of women’s commissions in the Congress, driven by the rise in the number of women parliamentarians, the time taken to process laws had decreased and the consideration given to the gender perspective in legislation had increased.

The first constitutional amendment process carried out over the past four years had given rise to a rule on substantive parity that prioritized the selection of women candidates for electoral lists and a rule on the use of a zipper system for electoral lists. The second constitutional amendment process had led to the adoption of a general rule on parity. Currently, 13 of the 24 government ministries were headed by women, including key departments such as the Ministry of the Interior and Public Security and the Ministry of Defence.

Given that women continued to be under-represented in local and regional governments, the Government had drawn up a bill for the establishment of gender quotas in local and regional elections. In the latest procedure for registering candidates, over 190 applicants had been turned down by the Electoral Service because they had failed to make child maintenance payments. In 2023, a programme on women and political participation organized by the National Service for Women had trained some 6,300 women leaders across the country with a view to enhancing their access to decision-making forums.

In 2021, the Electoral Service had made it possible for candidates to be reimbursed for money spent on caring for children or older persons during electoral campaigns, thus making it easier for women candidates to stand for election. A legislative amendment had also increased the amount of campaign expenses that could be claimed by women candidates for a range of local and regional elected posts.

A provision of a recently adopted law established that political violence could be considered a form of gender-based violence, and it defined such violence as any act of gender-based harassment, persecution or aggression that sought to undermine women’s political participation, including their participation in community and civil society organizations.

A representative of Chile said that, under a project called “Chile Recognizes”,, around 100 children born in Chile to migrant parents had been registered as Chilean nationals. The problem that the project had been intended to solve was no longer pressing, so a number of other measures were currently being taken to ensure the right to nationality for all children born in Chile. For instance, the Civil Registry and Identity Service and the healthcare services had joined forces to ensure that children born in Chile were registered as Chilean nationals from the moment of birth.

In 2023 and 2024, 27 children of foreign migrants had been registered as nationals. Migrants were entitled to receive assistance from the National Service for Women even if they did not possess identity documents or have a regular migration status. The Migration and Aliens Act provided for full respect for the best interests of children and the enjoyment of their rights.

The Government acknowledged that it was currently difficult for the children of migrants and their parents to obtain certain identity documents. Although the number of stateless persons was not expected to increase, regularization problems were exacerbated by the recent closure of the consular offices of Venezuela in Chile. In response to that situation, efforts had been made to introduce more flexible procedures for the regularization of migration status. Online procedures had been prioritized and information had been provided to family courts in order to safeguard the rights of children whose migration status was uncertain. The Government had drafted a bill that would introduce measures to identify children who lacked identity documents.

The interpretation of the term “social group”, set out in the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, and the application of the expanded definition of refugee women were being analysed from the gender perspective. The first National Policy on Migration and Foreign Nationals extended access to the international protection system to ensure coverage of displaced persons whose life, physical integrity or personal freedom were at risk of being violated in their country of origin, including victims of domestic violence, gender-based violence or violence on the grounds of their sexual orientation. Such persons had the right to a regular migration status and to protection against refoulement.

Articles 10–14

Ms. Gbedemah¸ noting that article 12 of Act No. 21.675 promoted non-sexist education, said that she wished to know what measures were taken to ensure that educational materials and approaches to teaching and learning did not propagate gender stereotypes and that teaching staff at all levels of the education system underwent relevant mandatory training and certification. She wondered how the implementation of the Act was monitored, whether victims of violations of the Act had access to redress and whether anyone had been punished for violating it.

She would be interested to know how many Indigenous children had benefited from the programme to preserve the country’s Indigenous languages, how the teaching of Indigenous languages was monitored and what steps were taken to ensure that children participating in the programme where empowered and not stigmatized. The Committee would welcome information on any steps taken to ensure that women and girls with disabilities, women migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers, women of African descent and women belonging to other ethnic minorities were included at all levels of the education system. It would also be grateful for information on the enrolment rates for such women at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels, on any temporary special measures in place to ensure their equal access to education and on the impact of those measures. She wished to know whether persons with visual or hearing impairments had access to materials in Braille or sign language to facilitate their participation in mainstream education.

The Committee was curious to learn what proportion of girls who left school prematurely had been able to return to school and complete their education. She would like to know what vocational training courses were available for girls and what proportion of women in higher education studied subjects that were traditionally considered to be the preserve of men. The Committee would welcome information on the impact of the measures taken to encourage women to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics and would like to find out whether those measures addressed the barriers that deterred women from studying those subjects. It would be useful to hear what the Government did to ensure that technology in education was used to empower girls and to know whether girls were trained in ways to avoid online sexual harassment. Was comprehensive, age-appropriate sexuality education taught at all levels of the education system and did it address questions related to pregnancy?

Ms. Akizuki said that she wished to know what was being done to accelerate the reduction of the gender pay gap, especially for women in high-paying and executive roles. She would welcome information on the status of the bill aimed at amending the Labour Code, which, if it became law, would clearly define the principle of equal pay for work of equal value. The Committee would be interested to hear about any measures taken to increase women’s rate of participation in the labour market to the target of 63.8 per cent and about steps taken to eliminate horizontal and vertical occupational segregation in the public and private sectors, especially in industries traditionally dominated by men.

She wondered to what extent the Digital Woman Programme and related initiatives had increased women’s participation in the digital economy and what metrics were used to measure their participation. Information on any steps taken to create more employment opportunities for Indigenous women, women of African descent and women with disabilities would be welcome. What progress had been made in ensuring full access to social security benefits for self-employed women, including women domestic workers, and for women entrepreneurs in micro-businesses and small enterprises?

The Committee would be interested to know whether the 4-to-7 Programme, which provided support to women with children aged between 6 and 13 years, was implemented throughout the country and what its impact had been in increasing women’s participation in the labour market. She wondered what mechanisms were in place to monitor the implementation of Chilean Standard 3262, which was a public-private strategy to reduce gender inequality by promoting work-life balance and the sharing of responsibilities. The Committee would welcome information on any advances resulting from the implementation of the Standard and any efforts made to promote the equal sharing of household tasks and childcare responsibilities between women and men. The Committee would also be grateful for data on the time spent by men and women on housework, childcare and care in general.

A representative of Chile said that Chile had been one of the last countries in the region to return to face-to-face education, having implemented some of the most restrictive measures to curb the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The purpose of the measures taken since then had been to adapt the education system to the particular challenges that it faced in the post-pandemic period. A bill on harmonious relations in schools had been drawn up with the aim of promoting respect for all students, irrespective of their sexual or gender identity, and penalizing all forms of discrimination in schools. The bill was currently before the Senate.

When face-to-face classes had resumed, a number of instances of gender-based conflict had arisen in schools. In response, three national workshops had been held to promote non-sexist education. The first workshop had covered 94 per cent of the country’s public secondary schools, while the second had involved about 400,000 people, including children, parents and school staff. In the third workshop, good practices had been shared with local governments to help managers deal with the issues identified in the first workshop.

The Office of the Superintendent of Education had issued a circular on the application of the principles of non-discrimination and equal treatment in the field of education. The regulations governing entry to the higher education system has been amended to place greater emphasis on students’ overall educational development rather than their scores in admissions tests. As a result of that change, the number of women entering higher education had increased significantly.

The Curriculum and Evaluation Unit of the Ministry of Education was developing guidelines for the identification of gender bias in school textbooks, with a view to ensuring that such bias would be eliminated by 2025. As a consequence of the pandemic, gender gaps in educational attainment had widened, with girls doing worse in mathematics and boys doing worse in languages. An annual call for research projects in the area of education had been issued with a view to narrowing those gaps.

The article on non-sexist education in Act No. 21.675 had been adopted by the Congress, with a view to eradicating discrimination from the education system. The Act had been adopted in June 2023 and the implementing regulations were currently being drafted. The adoption of both the implementing regulations and the bill on harmonious relations in schools hopefully would help to reduce gender gaps in test scores and improve relations in schools.

According to the results of the national youth survey, for the first time in several years, young people were more likely to see violence as a valid way of dealing with conflicts in daily life, including within couples. Tackling such attitudes would be one of the focuses of the annual campaign against violence conducted by the Ministry for Women and Gender Equity, which would be launched on 25 November 2024.

With regard to sex education, the constitutional principles of freedom of education provided an extensive framework for the various education providers to develop content and for parents to challenge it. Currently, schools could choose from one of seven sex education programmes provided by the Ministry of Education. The executive branch was promoting the development of a legislative bill on the introduction of sex education as a means of preventing the sexual abuse of children.

A representative of Chile said that, according to the third national study on disability, conducted in 2022, women and girls with disabilities spent fewer years in basic, secondary and higher education than the general population. In order to address that problem, the National Service for Persons with Disabilities, in conjunction with the Ministry of Education, had developed a number of specific programmes, including an early care programme for children under 6 years of age and a programme to support students in higher education.

A representative of Chile said that women’s average incomes had increased by 6 per cent between 2022 and 2023 and their labour participation and employment rates had also returned to the pre-pandemic levels of 52 per cent and 48 per cent, respectively. The gender pay gap had narrowed from 25 per cent in 2022 to 23.3 per cent in 2023. The gap resulted from a number of factors, including the differences in education, the disproportionate burden of care work that fell on women, occupational segregation caused by gender stereotyping and the over-representation of women in part-time work.

A number of laws had been adopted, including the 40-Hour Act, to promote work-life balance and make it easier for women with children to work. A bill on domestic workers set out measures to improve the working conditions of women working in that sector. Other legislative measures had been taken, for example to strengthen the provision of health insurance for working parents of children affected by serious health conditions. Additionally, the maximum period of leave that doctors could grant for the parents of sick children had increased from 15 to 30 days.

A representative of Chile said that shared responsibility for care had not yet been achieved in practice. As part of the efforts to overcome that problem, legislative measures would be taken to ensure that employers would not have to bear the cost of maternity leave.

A representative of Chile said that the 4-to-7 Programme, which was intended to assist economically active women responsible for the care of children between the ages of 6 and 13, provided afterschool care to enable working mothers to stay in paid employment and thus strengthen their economic autonomy. It had been relaunched nationwide with the resumption of in-person schooling following the COVID-19 pandemic. There were plans to extend the programme to cover the summer months so that women in rural areas could take on temporary work. Rural municipalities accounted for more than 40 per cent of the communities where the programme was implemented.

Ms. Gbedemah said that she wondered whether the Government might consider how the online education portals introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic might continue to be used to help learners, including hard-of-hearing girls, to catch up with their studies. It would be helpful to know what safeguarding strategies were in place to ensure access to education for lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex women, without discrimination, and whether all of the various sexuality education programmes mentioned by the delegation were mandatory and fully compliant with the Convention. With reference to the Committee’s previous concluding observations (CEDAW/C/CHL/CO/7, para. 35 (b)), she would welcome information on the fines that had been imposed on educational institutions that had expelled pregnant learners.

Ms. Akizuki said that she would appreciate data on efforts to create employment opportunities for disadvantaged groups of women. She wondered whether the Government might consider introducing temporary special measures to address the discrimination that they faced.

Ms. Bonifaz Alfonzo,referring to the Committee’s previous concluding observations (CEDAW/C/CHL/CO/7, paras. 38 and 39) concerning women’s and girls’ access to safe abortions, said that the Committee had received information according to which the vast majority of the girls who had had abortions between 2018 and 2020 had been rape victims. At the same time, official data indicated that, in 2019, 649 girls aged 10 to 13 years had entered prenatal care, but only 27 of them had been able to gain access to abortion services on the grounds of being rape victims. She wished to know what measures the Government was taking to address the high rate of early pregnancy among girls and the prevalence of sexual violence against them; what action had been taken to prevent delays in obtaining alternative judicial authorization to ensure that girls had access to safe abortions on the permitted grounds; what was being done to ensure that girls were able to exercise their right to clear, accessible and timely information and to be heard in the decision-making process; and whether protocols were in place for the prioritization of such cases and to ensure proper follow-up.

She would like to know what steps were being taken to ensure that women’s and girls’ access to abortion services was not impeded by the fact that caregivers could claim conscientious objection, and whether any legislative measures were envisaged to ensure that conscientious objection could be applied only individually by caregivers, and not by entire institutions. She wondered whether the Government might consider the introduction of regulations to ensure that healthcare facilities employed at least one doctor trained in medical abortion who was not a conscientious objector, especially in regions where women and girl victims of sexual violence had limited access to such services.

She would be interested to know what measures the Government had taken to raise awareness of and ensure access to justice and reparations for victims of obstetric violence, in particular for Indigenous women with disabilities and lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex women who had been subjected to forced sterilizations. She would be curious to learn how the Government intended to compensate women whose lives and future plans had been affected by the use of defective contraceptives which had reportedly been distributed by the public health system.

Ms. Tisheva said that, despite the Government’s commendable efforts, gender inequalities in terms of income and socioeconomic opportunities continued to affect women in all their diversity. Such inequality was exacerbated by intersectional forms of discrimination; early pregnancy; intergenerational poverty, in particular in female-headed households; the disproportionate burden on women of unpaid domestic and care work; and the persistent gender pay and pension gaps. She wished to know what steps the Government had taken to prevent the income gap between women and men from further widening and what specific legislative and policy measures were taken or were envisaged to address women’s over-representation in the informal sector, reduce poverty among women and provide skills training and opportunities for them to participate fully in economic life. Information on the measures carried out at the local level and for women from disadvantaged groups, such as Indigenous women, would be of particular interest.

She would welcome data on the gender pension gap, on measures to reform and correct gender inequalities in the pension system and on the extent to which the State party’s Fourth National Plan on Equality between Women and Men, for the period 2018–2030, included actions to improve women’s economic autonomy. It would be helpful to know whether the Government collected statistical data as a means of measuring and compensating women’s unpaid domestic and care work and recognizing it as a proportion of gross domestic product.

She wondered what legislative and other initiatives the Government was taking to encourage women’s entrepreneurship, including by improving their access to loans, bank credits and other financing; whether it might consider adopting temporary special measures to promote substantive equality between women and men in the economic sphere; and what measures were in place to ensure access to social security by self-employed women. Lastly, she would be interested to hear how the Government was promoting equal access to all sports facilities for women and girls and to encourage their participation in all competitive sports.

A representative of Chile said that the National Institute of Statistics had reported that between 2017 and 2023 there had been a notable reduction in the incidence of early pregnancy among girls under 15 years of age and among persons between the ages of 15 and 19 years. There were several likely reasons for the reduction, including free of charge access to contraceptives and the alleged clandestine use of abortion medications such as misoprostol. The use of such medications was one of the reasons why the Government was drafting a bill on access to legal abortion.

A representative of Chile said that, by law, health personnel could refuse to perform an abortion on any of the three permissible grounds – namely in cases of rape, where the life of the pregnant woman was at risk or where the fetus was fatally impaired – provided that they had previously expressed their conscientious objection to the procedure. The regulations that made it possible for conscientious objection to be declared at the institutional level remained in force. Only 10 per cent of healthcare institutions had invoked them, and all of them were in the private sector. There were, however, five cases in which entire public healthcare teams had claimed conscientious objection, effectively limiting women’s and girls’ access to safe abortions at the public institutions where they worked. In response, the Government had introduced a number of measures to guarantee access by all women and girls to safe and timely abortion on the three permitted grounds. For example, the Ministry of Health had issued a directive that called for individual conscientious objectors to be immediately replaced with other professionals who did not object. Similarly, in the case of institutional conscientious objection, the facility must immediately transfer the patient to another facility. Other safeguards included the fact that surgeons could not conscientiously object to performing the procedure in cases where there was a risk to the life of the pregnant woman or girl. The relevant technical guidelines had been updated to include the latest World Health Organization recommendations, incorporate a gender and human rights-based approach and provide special protection to vulnerable groups of women. Furthermore, a manual on monitoring implementation of the abortion law had been issued and almost 60 audits of public healthcare institutions had been carried out in 2023. As a result of those audits, recommendations on areas for improvement had been issued. In cases where non-compliance had been identified, disciplinary action had been taken or administrative investigations had been launched, as appropriate.

Act No. 21.030, which permitted abortion on the three grounds already described, prohibited the advertising of the abortion services offered by healthcare facilities. However, it was understood that advertising and ensuring the right to information were not one and the same. The Government had therefore introduced a set of measures to guarantee access to information by women and girls in public and private health facilities offering gynaecological and obstetric services. It had also conducted information campaigns on the Act, disseminated educational videos and distributed thousands of leaflets on the subject, aimed at adolescents. Just 70 per cent of pregnant girls seeking abortions under 14 years of age reportedly invoked the grounds of rape, compared with 90 per cent among girls aged over 14 years. The Government had therefore introduced a referral programme that treated any pregnancy in a girl under 14 as the result of rape, thereby easing access to abortion for pregnant girls in that age group.

A representative of Chile, providing an overview of the process of alternative authorization of requests for abortion,said that the authorization of a family court judge was required only in instances where the pregnant woman’s exercise of her legal capacity had been restricted on the grounds of insanity or in cases involving a pregnant girl aged under 14 years whose legal guardians had either refused to give consent or whose whereabouts were unknown. When it came to the number of girls aged 10 to 13 years who had been unable to have access to abortions, requests for judicial authorization had been denied in a number of cases. The reasons for those rejections included the legal time limit for abortion of up to 14 weeks’ gestation having been exceeded, or the girl having decided to continue with the pregnancy. In one case, the girl, who had been 16 years old at the time, was not covered by the relevant legal provisions. The judicial authorization process was an expedited one. Of the cases analysed, most decisions had been issued either on the same day or within 3 days; at most, they had been handed down within 14 days.

A representative of Chile said that, under the Explicit Healthcare Guarantees Scheme, comprehensive assistance was provided to victims of serious sexual assault. That policy had enabled the early detection of pregnancies that were the product of rape, leading to a small increase in young girls’ access to abortion on that ground.

A representative of Chile said that improvements had been observed in the coverage of the pension system for persons over 65 years, particularly women. For example, by June 2024, more than 2 million persons – almost 60 per cent of them women – were in receipt of the basic non-contributory pension. Nevertheless, the gender pension gap remained, owing to direct and indirect factors, such as the structure and functioning of the labour market, gender roles and the unequal distribution of domestic and care tasks. The rules of procedure of the pension system itself provided for differential pension benefits for women and men. The Government had submitted a pension reform bill containing various measures to address the pension gap, including the establishment of an intergenerational solidary fund aimed at offsetting the wage disparities between women and men and mitigating the impact of women’s underemployment.

A representative of Chile said that the proposed pension system reform was designed to reduce not only the gender pension gap but also the system’s operating costs. The bill was currently at the second reading stage; the Committee’s recommendations on how to close the pension gap would therefore contribute to ongoing discussions on the issue.

The Government had introduced a number of initiatives to address the structural barriers to formal employment encountered by vulnerable groups of women. Those initiatives included three bills: one extending the scope of the law calling for the provision of day-care services so that it would include companies with fewer than 20 women workers; another on wage equality; and a third creating a national care and support system based on shared responsibility for domestic tasks. The results of the latest national time-use survey would be published in December 2024, thus providing more up-to-date data on the unpaid care and domestic work burden shouldered by women.

Ms. Bonifaz Alfonzo said that she wondered whether the Government might give consideration to measures ensuring access to safe, legal abortions not requiring the intervention of the judiciary. The current approach might be pushing women and girls to seek clandestine abortions. It would be useful to know what forms of support were provided to pregnant girls, including those in State care, who underwent an abortion or who decided to continue with their pregnancy.

Ms. Akia said that she would be interested to know why the law providing for abortion up to the fourteenth week of pregnancy in the case of rape did not apply to girls who were 16 years of age or older. The age of consent was 18 years. Was legal action taken in the case of rape or defilement of girls?

Ms. Reddock said that she would like to know whether the Government would compile disaggregated data on women and girls, with indicators for age, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or intersex identity, African descent, indigeneity, disability, socioeconomic status and rural or urban location, as a basis for intersectional analysis and the formulation, implementation and assessment of policies addressing the specific challenges facing rural and diverse women and girls. In the absence of specific legislation or a comprehensive policy document, it would be useful to know whether the Government would develop a multisectoral national policy framework and action plan addressing the needs of rural women and girls, with adequate resources and a comprehensive approach to their rights, including the right to have access to services and land.

The Government’s efforts to preserve the country’s Indigenous languages and cultures were commendable. Nonetheless, Chile was reportedly the only country in Latin America where Indigenous peoples were not recognized in the Constitution. The Committee would appreciate information on the status of the proposal to establish a ministry of Indigenous affairs and on plans to incorporate a gender perspective into the work of the Presidential Commission for Peace and Understanding. She wished to know whether any measures had been taken to guarantee Indigenous women’s right to tenure and ownership of land and their full participation in all processes affecting them, and whether the Committee’s general recommendation No. 39 (2022) on the rights of Indigenous women and girls had been publicized and followed in the country.

The absence of specific data or legislation on women of African descent had rendered them and their experiences invisible in Chile. The incorporation of a self-identification question in the 2024 population and housing census, enabling a broad definition of women of African descent, had thus been a historic change. It would be helpful to know whether the Government now planned to update Act No. 21151 on Chilean tribal people of African descent and the Fourth National Plan on Equality between Women and Men, for the period 2018–2030, so that the recognition of women of African descent would extend to all women who thus self-identified.

Increased migration had been exploited by extremist groups and political actors to promote negative stereotypes about migrant women. The Committee would thus welcome information on mechanisms to monitor and evaluate adherence to human rights standards by the police, the judiciary and border personnel. Lastly, she wondered how the Government would improve the implementation of Act No. 21325, which provided for temporary residency permits and humanitarian visas for pregnant women and victims of gender-based violence.

Articles 15 and 16

Ms. González Ferrer said that the law raising the minimum marriageable age to 18 years would not immediately eradicate early common-law unions. Of particular concern were unions between girls and adult men, which were often encouraged by their families. The Committee would thus appreciate it if the delegation could describe preventive and legislative measures to address the problem of early unions, including actions targeting rural and remote areas, and legislative measures to protect women’s rights in the dissolution of common-law unions between adults. It would also welcome information on measures to promote access to adoption for same-sex couples, the status of reforms to the Civil Code and other legislation concerning the marital property regime, and actions to address stereotypes and prejudices about married women.

Studies had shown a direct link between the social expectations, stereotyping and inequality in the family environment experienced by Chilean women and their limited participation in the country’s political life and workforce. She wished to know how the Government was combating stereotypes and encouraging the equal sharing of parental responsibilities.

It would be useful for the Committee to learn of any measures to establish shared guardianship and care arrangements with the aim of preventing vicarious violence, whereby perpetrators inflicted trauma on a parent through violent acts committed against the person’s children. How effective were the precautionary measures provided for in family court proceedings, and was family mediation mandatory in cases of violence?

A representative of Chile said that it was hoped that the existing gap in disaggregated data on the diversity of women would be partially addressed through the 2025 census and new instruments with variables on gender identity and migration.

The draft Constitution that had promoted Indigenous rights had been rejected by popular vote and the matter had not been revisited. The Presidential Commission for Peace and Understanding did not have a balanced membership, but over 600 Mapuche leaders had participated in successive territorial meetings, and their requests had been prioritized in the public investment plan for the Mapuche area. Reports indicated that the existing legislation had sufficient scope to provide Indigenous women with equal access to land and to reparation and reconstruction mechanisms for communities where disputes had arisen. The bill to establish a ministry of Indigenous affairs had not been able to progress through the Congress. It was hoped that a political agreement could be reached on the matter when the Presidential Commission would concluded its work, in November 2024.

Women of African descent, Indigenous women and migrant women had been involved in designing indicators for the Fourth Plan on Equality between Women and Men. Traditional Mapuche healers and chiefs in Biobío, Araucanía, Los Ríos and Los Lagos had also been consulted. An Indigenous affairs officer had been appointed by the Ministry for Women and Gender Equity to work to achieve the goals under the Plan.

A national round table for rural women had been active for some 20 years, with regional events held throughout the country. Its input had been instrumental in the approval of certain measures, including the restriction of the use of glyphosates. The National Rural Development Policy focused on supporting the development of rural women leaders to encourage the participation of rural young people in civic life. Such activities had been financed by the Ministry for Women and Gender Equity for two years.

The establishment of calls for tenders from women for irrigation projects designed to ensure rural access to water had recently led to gender parity in access to the mechanisms of the National Irrigation Commission. It had also led to improved access for women to the National Institute for Agricultural Development, which applied a parity standard in its local development offices.

The bill on adoption by same-sex couples had advanced to its second reading in the Congress. The Ministry for Social Development was making efforts to establish an adoption mechanism that addressed the violation of children’s rights and established the principle of equality between all families.

Mediation was often necessary in family cases, particularly to avoid conflicts relating to visitation, maintenance and custody. However, it was expressly prohibited in cases involving allegations of domestic violence. Under the comprehensive law against violence, children were defined as both witnesses and victims of violence. That provision was aimed at increasing the effectiveness of protective measures. Some 9 per cent of femicides, and an even higher number of cases of attempted femicide and serious injury, took place in the context of visitation.

The Congress had rejected a bill seeking to enshrine provisions relating to parental alienation syndrome in law, following a successful campaign led by the Government and civil society. The Government was aware of its need to fulfil the amicable settlement it had reached with Ms. Sonia Arce at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

The bill modifying the marital community property regime had been approved by the Ministry for Women and Gender Equity and was being reviewed by the Senate Committee on the Constitution. The Government had sought the input of law schools and family law experts to highlight the gaps in the marital regime. It had introduced initiatives to regularize small property ownership for women in rural areas. Such women were among the groups most affected by shortcomings in the regime owing to their lack of access to legal information.

Ms. Reddock said that many traditional and natural sources of water had reportedly become unavailable owing to the environmental impacts of agribusiness and extractive industries. It would be useful to know whether the Government planned to strengthen the regulations calling for environmental impact assessments. Would it examine the effects of such projects on women’s livelihoods and on the mental, emotional and spiritual health of women and on their communities?

She noted that over 10,000 complaints had been received by December 2023 in relation to the social protests of October 2019. Only 125 cases had been examined, resulting in just 38 convictions and 17 acquittals. She wondered how the Government planned to ensure that those responsible for human rights violations during the demonstrations would be held accountable.

The Committee encouraged the State party to further amend the Code of Criminal Procedure to provide alternatives to imprisonment for pregnant women and women with young children. Transgender women in detention faced difficulties in accessing sexual and reproductive health services. It therefore would be useful to know whether proposed legislation relating to the situation of persons deprived of their liberty addressed the needs of all women and was aligned with the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules).

Ms. de Silva de Alwis said that in November 2021, a group of women from Huasco had filed a constitutional action requesting that the Government shut down two units of a thermoelectric power plant and calling for compensation for the plant’s harmful emissions. The appeal had been rejected by the Supreme Court. Was the Government addressing the damage in Huasco?

A representative of Chile said that, since the entry into force of the Climate Change Framework Law in 2022, the Ministry of the Environment had been working towards the progressive closure of several coal-fired thermoelectric plants, including in Huasco, Mejillones, Tocopilla, Quintero-Puchuncaví and Coronel. The plants had been identified as sacrifice zones by environmental rights defenders. The National Strategy for a Just Socioecological Transition would include social and environmental mitigation measures for biodiversity restoration and provide local people with preferential access to healthcare to detect the consequences of prolonged exposure to pollution from such plants.

The Ministry for Women and Gender Equity and the Ministry of Public Works, which was responsible for rural sanitation services, were conducting empowerment training for female leaders, who often managed water supplies in rural communities. The Ministry of Agriculture had introduced a bill to prevent the indiscriminate division of former agricultural land, which was one of the main causes of the loss of rural water ecosystems.

The Climate Change Framework Law recognized the crucial role played by women in climate change mitigation, adaptation and response. A sectoral plan for adaptation to climate change was currently being implemented and would serve as an element of the system for civil society participation at the Ministry for Women and Gender Equity.

A representative of Chile said that the State Defence Council had brought 155 cases against public officials for offences committed during the social demonstrations in 2019. In 13 of those cases, the victims were female. In addition, 453 civil cases had been filed to claim compensation for victims, for damages resulting from the lack of government services during the demonstrations. First-instance rulings had been handed down in 12 of those cases, 11 of which were being appealed, while 1 ruling had become final and enforceable. Women were direct or indirect victims in 5 of those cases.

A representative of Chile said that the prison system had 30 mother and child wards designed and equipped to house pregnant women and mothers with children up to 2 years of age. The Creciendo Juntos (Growing Together) initiative, which had been positively evaluated by the Government in 2024, was being implemented. It allowed infants to receive vaccinations, ensuring that confinement affected them as little as possible, in line with the Bangkok Rules. The initiative covered care for mothers and pregnant women and provided co-parenting workshops for parents and children up to 14 years of age. In 2023, 322 women had benefited from the initiative, and around 160 mothers and pregnant women had received care in the first nine months of 2024. The Creciendo Juntos initiative was linked to the State kindergarten network and theChile Crece Más (Chile Grows Further) and Mi Abogado (My Lawyer) programmes.

The Ministry of Justice and Human Rights had ordered increased monitoring of prison conditions, including mother and child wards, and had involved the Ministry of Health in the provision of gynaecological and obstetric care at such wards. Moreover, the National Prison Service had in place an order on the treatment of pregnant women deprived of their liberty and another on the legal proceedings and release of such women. The mother and child wards in northern Chile were close to capacity, but the Government was following United Nations guidance to provide the wards with vital goods and services.

A representative of Chile said that the Government was committed to passing a bill on alternatives to imprisonment for pregnant women and women with children under 2 years of age. The bill was before the Senate Human Rights Committee.

The State party was grateful for the Committee’s valuable feedback, which was fundamental to strengthening its commitment to human rights, gender equality and the elimination of violence against women. Guaranteeing the rights of all women and girls throughout the country, with the vital input of civil society, was an urgent need, and Chile would continue to make progress.

The Chair said that the State party was to be commended for its efforts and encouraged it to take all necessary measures to implement the Committee’s recommendations.

The meeting rose at 5.05 p.m.