Chile protests: UN to investigate claims of human rights abuses after at least 19 deaths
The UN High Commission on Human Rights is sending a team to Chile to investigate allegations of human rights abuses against demonstrators, amid a swell of furious street protests over inequality, falling wages and the rising cost of education and healthcare.
“Having monitored the crisis from the beginning I have decided to send a verification mission to examine reports of human rights violations in Chile,” the high commissioner and former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet announced on Twitter.
Since the unrest erupted on 19 October, the military and Carabineros police forces have made 2,410 arrests throughout the country and 535 people have been injured, according to Chile’s human rights commission (INDH).
At least 19 people have died in the violence - though activists claim the number is higher.
The INDH confirmed that it was compiling 55 legal cases related to five homicides and eight instances of sexual violence involving both police and military agents. The victims of rape allegedly included several minors.
At: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/24/chile-protests-human-rights-un-investigation
UN High Commissioner on Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has ordered an inquiry into allegations of human rights abuses during this week's massive protests across Chile.
Bachelet served as president of Chile from 2006 to 2010 and 2014 to 2018.
Her father, Air Force Brigadier General Alberto Bachelet, was killed by the Pinochet dictatorship in 1974 - a regime that current President Sebastián Piñera has lauded in the past.
