Situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Chile

  The General Assembly, Aware of its responsibility to promote and encourage respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all and determined to remain vigilant with regard to violations of human rights wherever they occur, Emphasizing the obligation of Governments to protect and promote human rights and to carry out the responsibility they have undertaken with respect to the various international instruments, Recalling its resolutions 3219 (XXIX) of 6 November 1974, 3448 (XXX) of 9 December 1975, 31/124 of 16 December 1976, 32/118 of 16 December 1977, 33/175 of 20 December 1978, 34/179 of 17 December 1979, 35/188 of 15 December 1980 and 36/157 of 16 December 1981, all related to the situation of human rights in Chile, as well as its resolution 33/173 of 20 December 1978 on disappeared persons, Recalling also the resolutions of the Commission on Human Rights dealing with the human rights situation in Chile, in particular resolution 1982/25 of 10 March 1982, by which the Commission decided, inter alia, to extend the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Chile, Deploring the fact that the Chilean authorities have consistently refused to co-operate with the Commission on Human Rights and its Special Rapporteur, Expressing its deepest concern at the total lack of improvement in the human rights situation in Chile, as shown by the Special Rapporteur in his report, Noting with increasing concern that the Chilean authorities continue to ignore the repeated appeals of the international community made through a number of resolutions of the General Assembly, the Commission on Human Rights and various other international organs, Reiterating its deep concern at the lack of information concerning the numerous persons who have disappeared in Chile for political reasons and at the fact that the Chilean authorities have not taken urgent and effective measures to investigate and clarify the fate of those persons, Noting with great concern that the Constitution promulgated by the Chilean authorities on 11 March 1981 represents the institutionalization of the state of exception, with grave prejudice to the civil and political rights of the Chilean people and serious limitations to their economic, social and cultural rights,

1. Commends the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Chile for his report, submitted in accordance with resolution 1982/25 of the Commission on Human Rights;

2. Reiterates its grave concern at the persistence of serious and systematic violations of human rights in Chile, as described by the Special Rapporteur, in particular at the subversion of the traditional democratic legal order and its institutions, through the maintenance and widening of emergency and exceptional legislation and the promulgation of a Constitution which does not reflect a freely expressed popular will and the provisions of which suppress, suspend or restrict the enjoyment and the exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms;

3. Reiterates also its deep concern at the inefficacy of the recourse of habeas corpus or amparo in view of the fact that the judiciary in Chile does not exercise its functions fully in this respect, except with considerable restrictions;

4. Once more urgently requests the Chilean authorities to respect and promote human rights in conformity with the obligations undertaken under various international instruments and, in particular, to adopt the concrete measures contemplated in resolution 1982/25 of the Commission on Human Rights, especially the lifting of the state of emergency and the state of exception and the re-establishment of democratic institutions, by ensuring the full enjoyment and exercise of the civil and political rights as well as the economic, social and cultural rights and fundamental freedoms of the Chilean people, as provided in those international instruments;

5. Urges once more the Chilean authorities to investigate and clarify the fate of all persons who have disappeared in Chile for political reasons, to inform their families of the results of such investigation and to punish those responsible for the disappearance;

6. Further urges again the Chilean authorities to restore the full enjoyment of trade union rights, in particular the right to organize trade unions, the right to collective bargaining and the right to strike;

7. Urges the Chilean authorities to respect, in conformity with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the right of Chilean nationals to live in and freely enter and leave Chilean territory, without restrictions or conditions of any kind, and to cease the practice of"relegation" (assignment of forced residence) and forced exile, in particular of those who participate in trade union activities, academic life or the defence of human rights;

8. Also urges the Chilean authorities to put an end to arbitrary detentions and imprisonment in secret places and the practice of torture and other forms of inhuman or degrading treatment which have resulted on occasion in unexplained deaths;

9. Requests the Chilean authorities to respect fully the economic, social and cultural rights of the Chilean population in general and of the indigenous population in particular;

10. Concludes, on the basis of the report of the Special Rapporteur, that it is necessary to keep under consideration the situation of human rights in Chile;

11. Calls again on the Chilean authorities to co-operate with the Commission on Human Rights and its Special Rapporteur and to submit the commentaries on his report to the Commission on Human Rights at its thirty-ninth session;

12. Requests the Commission on Human Rights to study in depth the report of the Special Rapporteur at its thirty-ninth session, with a view to taking the most appropriate steps, in particular the extension of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur, and reporting on its consideration, through the Economic and Social Council, to the General Assembly at its thirty-eighth session.