Republic of Peru
Head of state and government: Ollanta Moisés Humala Tasso

Government critics were attacked. Excessive force by security personnel was reported. Indigenous Peoples continued to be denied their full rights. There was some progress in tackling impunity. Sexual and reproductive rights were not guaranteed.

BACKGROUND

In December, the President ratified a national mechanism for the prevention of torture, approved by Congress in 2014. A draft law to search for those who disappeared during the internal armed conflict had not been submitted to Congress despite agreement between the authorities and victims' relatives in 2014. Challapalca prison, situated over 4,600m above sea level in Tacna region, remained open amid concerns that conditions constituted cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. In June, the state of emergency in Alto Huallaga, San Martín region, declared 30 years previously due to actions by the armed opposition group Shining Path, was lifted.

FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND ASSEMBLY

Critics of extractive industry projects were subjected to intimidation, excessive use of force and arbitrary arrests by the security forces.

Máxima Acuña Atalaya and her family, subsistence farmers in a longstanding land dispute with the Yanacocha mining company, continued to face harassment by the security forces in attempts to drive them from where they lived in Tragadero Grande, Cajamarca region. In February, police demolished a structure she was building to make her house weatherproof.

In May, Ramón Colque was shot dead when police opened fire against residents attempting to block the Southern Pan-American Highway during protests against the planned Tía María copper mining project in the Tambo Valley, Islay province, Arequipa department. They claimed the project would affect their access to clean water. Three other men were killed, including a police officer, and scores were ill-treated and arbitrarily arrested. At the end of the year all detainees had been released but many were still facing charges. Community leaders were intimidated.[1]

In September, four civilians died and scores of people were injured, including police officers, during protests against the copper mining project in Las Bambas and Apurímac regions. A state of emergency was declared in Apurímac and Cusco regions for four weeks at the end of September.

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES' RIGHTS

Indigenous Peoples continued to be denied their right to free, prior and informed consent in relation to proposals affecting their livelihoods.

In May, the authorities passed legislation which allowed expropriation of land and reduced the requirement to approve environmental impact assessments for major development projects, amid concerns that the law could affect Indigenous Peoples' rights and territories.

At the end of the year, the trial was still ongoing of 53 people, including Indigenous people and some of their leaders, who stood accused of killing 12 police officers during clashes with security forces in a 2009 operation to disperse a road blockade led by Indigenous people in Bagua, Amazon region. A total of 33 people died in the clashes, including 23 police officers, and over 200 people were injured. No security personnel have been held accountable.

IMPUNITY

Internal armed conflict

Some progress was made in the investigation of human rights violations during the internal armed conflict (1980-2000).

In March, 10 military personnel were charged with crimes against humanity for sexual violence, including rape, inflicted on scores of women from Manta and Vilca, Huancavelica province. This was the first case to have reached the courts of sexual violence committed during the internal armed conflict. According to the register of victims established in 2005, over 4,400 women and girls reported being raped or sexually abused by the military during that period.

In May, retired Lieutenant-Colonel José Luis Israel Chávez Velásquez was arrested in connection with the disappearance of seven people in Huancapi, Ayacucho region, in 1991. The arrest warrant was issued 11 years before his arrest.

In September, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that Peru was responsible for the forced disappearance of 15 people, including seven children, from the peasant community of Santa Bárbara, in Huancavelica, in 1991, and ordered Peru to prosecute those responsible, offer reparation to the relatives and exhume and identify the remains of the victims.

Excessive use of force

The vast majority of deaths during protests as a result of excessive use of force by security forces remained unresolved.

In April, the Public Prosecutor's Office said that only two investigations had been opened into deaths allegedly caused by excessive use of force by police during protests. At least 50 cases had been documented by human rights organizations since 2012.

SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

Women and girls continued to have limited access to contraception. Free distribution of emergency contraceptives, including in cases of sexual abuse, continued to be banned. According to figures from the National Statistics Institute in July, teenage pregnancy increased to nearly 15% of girls and women aged between 15 and 19 in 2014.

In November, the Congress' Constitutional Commission rejected a draft law to legalize abortion for victims of rape.

In May, the Public Prosecutor's Office reopened and extended the investigation into the case of over 2,000 Indigenous and women farmers who were allegedly forcibly sterilized. Over 200,000 women were sterilized in the 1990s under a family planning programme, many without their consent.

In November, a decree law establishing a register of victims of forced sterilization was issued as a first step to guarantee the right to justice and adequate reparation.

RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE

In March, the Commission of Justice and Human Rights rejected a law granting equal rights to same-sex couples.


[1] Peru: Urgently investigate two deaths amid anti-mining protests (News story, 6 May)

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