2.1 Are there civil and criminal legal remedies for domestic violence victims?
According to Article 11 of the LVI, the sentence in a domestic violence procedure will oblige the convicted person to pay the victim disbursements and damages that have been caused because of the acts constituting domestic violence that are the subject of the trial. This includes repaying money, or damaged, destroyed or lost property. The judge will determine damages prudentially.[1]
2.2 Is domestic violence identified in national law as a human right (noting that at a European level protection from domestic violence has not been explicitly identified as a human right but is indirectly captured by the other provisions)?
Yes, it is specifically stated as such in the Convention.
2.3 Has your country signed and ratified the conventions?
Chile is part of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. It ratified this convention in 1989 and signed the Optional Protocol[2] in 1999. The Senate approved the Optional Protocol[3] until December 2019 and the Chilean president ratified it on 20 January 2020.[4]
2.4 If it has ratified the Maputo Protocol, how has it been implemented into national law (African Union member states only)?
N/A
2.5 If it has ratified the 1979 Convention (CEDAW), how has the recommendations part of General Comment No. 35 been implemented into national law?
Chile has implemented the following legislative reforms based on the Convention:
- Law 20,137 grants permits for the death of a spouse and children.
- Law 20,152 simplifies collecting alimony.
- Law 20,166 grants every working woman the right to feed her children under 2 years old.
- Law 20,239 exempts compensation from income tax economic consequences at the end of the marriage as a result of a divorce.
- Law 20,255 is the reason for the social security reform.
- Law 20,279 recognizes the right to minimum wage for women workers in private houses.
- Law 20,286 adapts the operation of family justice.
- Law 20,336 recognizes the right to rest on holidays for workers in private homes.
- Law 20,340 provides facilities for either spouse to enter into acts and/or contracts for the purpose of repurchasing housing loans that have been granted with state financing.
- Law 20,348, on equal pay for men and women, incorporates this principle into the Labor Code..
- Law 20,383 is concerned with the removal of minors from the country.
- Law 20,399 extends the right to a nursery to working parents and other workers who care for a child under 2 years old in those companies that were already obligated.
- Law 20,418 is concerned with fertility regulation rights.
- Law 20,066 introduces the following updates in the field of domestic violence: (i) it defines the concept of domestic violence; (ii) it determines who the subjects of protection are; (iii) it typifies the crime of habitual abuse; (iv) it introduces modifications to the CP; (v) it establishes protection measures in favor of the victim; (vi) it anticipates risk situations; and (vii) it grants greater police powers in flagrant cases of domestic violence.
- Law 20,480 expands the crime of parricide, including former spouses or former partners; if the victim is a woman or girl, it is called femicide.
- Law 20,820 creates the Ministry of Women and Gender Equality, which establishes in the Chilean legal system a specific rule that regulates affirmative actions that can be used as a tool to accelerate the achievement of substantive equality between men and women in all areas of the Convention.
- Law 20,545 modifies the rules on maternity protection and incorporates postnatal parental leave into Article 197-bis of the Labor Code. This is an important advance toward co-responsibility in the care of children.
- Law 20,891 perfects postnatal parental leave and the exercise of the right to a nursery for civil servants.[5]
- Law 20,840 replaces the binominal electoral system with one of an inclusive and proportional nature, strengthens the representativeness of the National Congress and establishes that no sex may be represented by more than 60%.