IACHR takes to Inter-American Court case concerning Chile about refusal to register maternal affiliation

December 12, 2025

Washington, DC—The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) filed on October 2, 2025, an application before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Case 14,576, with regard to Chile. This case concerns Chile’s international responsibility for the refusal to legally register Alexandra Benado Vergara as the mother of D.B.G. and L.B.G.

The case, taken to the IACHR in 2013, concerns a same-sex couple that underwent treatment with assisted reproductive technology in 2009. The State refused to formally recognize that the babies had two mothers and only registered them as children of Alejandra Gallo Poblete, the gestational carrier. In 2013, both women requested that the civil registry also recognize Benado as the children’s mother, but the request was declined based on the prevailing legislation, which only recognized as parents a man and a woman. Given this refusal, the two women filed appeals before the Santiago Court of Appeals and the Chilean Supreme Court, but those appeals were dismissed without an assessment of their merits and without sufficient grounds.

In Merits Report 255/23, the IACHR concluded that the State of Chile had refused to recognize this dual maternal affiliation based on the couple’s sexual orientation, which amounted to discrimination. The IACHR further established that the State had an obligation to recognize and protect the family made up by both mothers and their children and that not doing so had entailed an interference with their family life and their right to equality before the law.

The IACHR also noted that failing to recognize maternal affiliation in this case had directly affected the rights of the couple’s children, since it had restricted their access to other rights. The IACHR found that these restrictions had been arbitrary and discriminatory, because they had been based on a traditional notion of the family that excluded same-sex couples.

Chile enacted in 2021 Act 21,400, which recognized same-sex marriage and dual maternal affiliation in cases like this one. However, the IACHR stressed that prior legislation had effects on victims’ rights that persisted for years, without either reparation or judicial acknowledgement.

The IACHR concluded that the State of Chile was liable for violations of the rights to juridical personality, privacy and family life, protection of the family, special protection of children, equality before the law, judicial guarantees, and judicial protection, held in Articles 3, 8, 11, 17, 19, 24, and 25 of the American Convention, concerning the obligations held in Articles 1.1 and 2 of that instrument, with regard to Alexandra Benado Vergara, Alejandra Gallo Poblete, and their children.

The IACHR therefore asked the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to demand that the State take the following measures:

1. Provide comprehensive reparations—in the form of financial compensation and other measures—for these human rights violations
2. Provide any healthcare necessary for the rehabilitation of D.B.G. and L.B.G., in agreement with their family
3. Take measures of non-recurrence, including the following:
   1. Enabling adequate and effective judicial remedies for persons who denounce discrimination based on their sexual orientation.
   2. Implementing judicial training programs about the grounds for judicial decisions, equality, non-discrimination, gender perspective, and the rights of LGBTI persons.
   3. Implementing information and legal literacy campaigns about the available remedies for cases involving discrimination.

The IACHR is a principal and autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), whose mandate stems from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has the mandate to promote the observance and defense of human rights in the region and acts as an advisory body to the OAS on the matter. The IACHR is made up of seven independent members who are elected by the OAS General Assembly in their personal capacity, and do not represent their countries of origin or residence.

No. 261/25

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