IACHR takes to Inter-American Court of Human Rights case concerning Chile about violations of the rights of Afro-descendant tribal people

December 15, 2025

Washington, DC—The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) filed on September 26, 2025, an application before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Case 14,487, with regard to Chile. The case concerns violations of the rights to equal protection, a fair trial, and judicial protection and of the political rights of Chile’s Afro-descendant people.

The case, taken before the IACHR in 2016, concerns the demands of Chile’s Afro-descendant tribal people of full recognition, visibility, and enforcement of their rights. These communities denounce the State’s failure to effectively implement inclusive measures, as well as persisting exclusion from political participation platforms and statistics.

The petition notes that the National Institute of Statistics (INE) declined their request for the category “Afro-descendant/Black” to be included in the 2017 census, a decision that was upheld in court. Act 21,151 was enacted in April 2019, granting legal recognition to Chile’s Afro-descendant tribal people and their cultural identity. However, during the 2019 constitutional reform, the National Congress passed legislation so that the Constitutional Convention would reserve 17 seats for indigenous peoples and none for Chile’s Afro-descendant tribal people.

In Admissibility and Merits Report 359/22, the IACHR stressed that excluding the Afro-descendant tribal people from the 2017 census—which, for the sake of comparison, did expressly include as self-identification categories nine indigenous peoples—entailed differentiated treatment based on racial criteria that had historically been associated with discrimination. The IACHR noted that, in this context, it had been up to the State to provide objective, reasonable justification, which it failed to do, and that this shows gaps in its policies to promote the inclusion and statistical visibility of the country’s Afro-descendant tribal people.

Similarly, the IACHR noted that the decision not to reserve seats for Chile’s Afro-descendant tribal people in the constitutional process launched in 2019 violated the rights of these people to be involved in public affairs, as well as their right to equality before the law.

The IACHR found that the judicial actions pursued by the Afro-descendant tribal people had failed to obtain effective protection. The courts dismissed their demands without a profound examination of their allegations and without providing sufficient grounds, which prevented a real assessment of those allegations. This failure to provide effective judicial remedies evidenced a denial of justice and a lack of adequate mechanisms to ensure access to justice and effective judicial protection for this community.

Based on these considerations, the IACHR concluded that the State of Chile was liable for violations of the rights held in Articles 8.1 (judicial guarantees), 23.1.a (political rights), 24 (fair trial), and 25.1 (judicial protection) of the American Convention, concerning the obligations held in Articles 1.1 and 2 of that instrument, regarding Chile’s Afro-descendant tribal people.

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

1. Provide comprehensive reparations to the victims, in agreement with the petitioning party
2. Ensure the effective legal recognition of Chile’s Afro-descendant tribal people and their collective rights, by fully implementing Act 21,151
3. Ensure that the Afro-descendant people will be included in the census and other national statistical instruments, in compliance with their rights and with the law
4. Enable their political participation, on an equal footing, in the management of public affairs and in any decisions that may affect them directly
5. Take measures of non-recurrence to eradicate racial discrimination, promote historical memory, and strengthen institutional training about their rights

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. 265/25

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