Women’s rights organizations said that more than 200 girls were subjected to FGM in July and August in the Mandoul and Logone Oriental provinces. In September, the NHRC expressed concern about the increase in FGM which was illegal under national law.
ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS Boko Haram and ISWAP committed serious human rights abuses against the population in the Lake Chad area which resulted in dozens of deaths. According to the International Organization for Migration, 298,803 people were internally displaced in April in the region, rising to 363,807 in September; 64% of them had left their villages to escape the violence. In one case, reported by the UN SecretaryGeneral, 10 people were killed in August when Boko Haram attacked their village, Tinana, in the Kaya department. According to local authorities, during the night armed men surrounded the village, fired on civilians and looted houses.
CHILE Republic of Chile Head of state and government: Sebastián Piñera Echenique Although mass protests against persistent inequalities decreased due to the COVID-19 pandemic, those that did take place were usually met with excessive use of force by state agents, often resulting in serious injuries. The government misused the law to criminalize protesters, invoking the State Security Law and introducing new criminal laws. The pandemic had a disproportionate impact on those living in poverty and those dependent on public health services, as well as on public health workers.
BACKGROUND Mass demonstrations continued in the first months of the year but largely stopped in compliance with measures to curb the spread of COVID-19. The government
Amnesty International Report 2020/21
declared a “state of catastrophe” due to the pandemic in March, which was extended until December. This imposed restrictions on movement and a night-time curfew. Chile was one of the 10 countries worldwide with the highest number of deaths per million inhabitants due to COVID-19, affecting mostly poorer communities and those in vulnerable situations. Chile failed to adhere to the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean (the Escazú Agreement). In October, Chile held a referendum and approved a process to draft a new Constitution.
EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE Mass protests continued from January until mid-March, with multiple new incidents of excessive use of force. At least two new criminal lawsuits for alleged crimes against humanity were filed against President Piñera and other officials. At the end of the year, the Regional Prosecutor of Valparaíso was jointly investigating these and other lawsuits filed in 2019. The National Human Rights Institute expressed concern at the slow pace of investigations into human rights violations that occurred during the mass protests in 2019. In August, the Prosecutor’s Office filed formal charges against policemen accused in cases such as the blinding of Gustavo Gatica and Fabiola Campillai, almost a year after the incidents to which the charges related. Administrative investigations and sanctions by the Carabineros (Chilean National Police) were slow and ineffective, often based on less serious administrative offences rather than human rights violations. Organizers of “soup kitchens” set up to address widespread hunger said police resorted to excessive use of force to try to shut them down. In March, during the curfew, police shot Jonathan Reyes in the chest, killing him. The police alleged they acted in self-defence, but
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