IACHR Holds First-Ever Hearing on Alleged Human Rights Rollbacks Under Kast, Presses Government for Search-Plan and Budget Records

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH/IACHR) held a hearing in Washington on August 5, 2026 — its first devoted specifically to human-rights policy under President Kast — requested by Londres 38, the Red de Observadoras en Justicia y Memoria, the Agrupación por la Memoria Histórica Providencia Antofagasta, and the Asociación por la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos Colonia Dignidad, and joined by the public-employees' union ANEF on labor concerns. Organizations alleged: dismantling of the Justice Ministry's Human Rights Program, the state's main prosecutor of crimes against humanity, and of the Human Rights and Indigenous Peoples Unit within the Ministry of National Assets; that only 72 of 1,132 identified former detention/torture sites hold official state recognition, with subsequent reporting adding that only 5 of 33 memory sites have secured permanent funding, leaving just 8 able to access the 2026 competitive fund; suspension of expropriation proceedings for the former Colonia Dignidad grounds; and so-called 'indultos pasivos' (passive pardons) — instructing Human Rights Program lawyers to abstain from or withdraw appeals in at least 20 of 23 hearings involving convicted human-rights violators, contributing to the release of at least two convicts, César Manríquez Bravo and Héctor Osses Yáñez. The CIDH requested the government supply antecedents on the National Search Plan for Truth and Justice, the ex-ante technical evaluations behind the institutional changes, and the budget readjustments, reminding Chile that fiscal adjustments must respect the principle of non-regression. The government's Human Rights Subsecretariat denied the allegations, describing the changes as 'administrative reorganization' and insisting on policy 'continuity.'