LIBERA Foundation at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

Written on 14 October 2022.

Libera Foundation, Chile, together with other organisations working against human trafficking in Latin America, attended a public hearing on access to justice and gender stereotypes before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). Their intervention highlighted that gender stereotypes in the criminal justice system result in widespread impunity for human trafficking and forced labour. This is because the state actors involved, particularly law enforcement, inspectors, judges and security forces, have prejudices linked to gender, age, national and ethnic origin among others, which have a disproportionate negative impact on women and girls. These gender and racial stereotypes and prejudices impede the timely detection and adequate protection of victims of trafficking, and the way in which the justice system interprets the crime of human trafficking.

Libera also underlined their concern about the delays in the investigation processes, with cases that have been waiting for a judgment for nine years or more. Lastly, they demanded that states comply with their duty in terms of due diligence and training public officials to respond adequately, and denounced the impact of restrictive migration policies that cause the displacement of people in clandestine and insecure conditions.

Libera highlight two cases in which the Chilean justice system acquitted all the suspects: the case of 40 Paraguayan workers who were captured and taken to work on the farm of an important national businessman under forced labour conditions, and the case of an Asian woman who was subjected to domestic servitude within a family.