Human Rights Check-up What is the status of our human rights after the earthquake?

Alquimia, supported by the Urgent Action Fund of Latin America and the Caribbean, implemented a see-over to observe which rights of women have been affected after the earthquake. This consisted of a type of monitoring that the local organizations themselves are donating to check in and note what has happened in the practice of women’s rights, and with the institutions that should guarantee these rights.

Casa de los Colores in Concepción and Centro Quidell in Talca have been placed in charge of this check-up. The sociologist Catalina Flores, coordinator of the check-up, has signaled that they have developed a methodology that will allow them to identify the most vulnerable rights, what actors are key in the protection or lack of protection of these rights, what actions can be taken to confront the problem and what the processes are to make official complaints. According to Catalina “this is not about examining a particular institution, but rather looks at the vulnerability of rights and through this analysis also examines the relationship with institutions, organizations and services that can complement or violate women’s rights.”

What are the first steps of this check-up? During June, a meeting of women will take place in the camp in Lota and a conference with local authorities and women’s organizations in Curicó. There will also be a workshop with organizations in Talca. In addition, we have begun to collect information on a door to door basis in the sector of San Clemente about the situations of seasonal and temporary female workers.

Local women have been key in the collecting of information, like Oriana Astudillo, director of Casa Hadewijch in Hualpén and María Elena Mancilla, director of Casa Mirabal in Coronel. They have continued registering this important information as they continue their work supporting women and girls; they identify what rights they see being affected, issues with civil authorities (of this and the previous administration), the military and community representatives, and the processes of reconstruction carried out by organizations and by individual women.

This check-up also has considered recording the 10 measures implemented by SERNAM for the reconstruction.

On the ground, this job has been met with several obstacles. For example, women of some areas like Lota and Coronel avoid interviews because of the over exposure that they have experienced in the media. Another difficulty is that the women who oversee this job have accomplish this work while they are also continuing the principal activities of their organizations. It is difficult to coordinate common schedules with the interviewees and an even larger barrier is the resistance that some authorities have shown in terms of photographic and audio visual recording.

Despite these setbacks, the check-up has taken its first steps and they hope to soon have some results. When this happens, they intend to incentivize the participation of the women’s movement by region, dispersing this information through feminist networks and local media.