Protesters confront police in Lima, Peru. Photo: Ph Marcos Sierras

Human Rights Report: Peruvian State must be investigated for crimes against humanity

February 16, 2023February 16, 2023Peru

The International Mission of Solidarity and Human Rights has released its preliminary report on Peru. Anti-coup demonstrations have continued since the coup against President Pedro Castillo on December 7, 2022. Faced with repeated denouncements of human rights violations, and in response to a request for observation and verification by numerous Peruvian civil society organizations and human rights groups, the mission traveled to Peru, carrying out its work from February 7 to 13, 2023.

It’s main objectives were:

Reveal situations of violation of human rights in the context of the political and social crisis that takes place in Peru.
Prepare a Preliminary Report that accounts for the immediate results of what was verified in the territory.
Prepare a Final Report, which meticulously makes visible the testimonies and complaints at the national and international level.
Contribute to the international articulation in defense, promotion and protection of human rights throughout the region in order to mitigate the repressive actions of the current regime.

The Mission was divided into working groups and moved to the cities most affected by the conflict, among them: Juliaca, Ica, Cusco, Ayacucho, and Lima.

Among other incidents, the mission investigated the massacres which took place in Ayacucho and in Juliaca.

The preliminary report affirms that violations of human rights, committed by security forces, can be subsumed in the following crimes:

Crimes against life (homicides)
Crimes against physical integrity (various injuries)
Crimes against sexual integrity (sexual abuse)
Crimes against freedom of assembly and the free exercise of protest
Crimes against property (damage)
Offenses against freedom of transit
Crimes against freedom of expression

“We can preliminarily point out the nature of these crimes against humanity, since they constitute a systematic and generalized attack directed against the civilian population; therefore, in principle, the possibility of opening universal jurisdictional instances is enabled.”

Conclusions

This preliminary report allowed the Mission to conclude that:

The Peruvian State must be investigated in the framework of the social and political crisis that occurred since December 7, 2022, through its armed and security forces, for having murdered, tortured, abused, persecuted, threatened, and intimidated vast sectors of the Peruvian people. The unleashed repression prevented, limited, and conditioned political participation, the right to assembly, to petition before the authorities, the right to freedom of expression, and the right to protest.
The Peruvian State must be investigated for having deployed abusive, disproportionate and illegal repressive practices on the defenseless civilian population, using sophisticated and lethal weapons for this purpose.
The Peruvian State must be investigated for having systematically and widely attacked the civilian population, especially young people from poor neighborhoods, students, women, rural and urban workers, indigenous people, peasants, social leaders and the independent press.
The Peruvian State must be investigated in reference to the crimes against humanity indicated.
The Peruvian people have the right to open all jurisdictional, national and international instances to obtain comprehensive reparation, through truth and justice.