Gina Romero, UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Association and Assembly warned that Peru did not comply with the recommendations for facilitating peaceful assemblies. These proposals included “generating a safe and discrimination-free environment for peaceful protests,” he detailed through his official X account.
“The recommendations to Peru were clear: Promote social dialogue, address the causes of the protests, apply measures to prevent their stigmatization and criminalization, ensure that pretrial detention meets the requirements of proportionality, exceptionality and non-discrimination; ensure compliance with international standards when investigating persons belonging to Indigenous Peoples; put an end to allegedly arbitrary forms of criminal investigations initiated against civilians in the context of social protests,” he said.
In addition, the expert had requested that the Government offer a public apology for the deaths during the social protests in late 2022 and early 2023 against the Dina Boluarte regime.
“Peru needs to move forward with legal and practical reforms that will allow the country to be aligned with international standards regarding peaceful assembly, and respect people who go out to exercise their legitimate right to protest,” he concluded.
The UN had already warned about unnecessary use of force during protests
In October 2023, the UN issued a report that concluded that the Peruvian security forces used unnecessary and disproportionate forceincluding lethal weapons, outside the circumstances permitted by international human rights standards. The study also found that “less lethal weapons incompatible with international standards were used, causing serious and, in some cases, fatal injuries to protesters.”
“In the face of this violence, the report stresses that Peruvian authorities must implement relevant reforms to guarantee the exercise of human rights in protests, continue efforts to ensure accountability and allow for a decentralized and inclusive national dialogue,” they said.
The report also notes that the State must “ensure that all police contingents deployed in the context of policing assemblies, particularly at the regional level, receive substantive and effective practical training on the use of force in accordance with human rights standards, including non-violent management of assemblies and de-escalation tactics, and that they are periodically evaluated.”
