On September 4, more than half of Chile's voters expressed their rejection of the new constitutional text that replaced the previous regulations created during the dictatorship.
The results were overwhelming: 61.2% were against the new constitution, that is, a little more than three million votes difference.
The text represented an advance in the rights of women, in the protection of the environment and in the integration of indigenous peoples.
But this vote is not going to close the social change, nor the constituent process.
The constitutional reform has a long history and finds its origin in what is known as the "social outbreak" of 2019, when the rise in the cost of the Santiago metro motivated thousands of people to demonstrate against the existing inequalities in Chile .
As a spokesman for the ruling block I Approve comments: "On a calm day, it seems that nothing is happening, a revolution began."
The truth is that there was a great social revolt throughout the country that had serious consequences.
One of the effects of this outbreak was the change of government.
On March 11, 2022, the leftist candidate Gabriel Boric won the presidential elections in Chile.
He himself formed a ministerial cabinet made up, for the first time, of a majority of women;
He appointed the first Minister of the Interior and Public Security in the history of the country, and integrated the head of the Ministry of Women and Gender Equity into his political committee.
In addition, the Government agreed to reform the constitutional text drawn up during the regime of former dictator Augusto Pinochet.
Daniela Marzi, magistrate of the Constitutional Court of Chile, comments that this is a "standard" regulation, which has allowed reforms and progressive interpretations.
However, the body that she currently represents has used her to stop several social advances, including the right to abortion, with legal figures such as "institutional conscientious objection", which gave rise to several health centers refused to carry it out despite being legally permitted.
Just as the 20th century has been focused on the protection of the figure of the "industrial worker", this century could be the opportunity to recognize care in a historical way
The pact to reform the Constitution was called Agreement for social peace and the new constitution” and was signed on November 19, 2019. The people of Chile voted on the opening of this process and on the way to do it.
It was decided, by 80% of votes in favor, the need to reform the Constitution that would fall into the hands of an independent commission.
This body was formed on a parity basis, including independent feminist activists, who articulated the proposals to modify this regulation from a gender perspective.
The presence of a strong feminist group has had a clear impact on the text, which lit a flame to any feminist person who read it, beginning with "We, the people of Chile..." Among other advances, the most notable were the recognition of care, expressed in article 49 of the Constitution: "The State recognizes that domestic and care work are socially necessary and indispensable for the sustainability of life and the development of society."
Marzi comments on the enthusiasm with which the creation of this new regulation was experienced, because, just as the 20th century has been focused on the protection of the figure of the so-called "industrial worker", this century could be the opportunity for the recognition of historical care.
Parity in all public bodies has been another advance of this new law.
This is a positive action measure that did not have the rejection of the opposition bloc
Rejection
.
Even several of its supporters agreed with the support for the law from a gender perspective, as mentioned by one of its delegates, during the vote counting phase at the polling station in the Las Condes neighborhood, in Santiago: "In parity They will not see me against it, I am a woman and of course, I am not against the arrival of women”.
But there are other aspects of the new law that generated great controversy and even rejection, such as the recognition of indigenous judicial systems within the national system.
This measure could have prevented processes of re-victimization of the country's indigenous women, since they currently coexist in both systems.
It is evident that the feminist movement in Chile is on the social agenda, has made a lot of progress in different fields and is not willing to back down.
The indigenous judicial system resolves without control the cases that are presented to it.
However, if it were part of the national, it would have to meet some minimum requirements.
For example, in the case of domestic violence, if it were part of the national judicial system, it could be guaranteed that it would be a person trained in gender, as well as the possibility of a review by a higher instance.
It is true that some of the measures included in the text have already found answers in other ways, such as the guarantee that all sentences have a gender perspective.
It would have been essential for it to be included in the Constitution, but currently, from the Technical Secretariat for Gender Equality and Non-Discrimination, a repository of sentences with a gender perspective has been created.
This file has the function of giving tools to key agents of the judicial process on how to judge with a gender perspective.
The Ministry of Women has also worked on the law called "free of violence", which is currently being processed in the Legislative Chambers.
With the approval of this text, Chile will comply with international demands, because for years it lacked a comprehensive law on violence against women.
An absence that has sparked several claims by the Committee of Experts of the Follow-up Mechanism of the Belém do Pará Convention (CEVI).
The constitutional process is currently at a turning point, it is unknown how it will move forward.
There is a risk that the process will freeze and a new non-progressive government will retrace the advanced path.
But, if something is evident, it is that the feminist movement in Chile is on the social agenda, it has made a lot of progress in different fields and it is not willing to back down.
Ana Fernández Quiroga
is an expert in gender, a doctor from the Pablo de Olavide University, Seville, and a specialist in sexist violence against indigenous women and resistance processes.
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