translated from Spanish: UN Committee urged Switzerland to halt deportation from Mapuche activist to Chile

The United Nations Committee against Torture on Thursday warned the Swiss authorities that they would violate the rights of mapuche Rep. Flor Agustina Calfunao Paillalef if deported to Chile, where she is at risk of be a victim of torture. The affected person, a member of the Juan Paillalef community in the La Araucanía region, has lived in Switzerland since 1996, from where she has reported the abuses suffered by her group and defended the indigenous people against landowners and companies. In July 2018, his application for asylum was rejected. A deportation order was then activated which led Calfunao Paillalef to file a complaint with the Committee against Torture in August 2018, which has finally determined that the plaintiff could be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or cruel treatment or punishment Degrading. Experts argue that several members of his family have already been abused and there is a “systematic pattern of violations of the rights of the Mapuche people in Chile against those who defend their fundamental rights and seek to maintain their lifestyle traditional,” according to a statement. For this reason, they urged Switzerland to “re-examine” the asylum application. In its resolution, the committee also recalled that states may be responsible for the abuses inflicted by individuals if the authorities – in this case the Chilean authorities – do not take sufficient measures to “prevent, investigate, prosecute and punish” these acts . The inaction, he added, implies “tacit consent or acquiescence.”

Original source in Spanish