In March, Vasquez paid the victim's mother 61,740 bolivianos ($9,000) to bribe her not to press charges and was then released from custody. The ombudsman characterized torture as standard procedure for police and armed forces to unpack. The human rights ombudsman claimed that Government Ministry authorities erased video evidence of the incident.
A report released in October by the NGO Construir Foundation estimated that 10 percent of the prison population were women. Credible NGOs reported that many prisoners were held in pre-trial detention for longer than the period they would have been incarcerated if convicted of the charges against them. On 29 July, the lower house approved impeachment charges against two members of the constitutional court.
There have been documented cases in which members of the ruling MAS party were banned from joining or associating with competing political parties.
Respect for Civil Liberties, Including
The law prohibits such actions, but in some cases the government did not respect these prohibitions. Violence and harassment: There were reports of violence and harassment of members of the press corps. There were also allegations that government officials attacked and harassed media outlets deemed critical of the government.
In August 2013 Penaranda resigned as director of the daily Pagina Siete due to government pressure on the outlet. Arce tried to force the journalists through the prosecution to reveal their sources of the information. At the request of the defence, the case was transferred to the Press Tribunal in August and remained pending at the end of the year.
In August, the Telecommunications and Transport Authority reported 4.1 million internet users in the country, and about 38 percent of internet users. Although the constitution provides for freedom of assembly and association, civil society groups critical of the government often faced harassment or threats of expulsion from government officials. The constitution provides for freedom of association, although the government has not always respected this right.
The government cooperated with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations in providing protection. Refoulement: In March, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that the government violated the plaintiffs' rights in Family Pacheco Tineo v. The family petitioned the IACHR in 2002, which found in 2004 that the government had violated several provisions of the American Convention on.
Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to Change Their Government
The court ordered the government to pay 240,100 bolivianos ($35,000) to the family, and the government passed a decree to release the money. The comptroller general reported that 10 percent of the more than 3,500 presidential, vice presidential and congressional candidates have active charges against them. Active charges were pending against four of the five declared presidential candidates in the October election.
The only candidate free from legal proceedings was President Morales, also leader of the MAS party. On August 28, Mario Orellana, candidate for MSM senator for Cochabamba, was imprisoned by order of the Cochabamba departmental government after the candidate was linked to the publication of a video in which President Morales admitted that his government hosted the top of the Group of 77 in June to gain profit. an electoral impulse. International observers, including the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Bolivia, expressed concern about the motives behind Orellana's capture.
This practice allowed the government to dominate media coverage and the ruling party to broadcast election propaganda beyond the strict limits set by the TSE for opposition parties. On September 1, MAS assemblyman Luis Gallego announced his support for the decision by social organizations in the northern part of the Potosi department to flog. Participation of women and minorities: The law requires gender equality in the candidate selection process at all levels of government.
After the October elections, women made up 42 percent of the Senate and 50 percent of the lower house of Congress. Women also made up 33 percent of the Supreme Court and 43 percent of the National Land Disputes Tribunal. Women remained significantly underrepresented in municipal executive positions; for example, only 7 percent of mayors were women.
Corruption and Lack of Transparency in Government
Idi Oktubre 3, kinuna ti NGO a Community of Human Rights a ngimmato ti bilang dagiti naipadamag a kaso ti political harassment kadagiti babbai manipud 40 idi 2012 agingga iti 154 idiay Apaza - a kinompronta ni Achacachi (Department of La Paz) councillor Nora Quispe Ticona iti maysa a konseho ti siudad meeting inaramidna, kinabkabilna, ken pinilitna a nagpirma iti surat ti panagikkatna. Nagtalinaed iti pre-trial stage dagiti imbestigasion iti pannakapapatay ti dua a nabutos a babbai a konsehal munisipal idi 2012, da Juana Quispe Apaza ti Ancoraimes La Paz ken Daguimar Rivera Ortiz ti Guayaramerin Beni.
The constitution and electoral law set aside seven special indigenous constituencies to increase the participation of minority indigenous communities in the lower house of congress. Corruption: According to the World Bank's 2011 Global Governance Indicators, government corruption and lack of transparency remain serious problems. According to Transparency International's 2013 Global Corruption Barometer, 86 percent of citizens believed the police to be corrupt or extremely corrupt, and 76 percent labeled the country's judiciary as corrupt or extremely corrupt.
The Ministry of Anti-Corruption and Transparency and the Prosecutor's Office are responsible for fighting corruption, but most corrupt officials operated with impunity. Cases involving corruption charges against the president and vice president require congressional approval before prosecutors can begin trials, and cases against government officials were rarely allowed to proceed. On March 31, the chairman of the Chamber of Deputies' Human Rights Committee, Ever Moya, resigned his seat and distanced himself from the ruling party after claiming that he had filed several corruption complaints against.
Financial Disclosure: The law requires government officials to disclose potential personal and financial conflicts of interest and to declare their income and assets. The law requires elected and appointed officers to disclose their financial information to the Auditor General, but their statements are not available to the public. Public access to information: The constitution provides for the right to freely access, interpret, analyze and communicate information individually or collectively.
Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
Both Houses of Congress have human rights committees that propose laws and policies to promote and protect human rights.
Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
The Center for Information and Development of Women (CIDEM) reported that 59 women were killed in incidents of intimate partner violence in the first six months of the year. A study by the Women's Coordinator found that 91 percent of those affected by such violence were women and girls. The NGO Marie Stopes International Bolivia reported that 81 percent of women did not use modern forms of contraception, and a study by the Emancipation Fund found that nearly 40 percent of women did not use any type of contraceptive method.
The Civil Registry reported that 56 percent of Bolivians were registered within a year of their birth and 97 percent by age 12. The Human Rights Ombudsman reported that only 0.5 percent of cases resulted in a conviction for the perpetrator. World Vision Bolivia reported that 40 percent of children in schools were victims of bullying and 60 percent of students were victims of violence and abuse at the hands of teachers.
Early and forced marriage: According to the Population Reference Bureau, 22 percent of women ages 20 to 24 were married by age 18. The Research Center for Socioeconomic Development reported that only an estimated 13,000 children with disabilities, or 6 percent of the population of youth with disabilities , had regular access to education. In the 2012 census, approximately 41 percent of the population over the age of 15 identified themselves as indigenous, primarily from the Quechua and Aymara communities.
The IACHR reported that 70 percent of indigenous people lived in poverty or extreme poverty, with little access to education or minimal services to support human health, such as clean drinking water and sanitation systems. A survey presented by the NGO Hivos and COALIBOL in January showed that 93 percent of LGBT people surveyed had been discriminated against by the police. In the field of education, 70 percent of the participants in the study were discriminated against by teachers and 30 percent by fellow students.
COALIBOL reports that 72 percent of transgender individuals dropped out of high school due to severe discrimination. The study also found that 20 percent of respondents reported discrimination in the provision of government services.
Worker Rights
Police were aware of the community's intentions three hours before he was captured, and had ten hours to intervene before he was finally killed. Police refrained from acting, saying they could not compete with the size and capacity of the crowd. Community silence pacts in which the perpetrators of the vigilante crimes have collectively agreed not to cooperate.
Most participants in vigilante justice actions cited the broken nature of the traditional justice system as the primary motivator for pursuing justice through other means. The government and the lack of resources in the labor courts limited freedom of association. There were reports that members of the indigenous Guarani group continued to live in conditions of forced labor in the Chaco region.
The code recently established that the Department of Justice, not the Department of Labor, is responsible for enforcing child labor laws, including laws regarding minimum age and maximum hours for child laborers, school completion requirements, and health and safety conditions for children. in the workshop. About 491,000 of the working children were between the ages of five and 13, of whom 89 percent worked in hazardous industries or conditions. Among the worst forms of child labor were children working in the sugar cane harvest, Brazil nut harvest, brick making, hospital cleaning, and domestic work.
Up to 500 sugar producers continued to participate in the program by ensuring their fields were free of child labour, and one sugar processing plant achieved the triple seal certification certifying its final product as free of child labor during the year. While the government did not keep official statistics, there were reports of workers dying due to unsafe conditions, particularly in the mining and construction sectors. On September 23, Enrique Nunez, president of the Bolivian Society of Occupational Health and Security, reported an average of 7,000 occupational accidents each year at a cost of 430,000 bolivianos ($62,700) annually to the home.