‘They violated our rights’: Chile’s draft constitution fails women, say activists

A protest in 2019, when more than a million people took to the streets of the capital, Santiago. The new constitution, which will be voted on in a referendum on 17 December, would further restrict abortion access and allow institutions to object to laws that clash with religious views. Photograph: Nicole Kramm Caifal

Chile will vote this week on whether to finally replace the country’s dictatorship-era constitution. But for campaigners seeking equal rights for women and Indigenous peoples, the new draft constitution is a big disappointment.

The referendum, which will be held on 17 December, is the latest stage in a four-year political saga. An agreement to vote on a replacement for the dictatorship-era constitution during Gen Augusto Pinochet’s rule was first reached in 2019 after the country’s worst unrest in decades led to at least 30 people being killed, scores blinded by shotgun pellets, teargas canisters and non-lethal ammunition fired by police, and thousands more injured.