“My interlocutors, including several judges, pointed out there is one justice for the rich and another for the poor, and that the experiences of users depend on their economic means, social class and connections,” Satterthwaite underlined in a report issued after her visit to the country.

The official alerted that the former benefit from an efficient system that allows for the expedited processing of their cases to the point of avoiding prison sentences, while the less fortunate are trapped in lengthy procedures and receive harsher penalties.

“This differentiated experience is compounded when economic hardship intersects with discrimination, and racial profiling hinders the fair treatment of indigenous, migrant and Afro-descendant communities,” she claimed.

Satterthwaite, who spent two weeks in Chile, met with representatives of the Government, the National Congress, judges, prosecutors, lawyers and civil society organizations, such as LGBTQ, Afro-descendants and people with disabilities.

For some groups, the problems are serious, such as immigrants who face family separation when they cannot pay for or obtain legal assistance.

Indigenous people lack recognition in the Constitution, face challenges in relation to their lands and territories, and many see no way to assert their basic human rights through the legal system, the report denounced.

The UN representative expressed alarm that numerous Mapuche detainees resort to hunger strikes and considered that such drastic actions should be rare in a well-developed system with the capacity to treat everyone equally.

The UN special rapporteur explained that the problems are not limited to the most vulnerable, in an unequal society where 1% of the population owns 49.6% of the wealth.

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