The Constitutional Court must rule on the “Easter Law” that It could favor a man accused of rape.
Women in Rapa Nui criticized the statements issued by the Council of Elders by normalize acts of violence in exchange for a sexual relationship. Meanwhile, the group apologized, noting that those words do not represent them.
It was in October 2019 when the man accused of rape, at night, approached the victim to take her to a vacant place and commit the crime. Hours later, he was arrested by the Carabineros, where he confessed the facts.
Currently, the defendant requests that articles 13 and 14 of Law 16.44, known as the “Easter Law,” be applied to him, which orders that people belonging to the Rapa Nui ethnic group commit certain crimes, including rape, their sentence can be reduced by one degree and allows the fulfillment of 2/3 of their sentence in freedom.
In this way, the case was taken to the Constitutional Court after applying an injunction inapplicability due to unconstitutionality, presented by the Court of First Instance and Guarantee of Rapa Nui, and finally the TC will determine if it proceeds in said investigation.
The situation caused annoyance. Especially because in the middle of this process, the Council of Elders issued statements with the aim of “defending” the law, causing immediate rejection by women and by the governor of the area, Tarita Rapu Alarcón.
“It is said that women or girls who are going to be born, They must be used to pleasant violence How did these little lawyers (…) speak in those terms and condemn all generations of girls who have not been born to the fact that there is pleasant violence? ”He declared.
The statement reads the following: “during seduction and the exercise of sexuality, a fair role play can take place where both can take the sexual initiative and respond to the lack of explicit interest of the other with violence or with a“ grata force “necessary to overcome the opposition of the other.”
After this situation, the president of the Council of the Elderly, indicated this Friday that they should write a letter in favor of the law, to which he agreed and signed without having previously had access to the complete document.
On the other hand, the chief prosecutor of Rapa Nui, Osvaldo Basso, pointed out that “in other words, the sexual freedom or indemnity of the female victim residing in Rapa Nui, is less criminally protected than that of a female victim living on the continent“.
“It reflects a flagrant discrimination against the woman who is in Rapa Nui as a resident or passing through and a clear violation of her human right to non-sexual violence,” the prosecutor concluded.
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