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The Undersecretary of Human Rights, Lorena Recabarren, participated this Monday afternoon in the session of the Senate Human Rights Commission that analyzed the bill that modifies and strengthens Law 20.609, which establishes measures against discrimination and is known as “Ley Zamudio”.
During the analysis, Recabarren requested a modification of the text that qualifies as “arbitrary discrimination any act, practice, medical, psychological or psychiatric treatment, or of any other nature, that aims to modify the sexual orientation or gender identity and expression of a person”.
“I understand that you are referring to the prohibition of conversion therapies,” the undersecretary commented in the session, recalling that Chile “has always indicated as a State that opposes” such procedures.
“However, in the way it is written here, it is in absolute terms and could even be applied to cases where there could be the consent of the person to be treated and there we would have a problem because we would go against or we could go against the will of a person and therefore, a priori, bearing in mind the conviction of the prohibition of conversion therapies, in the sense of compelling, true, or considering or supporting, promoting, therapies that compel people to try to change the conviction that they have, for example regarding their gender identity or expression or sexual orientation, that is to say: having that very clearly, in the way it is written this could happen that a person if he wanted, or was available, had the will to do it, and we would be per se, pointing out a priori that this type of acts would be discriminatory and therefore in that sense it seems to me that the indication is not properly drafted “, exposed.
Faced with this, the The Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation (Movilh) described as “abominable and totally contrary to human dignity” the statement of the government official.
“That Recabarren validates the existence of these therapies if a person wants to undergo them, as he pointed out today in the Senate, reflects an open violation of rights, a total ignorance of human dignity. For this, we demand your resignation. He must resign, if he is enabling or pretending that a person is subjected to torture because that is his will, ”said Movilh spokesman Oscar Rementería.
For her part, Constanza Valdés, co-director of Abofem and lawyer for the Lesbian Association Rompiendo el Silencio, stated that “There is no consent in conversion therapies, they are based on the guilt and pain of the people who suffer because of the discrimination and exclusion they suffer. A minimum of knowledge by the authorities”.
From Fundación Iguales, meanwhile, they indicated that corrective “therapies” “amount to acts of torture and are one of the most atrocious ways of materializing hatred and discrimination against LGBTIQ + communities”.
After the questions, the undersecretary referred to the issue on Twitter.
“I reiterate my deepest rejection of conversion therapies, which I consider degrading treatments,” he said.
“While the project was being processed, I suggested improving the wording of a specific indication, the Commission agreed to prepare a new proposal, and a vote was pending. I have never said that conversion therapies can be voluntary ”, Recabarren assured.
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