Click to expand Image Chile's President Jose Antonio Kast waves on his inauguration day at Congress in Valparaiso, Chile, March 11, 2026. © 2026 Esteban Felix/AP Photo Chilean President José Antonio Kast introduced in Congress on October 19 a proposal to change the country’s National Human Rights Institute.Founded in 2009 as an autonomous state body, the institute has worked to promote and protect human rights in Chile, including by taking legal action on behalf of human rights abuse victims.If passed, the legislation would weaken some of the tools the institute uses to protect human rights and diminish its independence.The bill would remove the institute’s eleven-member board of directors, replacing them with a new five-member transitional board that would draft new bylaws for the institute. Unlike the current board, which has four members who were selected directly by civil society groups, the new transitional board would be proposed by the president, approved by the Senate, and would have no members selected directly by civil society. This sits uneasily with the standards set out in the Principles relating to the Status of National Human Rights Institutions (the Paris Principles), which recommend that members be independent from the government and selected through a process that ensures broad civil society representation.According to a financial report by the Finance Ministry’s Budget Office, the proposal would also reduce the institute’s staff. The number of staff members in the institute’s regional offices outside of Santiago de Chile would be cut in half, and the number of lawyers in the institute’s protection unit, who handle the institute’s legal actions, would be reduced by 70 percent. As a result, people in many parts of Chile could lose access to in-person assistance from the institute.The proposed legislation would also end the institute’s ability to represent victims in criminal cases—a power it has often used in cases of torture, ill treatment, or human trafficking. That would mean that victims who cannot afford a lawyer would lose legal support and would rely on prosecutors to decide whether to pursue their case and how to move it forward.The National Human Rights Institute itself has welcomed other parts of the bill meant to improve its transparency and governance but has warned that some aspects of the bill would undermine its work. Chile’s Congress should reexamine these worrying provisions and make sure the institute can protect the rights of all Chileans.