The law provides criminal penalties for corruption by officials; however, the government did not always implement the law effectively, and officials often engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. There were numerous reports of corruption by government officials during the year. Citizens continued to view corruption as a pervasive problem in all branches of national, regional, and local governments.

Corruption: Several high-profile political figures were under investigation for corruption, particularly in relation to the well publicized Odebrecht corruption scandal. Former president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (2016-18), who resigned in 2018 in the wake of a corruption scandal, was under house arrest pending charges against him. Former president Ollanta Humala (2011-16) and his wife Nadine Heredia remained under investigation on charges of money-laundering campaign donations. Their pretrial detention was annulled by the Constitutional Tribunal in 2018. Former president Alan Garcia (1985-90, 2006-11) died by suicide in April when police arrived at his residence to detain him under a 10-day preliminary arrest warrant on corruption charges. Former president Alejandro Toledo (2001-06) was in preventive detention in the United States awaiting extradition for allegedly accepting bribes during his administration. In November the Constitutional Tribunal approved a habeas corpus request to free two-time presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori from preventive detention while the investigation continued on charges of her obstruction of justice and money-laundering campaign donations.

There was evidence of widespread corruption in the judicial system. Prosecutors launched an investigation following 2018 media reports of a judicial scandal involving allegations of influence peddling and graft by various judges at all levels. In February a specialized team of prosecutors signed an agreement between the government and Brazilian company Odebrecht under which several corporate officials would collaborate with justice authorities to detail Odebrecht’s corruption schemes in Peru.

PNP officials at all levels were implicated in corruption scandals during the year. In September, PNP commander Manuel Hiraldo Morillo Cribilleros, head of the Criminal Division of Puerto Maldonado in the Madre de Dios region, was arrested during a large-scale law enforcement operation targeting the Los Brothers human trafficking ring. Morillo was suspected of being involved in sex trafficking and corruption.

Financial Disclosure: Most public officials must submit personal financial information to the Office of the Comptroller General prior to taking office and periodically thereafter. The comptroller monitors and verifies disclosures, but the law was not strongly enforced. Administrative punishments for noncompliance can include suspension between 30 days and one year, a ban on signing government contracts, and a ban on holding government office. The comptroller makes disclosures available to the public. The comptroller reported only 22 audits were conducted for the 50,000 public official disclosures in 2017. In July, Congress approved an executive proposal to strengthen penalties against anonymous campaign donations.

A variety of domestic and international human rights groups generally operated without government restriction, investigating and publishing their findings on human rights cases. Government officials were somewhat cooperative and responsive to their views.

Human rights and environmental activists continued to express concern for their safety while working in areas with a lot of natural resource extraction, including illegal logging and mining. They alleged local authorities harassed activists, especially in areas where officials faced corruption charges and suspicion of links to criminal activities. The activists claimed the slow, ineffective process for punishing harassers effectively supported impunity.

Government Human Rights Bodies: The Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, and in particular the Vice Ministry of Human Rights and Access to Justice, oversees human rights issues at the national level. The Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations also have significant human rights roles. These government bodies were generally considered effective.

The independent Office of the Ombudsman operated without government or party interference, and NGOs, civil society organizations, and the public considered it effective.

Congressional committees overseeing human rights included Justice and Human Rights; Women and the Family; Labor and Social Security; Andean, Amazonian, Afro-Peruvian Peoples and Environment and Ecology; Health and Population; and Social Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities.

Women

Rape and Domestic Violence: The law criminalizes rape of men and women, including spousal rape. Penalties for this crime are a minimum of 14 years and a maximum of life in prison.

The law defines femicide as the killing of a woman or girl based on expectations, assumptions, or factors distinctive to her gender. The minimum sentence for femicide is 20 years, and 30 years when the crime includes aggravating circumstances (e.g., crimes against minor, elderly, or pregnant victims). Enforcement of these laws was often ineffective.

The law prohibits domestic violence; penalties range from one month to six years in prison. The law authorizes judges and prosecutors to prevent a convicted spouse or parent from returning to the family home. The law also authorizes the victim’s relatives and unrelated persons living in the home to file complaints of domestic violence. The law requires a police investigation of domestic violence to take place within five days of a complaint and obliges authorities to extend protection to female victims of domestic violence. Enforcement of these laws was lax.

Violence against women and girls–including rape, spousal abuse, and sexual, physical, and psychological abuse–was a serious national problem with increased visibility. The Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations continued to operate service centers with police, prosecutors, counselors, and public welfare agents to help victims. NGOs expressed concerns about the quality and quantity of the program’s services, particularly in rural areas. The ministry operated a toll-free hotline and implemented projects to sensitize government employees and the citizenry to domestic violence. The government continued efforts to expand temporary shelters, but NGOs and members of Congress stated there were not enough.

Sexual Harassment: Sexual harassment remained a serious problem. Sexual harassment is defined as comments, touching, or actions of a sexual nature that are unsolicited and unwanted by victim. It is a crime with a penalty of up to eight years in prison. Sexual harassment is also a labor rights violation subject to administrative penalties. Government enforcement of laws against sexual harassment remained minimal, although awareness was growing.

In September courts convicted a person of sexual harassment and imposed a sentence of four years and eight months in prison. This was the first-ever conviction for sexual harassment of an adult victim.

Coercion in Population Control: There were no reports of coerced abortion or involuntary sterilization.

Discrimination: The law provides for equality between men and women and prohibits discrimination against women with regard to marriage, divorce, pregnancy, pay, and property rights. The government did not enforce the law effectively. While the law prohibits discrimination in employment and educational opportunities based on gender, there was a persistent underrepresentation of women in high-ranking positions. Arbitrary dismissal of pregnant women and workplace discrimination against women were common. The law stipulates that women should receive equal pay for equal work, but women often were paid less than men. The National Institute of Statistics estimated that, as of 2018, women’s earnings were an average of 68 percent of their male counterparts’ earnings.

Children

Birth Registration: Citizenship is derived either by birth within the country’s territory or from one’s parents. The state grants a national identification number upon birth, which is essential to access most public and many private services. Government representatives and NGOs assessed that undocumented citizens were particularly vulnerable to labor exploitation, human trafficking, and crime.

Child Abuse: Violence against children and sexual abuse of children were serious nationwide problems. At-risk children may be placed with guardians or in specialized residential facilities for different kinds of victims. Not all shelters provided psychological care, although the law requires it. In most regions, residential shelters operated by provincial or district authorities were supplemented by shelters operated by schools, churches, and NGOs.

The law requires all government authorities, courts, and social service institutions to use the “best interests of the child” standard in all decisions affecting these children. The law imposes stiff prison sentences for sexual exploitation of children, abusing minors, and child trafficking, but these crimes were sometimes confused with each other. As a result, police did not always collect the correct kind of evidence to meet the prosecutor’s evidentiary burden, and judges at times failed to apply relevant penalty provisions, particularly in trafficking cases.

Early and Forced Marriage: The legal minimum age of marriage is 18. The law allows a civil judge to authorize minors older than 16 to marry.

Sexual Exploitation of Children: The law prohibits child pornography and stipulates a penalty of four to 12 years’ imprisonment and a fine. The law prohibits child sex trafficking, with a minimum penalty of 12 years in prison. Government officials, police, NGOs, civil society leaders, and journalists identified numerous cases of child sex trafficking during the year. The country remained a destination for child sex tourism.

While the country has strong laws to protect children, it frequently had serious problems with enforcement. Media reported on the sex trafficking of minor girls in the illicit gold mining sites of the remote Amazonian Madre de Dios region. In 2018 a local NGO estimated there were approximately 400 brothels in the Madre de Dios mining region, with hundreds of minor girls living in debt bondage and subjected to sex trafficking. In February the PNP and the armed forces launched an enforcement campaign in Madre de Dios to eliminate illegal gold mining and its related crimes, including human trafficking.

The minimum age for consensual sex is 14. A conviction for rape of a child younger than 14 carries penalties ranging from 25 years to life in prison. The law also prohibits adults from using deceit, abuse of power, or taking advantage of a child in a vulnerable situation to have sex with a person younger than 18.

International Child Abductions: The country is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. See the Department of State’s Annual Report on International Parental Child Abduction at https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/International-Parental-Child-Abduction/for-providers/legal-reports-and-data/reported-cases.html.

Estimates of the Jewish population ranged from 3,000 to 4,000 persons. Jewish community leaders said some individuals continued to engage occasionally in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories on social media. They said the government and both private and government-run media generally did not engage in this activity. In January, Junin Governor Vladimir Cerron tweeted, “If the Left coordinates its unity well, it will successfully face the Jewish-Peruvian powers in the next general elections.” In February, two months before dying by suicide to avoid arrest for a corruption investigation, former president Alan Garcia said a journalist who accused him of stopping the fight against corruption had “brought the Jewish mafia of (Josef) Maiman” to Peru. (Josef Maiman is an Israeli-Peruvian real estate developer implicated in corruption charges.) Some political leaders and media reports criticized the remarks by Cerron and Garcia.

See the Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report at https://www.state.gov/trafficking-in-persons-report.

The law prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities, defined as an individual who has a physical, sensory, or mental impairment that limits one or more major life activities. The law establishes infractions and punishments for noncompliance. The law also provides for the protection, care, rehabilitation, security, and social inclusion of persons with disabilities. It mandates that public spaces be free of barriers and be accessible to persons with disabilities. It provides for the appointment of a disability rights specialist in the Ombudsman’s Office. The law mandates the government make its internet sites accessible for persons with disabilities. It requires the inclusion of sign language or subtitles in all educational and cultural programs on public television and in media available in public libraries. The government generally did not effectively enforce these laws.

In September the government issued the General Law on People with Disabilities, requiring companies to improve their job selection processes to give persons with disabilities the opportunity to apply for jobs on equal terms. The law also requires employers to provide employees up to 56 hours per year to accompany their disabled relatives to medical appointments.

The government failed to enforce laws protecting the rights of persons with mental disabilities. NGOs and government officials reported an insufficient number of medical personnel providing services in psychiatric institutions.

While government officials improved enforcement of the rights of persons with disabilities, the country’s disabled community still faced immense challenges due to inaccessible infrastructure, minimal access to education, insufficient employment opportunities, and discrimination, according to government and civil society leaders. The Ombudsman’s Office reported approximately 87 percent of children with disabilities did not attend school, and 76 percent of persons with disabilities did not work. One government survey reported that 70 percent of employers stated they would not hire a person with a disability.

The law requires the government to treat all citizens equally and it prohibits discrimination based on race, national origin, or language. The government did not always enforce the law effectively.

Indigenous communities remained politically, economically, and socially disadvantaged. Indigenous persons continued to face threats from land grabbers, narcotics traffickers, illegal miners, and illegal loggers who operated near or within indigenous land holdings, often in the Amazon. Indigenous persons were particularly at risk for human trafficking. Indigenous leaders expressed concerns that the national and regional governments did not adequately protect indigenous peoples and their property interests.

While the constitution recognizes that indigenous peoples have the right to own land communally, indigenous groups often lacked legal title to demarcate the boundaries of their land. Amazonian indigenous peoples in particular continued to accuse the national government of delaying the final allocation of their land titles. By law local communities retain the right of unassignability, which should prevent the title to such lands from being reassigned to a nonindigenous person. Some indigenous community members, however, sold land to outsiders without the majority consent of their community.

The national government retains subsurface mineral rights for land nationwide. This led to disputes between local indigenous communities, the national government, regional governments, and the various extractive interests. The law requires the government to consult with indigenous communities on proposed extractive projects or on changes to ongoing extractive projects. The government is required to produce a detailed implementation plan to facilitate government and private-sector compliance; implementation of this law was somewhat effective. The law also requires the Ministry of Culture to establish a database of indigenous communities entitled to consultation. As of 2018 the ministry had recognized 55 indigenous groups as being entitled to “prior consultation.” From 2014 to October 2019, the government initiated 24 prior consultations with various indigenous communities, which generated 487 agreements. Of the prior consultations, 10 were concluded and 14 continued.

NGOs, legal experts, and the Ombudsman’s Office continued to express concern that indigenous communities did not have sufficient training to engage in consultations with the government and extractive industries.

The law recognizes the right of individuals to file legal claims of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Four regional governments (Piura, La Libertad, Loreto, and San Martin) have regulations that explicitly prohibit discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) persons and provide administrative relief but not criminal sanctions.

Government officials, NGOs, journalists, and civil-society leaders reported widespread official and societal discrimination against LGBTI persons in employment, housing, education, and health care based on sexual orientation or gender identity. NGOs continued to report that law enforcement authorities repeatedly failed to protect, and on occasion violated, the rights of LGBTI citizens. Police harassment and abuse of transgender women remained a problem. Transgender women reported to NGOs that municipal police in metropolitan Lima and other major cities engaged in extortion, violence, and degrading treatment against them. LGBTI persons were particularly vulnerable to human trafficking.

NGOs also reported an increase in forced or coerced conversion therapy. In August the Ombudsman’s Office expressed its concern and its rejection of establishments that seek to modify the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBTI persons. The ombudsman recommended investigations of these establishments by the Peruvian College of Psychologists, the Medical College of Peru, and the Public Ministry.

The law does not provide transgender persons the right to update their national identity documents to reflect their gender identity. Transgender persons, therefore, often did not have valid national identification cards, which consequently limited their access to government services.

Persons with HIV/AIDS faced discrimination and harassment, including societal discrimination, with respect to employment, housing, and social inclusion. The Ministry of Health implemented policies to combat discrimination based on HIV/AIDS status. HIV/AIDS affected transgender women disproportionately, and many of them could not obtain health care because they lacked national identification cards reflecting their gender and appearance.

Other Societal Violence or Discrimination

In November the Ombudsman’s Office reported most social conflicts involved socioenvironmental issues, with mining-related incidents accounting for 63 percent of the cases. In May a private security force member died during a confrontation with residents of the Paran community in the department of Huanuco over alleged contamination of water by the Invicta Mining Corporation. Clashes in the Tambo Valley injured at least 26 police and several civilians during protests over a construction license for the Tia Maria mining project.