Women

Rape and Domestic Violence: The law criminalizes rape of men and women, including spousal rape, with penalties of six to eight years in prison. The law defines femicide as the killing of a woman or girl based on gender. In July the government increased the minimum sentence for femicide to 20 years and to 30 years when the crime includes aggravating circumstances (e.g., crimes against minor, elderly, or pregnant victims). Enforcement of these laws, however, was often ineffective.

The law prohibits domestic violence; penalties range from one month to six years in prison. The law also authorizes judges and prosecutors to prevent a convicted spouse or parent from returning to the family home and 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, however, was lax.

Violence against women and girls–including rape, spousal abuse, and sexual, physical, and psychological abuse–were serious national problems. A National Institute of Statistics (INEI) survey found 68 percent of women suffered some form of gender-based violence in their lives. The Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations reported 43 femicides and 103 attempted femicides between January and April, a 26 percent and 39 percent increase, respectively, for the same period in 2017. In February, Jimena B., an 11-year-old girl, was abducted, raped, and killed in Lima. The alleged perpetrator, Cesar Alva Mendoza, was apprehended, placed in preventative detention, had several hearings, and awaited final trial as of November. He did not know the victim.

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 program’s quality and quantity, particularly in rural areas. The ministry operated a toll-free hotline and implemented projects to sensitize government employees and the citizenry to domestic violence. Following the abduction, rape, and killing of Jimena B., public protests called for more protection for children. In response, the PNP formed a family violence prevention unit to provide follow-up visits on domestic abuse and other criminal complaints.

The government continued to support 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 unsolicited comments, actions, and touching of a sexual nature that is unwanted by the female or male victim. In December 2017 Congress passed a law that criminalized sexual harassment in the workplace. In September Congress revised the law, providing penalties of up to eight years in prison for sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is a labor rights violation subject to administrative punishment as well. Government enforcement of laws against sexual harassment were minimally effective.

In October a court sentenced a man to three years in prison for sexual harassment, threats, and indecent proposals to a 15-year-old girl through social media. It was the first prison sentence handed down by a court for sexual harassment.

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, but 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, and the arbitrary dismissal of pregnant women and workplace discrimination was common. The law stipulates that women should receive equal pay for equal work, but women often were paid less than men. The INEI estimated that as of September, women received 71 percent of the average income of men.

Children

Birth Registration: Citizenship is derived either by birth within the country’s territory or from one’s parents. Problems with government registration of births continued in remote areas of the country, although the government made significant progress in promoting registration.

Obtaining a national identity document requires a birth certificate, which was a problem in the most remote rural areas, where many births occurred at home and were not registered. As a result poor indigenous women and children disproportionately lacked identity documents as they were less able than men to travel outside these remote areas to obtain the documents. Undocumented citizens faced social and political barriers to accessing government services, including running for public office or holding title to land. Government representatives and NGOs assessed that undocumented citizens were particularly vulnerable to labor exploitation, human trafficking, and crime.

Child Abuse: Violence against and sexual abuse of children were serious nationwide problems. The country strengthened its laws in 2017 and 2018 to protect minor girls and boys without parents or guardians as well as children living in at-risk, poor households. The law mandates government safeguards for vulnerable children, including access to education, health, and housing at Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations operated residential shelters, to reduce their susceptibility to sexual exploitation, child labor, and human trafficking. 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 Peruvian Penal Code imposes stiff prison sentences for promoting child prostitution, abusing minors, and trafficking in children.

The government supported overnight shelters. Provincial or district governments operated approximately one-half of the offices to assist victims, while schools, churches, and NGOs ran the others. Law students continued to staff the units, particularly in rural districts. When these offices could not resolve disputes, officials usually referred cases to the Public Ministry’s local prosecutor offices, whose adjudications had the same force as court judgments.

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

Sexual Exploitation of Children: The law prohibits exploiting children in prostitution and penalizes promoters with a minimum of 15 years in prison. The law prohibits child pornography, and the penalty for conviction of involvement in child pornography is four to 12 years’ imprisonment and a fine. Government officials, police, NGOs, civil society leaders, and journalists identified numerous cases of child prostitution 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 for example, frequently reported on the sexual exploitation of minor girls in the illicit gold mining sites of the remote Amazonian Madre de Dios region. In one broadly circulated article, Yaneth, a 14-year-old girl, was sent by her aunt to work as a waitress in a mining site’s bar-brothel. Within a few weeks of her arrival, Yaneth was forced into prostitution to pay off the cost of transporting her to the encampment. The police rescued Yaneth and she now resides in a Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations shelter. A local NGO estimated there are approximately 400 brothels in the Madre de Dios mining region, with hundreds of minor girls living in debt bondage and working 13-hour days as prostitutes.

The minimum age for consensual sex is 14. A conviction of rape of a minor 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 the vulnerability of a teenager to have sex with a minor under 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.html.

Anti-Semitism

Estimates of the Jewish population ranged from 3,000 to 4,000 persons. There were no reports of anti-Semitic acts.

Trafficking in Persons

See the Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report at www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/.

Persons with Disabilities

The law prohibits discrimination against persons with physical, sensory, intellectual, and mental disabilities. The law establishes infractions and sanctions for noncompliance. The law also provides for the protection, care, rehabilitation, security, and social inclusion of persons with disabilities; mandates that public spaces be free of barriers and accessible to persons with disabilities; and 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 and requires the inclusion of sign language or subtitles in all educational and cultural programs on public television and in media available in all 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 selection processes to enable persons with disabilities the opportunity to apply for jobs on equal terms. The law requires employers to provide employees up to 56 hours per year to accompany their disabled relatives to medical appointments. In August the Army implemented a pilot program to recruit persons with disabilities for military and civilian positions. The initial military class included 15 soldiers who will receive cyber-security and administrative assignments following their initial training.

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

While government officials improved enforcement of the rights of persons with disabilities, the country’s disability 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.

National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities

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

Indigenous People

Indigenous communities remained politically, economically, and socially marginalized. There were reports of threats directed against indigenous leaders with respect to land grabs and illicit gold mining in the Amazon. Indigenous leaders expressed concerns that the national and regional governments did not adequately protect them and their property interests.

While the constitution recognizes indigenous persons have the right to own land communally, indigenous groups often lacked legal title to demarcate the boundaries of their lands. 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. Some indigenous community members, however, sold land to outsiders without the majority consent of their community.

The national government retains the subsurface mineral rights for land nationwide, which frequently caused disputes between the local indigenous communities, national government, regional governments, and the various extractive interests. The law requires the government to consult with indigenous communities on proposed extractive projects or changes to ongoing extractive projects and 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 September the ministry had recognized 55 indigenous groups as being entitled to prior consultation. From 2014 to October the government initiated 24 prior consultations with various indigenous communities, which generated 487 agreements. Ten of the prior consultations had concluded, and 14 were ongoing.

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

Indigenous persons continued to face threats from narcotics traffickers and illegal miners and loggers who operated near or within their claimed land holdings.

Acts of Violence, Discrimination, and Other Abuses Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

The constitutional procedure code recognizes the right of individuals to file legal claims of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Four of the regional governments (Piura, La Libertad, Loreto, and San Martin) have regulations that prohibit discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) individuals explicitly and provide for 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 on the basis of their 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 harassed and abused transgender women. For example, the local police in Lima frequently demanded that transgender women working as sex workers pay the police for protection, and physically harmed them if they did not pay.

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

HIV and AIDS Social Stigma

Persons with HIV/AIDS faced discrimination and harassment, including societal discrimination for employment, housing, and general 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

The Ombudsman’s Office reported 134 active social-conflict cases as of August, compared with 109 in August 2017. The report found most conflicts involved socioenvironmental issues, with mining-related incidents accounting for 68 percent of the cases.

Two potato farmers died and dozens of others were wounded during several February clashes between protesting farmers and police in the Pasco and Huancavelica regions. Three police officers were also injured, and authorities arrested three farmers. The farmers had demanded the national government declare an agricultural emergency to help them sell their crops. After resolving the conflict, the government launched an investigation into the two deaths.

Police opened an investigation in January of the December 2017 killing of environmental activist Jose Napoleon Tarrillo. Media reported that land invaders killed Tarrillo for his efforts to protect the Chaparri Ecological Reserve in the Chiclayo region. Tarrillo’s wife informed police she had received death threats for pursuing her husband’s case with the authorities.