a. Freedom of Expression, Including for the Press

The constitution provides for freedom of expression, including for the press, and the government generally respected this right. An independent press and a functioning democratic political system generally promoted freedom of expression, including for the press. According to the Interamerican Press Society, an increase in the number of civil libel and slander lawsuits and lengthy court cases threatened freedom of expression and freedom of the press.

Violence and Harassment: Journalists alleged that police, protesters, and company personnel assaulted and threatened them while covering various protests and incidents of social unrest. In one such incident in September, police officers attacked a journalist covering protests in Puno. The Ombudsman’s Office recommended the PNP investigate the alleged assault.

Censorship or Content Restrictions: NGOs continued to report that some media, most notably in the provinces outside of Lima, practiced self-censorship due to fear of local government reprisal.

Nongovernmental Impact: Some media reported narcotics traffickers and persons engaged in illegal mining threatened press freedom by intimidating local journalists who reported on those activities.

The government did not restrict or disrupt access to the internet or censor online content, and there were no credible reports the government monitored private online communications without appropriate legal authority.

There were no government restrictions on academic freedom or cultural events.

b. Freedoms of Peaceful Assembly and Association

The constitution provides for the freedoms of peaceful assembly and association, and the government generally respected these rights.

The law does not require a permit for public demonstrations, but organizers must report the type of demonstration planned and coordinate its intended location with authorities. The government continued to suspend freedom of assembly in the VRAEM and La Pampa emergency zones, where armed elements of the Shining Path and drug traffickers operated, as well as in regions suffering from crime and public health crises.

The government may restrict or prohibit demonstrations at specific times and places to ensure public safety and health. Police used tear gas and force occasionally to disperse protesters in various demonstrations, including at a major public university. Although most demonstrations were peaceful, protests in some areas turned violent, resulting in one death and multiple injuries in May (see section 6, Other Societal Violence or Discrimination).

c. Freedom of Religion

See the Department of State’s International Religious Freedom Report at https://www.state.gov/religiousfreedomreport/.

d. Freedom of Movement

The law provides for freedom of internal movement, foreign travel, emigration, and repatriation, and the government generally respected these rights.

In-country Movement: Due to the presence of the Shining Path, drug trafficking, and transnational organized crime, the government maintained an emergency zone in the VRAEM and parts of four regions where authorities restricted freedom of movement in an effort to maintain public peace and restore internal order.

Narcotics traffickers and Shining Path members at times interrupted the free movement of persons by establishing roadblocks in sections of the VRAEM emergency zone. Individuals protesting against extractive industry projects also occasionally established roadblocks throughout the country.

The Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations’ National Registry for Displaced Persons estimated there were 59,846 displaced persons in the country, many of whom are victims of the 1980-2000 internal conflict. The registration and accreditation of displaced persons provides for their protection, care, and humanitarian assistance during displacement, return, or resettlement. According to the government’s Reparations Council, some internally displaced persons who were victims of the 1980-2000 internal conflict experienced difficulties registering for reparations due to the lack of proper identity documents.

f. Protection of Refugees

As of July more than one million foreign-born persons lived in the country. In December 2018 the government discontinued the application for one-year temporary residence permits (PTPs) targeted at Venezuelans, who numbered more than 860,000. PTP holders can legally reside and work in the country. During the 23 months when PTPs were issued (February 2017 to December 2018), the government granted 486,000 permits. Before a PTP expires, the holder must adjust to a more permanent migratory status, including a “special migratory resident status” designed for PTP holders who certify economic activity and no criminal record. This status adjustment results in a foreign resident identification, equivalent in most ways to a Peruvian citizen’s national identification.

Access to Asylum: The law provides for the granting of asylum or refugee status, and the government has established a system for protecting refugees. The government cooperated with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and recognized the Peruvian Catholic Migration Commission as the official provider of technical assistance to refugees. The commission also advised citizens who sought asylum based on a fear of persecution. The government protected refugees on a renewable, year-to-year basis, in accordance with commission recommendations.

Employment: According to a September UNHCR report, 62 percent of Venezuelans surveyed in the cities of Cusco, Lima, Arequipa, Tumbes, and Tacna believed they had been targets of discrimination, particularly because of their nationality. Following decrees limiting the employment of foreigners in the cities of Cusco and Huancayo, the Ombudsman’s Office issued a public statement in March characterizing the decrees as promoting discriminatory conduct that reinforces stereotypes of Venezuelan migrants. Human rights advocates challenged the decrees in courts, and prosecutors denounced the mayor of Huancayo for inciting discrimination. The Cusco decree was amended to focus on penalizing the practice of arbitrarily dismissing workers and replacing them with persons willing to work at a lower wage.

Durable Solutions: The government does not have a formalized integration program for refugees, but it received persons recognized as refugees by other nations, granted refugee status to persons who applied from within Peru, and provided some administrative support toward their integration. UNHCR provided these refugees with humanitarian and emergency aid, legal assistance, documentation, and, in exceptional cases, voluntary return and family reunification.

Temporary Protection: As of August the government provided temporary protection to more than 277,000 individuals awaiting a decision on their refugee status. The government provided these individuals with temporary residence permits and authorization to work.

Not applicable.

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.

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.

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.